Anyone who was part of the 2025 South Gippsland Badminton season will know that this was one of our best ever. After 16 years of competition, that’s saying something. With a record 42 players travelling from Yarram through to Inverloch, the courts were buzzing every single week. From absolute beginners to our most competitive players, the variety of abilities, age and experience made for an unforgettable season.
We also welcomed 16 brand new faces this year—a huge challenge at grading, but ultimately a triumph. Most weeks saw evenly matched contests and plenty of close results.
On Tuesday 2 September we gathered at the Foster Golf Club for our presentation dinner—sharing a meal, some laughs, and celebrating the season’s highlights. As Matt reminded us in his opening words, what a privilege it is to bring together so many people from such diverse ages, backgrounds, careers and nationalities, and yet play as one club.
Mr Brightside (Shane, Dan, Violet, Rhama, Rocky and Ivy) claimed the 2025 premiership title and the glory, along with Foster Chamber of Commerce vouchers kindly donated by the Foster Golf Club. The Grand Final was a close result with just 10 points the difference: Mr Brightside 6 games 180 points to Court Clowns 6 games 170 points
The Top Singles performers across the season’s tally were Andre, Dan, Lachie K, Josh, Katherine and Helenah. These were wonderful achievements—especially with three of these players being juniors and three new members, showing the strength and growth of our club. Each took home a much-loved cheese pack donated by Australian Consolidated Milk Factory.
With 16 contenders, Best First Year Player was a tough call. In the end the numbers spoke, and Ivy Vuillerman took the honours after finishing an incredible 5th overall in the Club Champion standings—an extraordinary result for a first-year, junior player.
The Most Improved award sparked plenty of discussion, with strong cases for both new and experienced players. The honour went to Cody Best, recognised not only for his growth in skills and results this year, but also his willingness to listen to feedback, his progress across two seasons, and his commitment to the sport—including taking on the sometimes daunting role of scorer almost every week.
Only in its second year, the Rising Star award recognises a player on the cusp of even bigger things. The committee was unanimous in awarding this to Josh Bradbury, who has clearly outgrown his grade and is only just beginning his badminton journey.
For the first time ever the Clubperson Award was awarded jointly, and fittingly so, to Rocky and Jenny. Both immersed themselves in learning the game, polled strongly in singles and club champion tallies, and just as importantly, went above and beyond off the court—scoring matches, helping juniors, and always bringing positive energy. We are so grateful to have you both in the club.
Club Champion and Junior Champion were calculated by combining each player’s singles and doubles results for the entire season, and for the first time ever a junior initially outscored our senior champion. Rhama was named Junior Club Champion, finishing just ahead of Andre by a mere three points. For Rhama this was a show of his versatility and consistency across all aspects of his game, especially as he did not take the singles win for his grade. However, controversy stepped in and it was discovered there had been a scorecard error in the season. Once corrected, Andre surged five points clear to retain his rightful crown as overall Club Champion. Congratulations to both for outstanding seasons!
A special thanks goes to the Bendigo Bank for their incredibly generous $4,000 donation, which has funded professional umpire chairs for each court. These will not only protect our surfaces but give officials the best vantage point to make accurate calls. Though the chairs didn’t arrive in time for this season, we look forward to putting them to use in 2026.
And with that, the curtain falls on the 2025 Winter Season. Or does it? With so many asking about a summer competition, don’t be surprised if you see a summer series on our socials soon—because honestly, none of us wanted this season to end. Janine Best
