Hi, I'm also a former player from Singapore now living in Vancouver, Canada. I used to play in sec school, college and at the district level as well. Also played at the SBH in the under-17(1977) and under 21(1980) championships in those days. I had hopes for playing in the Thomas cup but college and work cropped up and I had no sponsor in those days. My racquet, if you can believe still is the Carbonex 3 (wooded head) as what my idol, Han Jian used in those days. Anyone in the vicinity wanting to keep in touch/play please reply. Sorry for breaking this trail of emails.
Welcome to BadmintonForum, merlion! Whereabouts do you usually play now? How often do you get to play? While there're plenty of players from Hong Kong in Vancouver, you do get the ones from Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia here too. -dave
merlion you sound like quite an accomplished player. and you are definitely living in one of the best places for badminton! i hope you get to hook up with some of the Vancouver BF'ers, i am waiting to hear stories of them getting their butts whoopped by a carbonex 3!
Hi merlion, welcome to BF. I'm definitely looking forward to meeting you sometime at the local baddy hangouts. Where abouts do you play right now?
Welcome to BF, always room for one more badminton player. There are lots of good places/players in town be it Vancouver or Richmond, just let us know if you need help finding someone to play with. Your level must be quite advance, I dare not suggest playing against you but can certainly point you in the right direction Cheers!
welcome merlion (appropriate nickname). one of my good friends from Singapore gave me a merlion statue. sounds like we are all old-timers here. idea of age is near non-existent on this forum as you could hardly tell I am nearing 80 years old (just kidding). it would be great for the bf group to meet up with you. the Vancouver Racquets club is a frequent place where bf'ers will converge. Collingwood Neighbourhood house on Sunday mornings- run by Break-my-strings is home to several bf'ers as well including BTC2004, wood_22_chuck, bighook. Recently I have dropped by as a social chatterbox. there are some great places also in Richmond where there are a large number of BF'ers - wwc, wwcbro, viver, smashingbird... the list is long. It's highly likely nearly anywhere you go there is a BF brother some place. So, don't be a stranger! Just go to any center, and yell out - "Any BF'ers in her!" and you may be pleasantly surprised that you will get some replies.
Thank you all for giving such a warm welcome to merlion, who must be in his 40's by now, judging from the stats he's given. I'm sure merlion can contribute to the already active and colourful badminton scene our BFers have created. Though we will miss merlion, we are happy that he's now made Vancouver his home. Welcome onboard, merlion!
Welcome Merlion, Welcome to BF/BC and Vancouver. As you probably discovered by now that there are a number of BF'ers from Vancouver and also quite a number of places to play in the Lower Mainland. Wed/Sat evenings - the BF-VRC crowd gathers around 9pm and plays until 1am and then go for a late-night snack. Sunday mornings, you get Collingwood and in the evening from 6:30pm to 10pm, you can get your games at the Richmond Badminton Club (the club plays Tues/Thurs too).
Badminton for the soul. Man...what a pleasant surprise!!! I did not expect such a number of replies. This is getting quite interesting to find out that such a great number of S'poreans luv badminton. Makes me feel great. Frankly, I have not played for the past 20 years or so. Just started playing again recently about a month back. Skill needs a bit of toning but fitness........"very teruk"!!! I can basically go thru the first round. Subsequentl rounds..I just "...stand and watch the shuttlecocks go by...". But I am making it a point to play every Sat/Sun. I would love to meet up with guys who are interested in playing, be you S'poreans or not. And...2003 dec...I went back to S'pore and brought back my Carbonex 3...yes the wooden head. After a couple of months here, the head warped and no one wanted to string that racquet, apparently the head will warp. So sad....that was "my precious". Anyway...please respond and hopefully we can all play together..
Saturday and Sundays? Saturdays: There's Brittania in the afternoon, and VRC at night. Sundays: Collingwood in the mornings, RBC in the evening. Whereabouts and what time is convenient for you, merlion? We'd love to be part of your "comeback" and win a few games off you while we still can. Once your skill level returns, you can take revenge and beat us silly! -dave
OK...now you will have to clarify 1. There's Brittania in the afternoon, and VRC at night??? 2. Collingwood in the mornings, RBC in the evening. No 2. I guess you guys play somewhere in the Collingwood area...is that near Kingsway? What does Brittania, VRC and RBC mean? Sorry.......
1. Correct, Collingwood is near Kingsway; close to Joyce/Collingwood skytrain station. 2. a) Brittania is a community center, there's badminton drop-in; you'll find fellow BFers there; not sure the location b) VRC - Vancouver Racquets Club, one of the best places to practice/play badminton. It has 6 courts with walls and ceilings painted green, no excuses for not seeing the shuttle . It's open 24h/7d and 364 days a year. Can get more information at http://www.vrc.bc.ca/ c) RBC - Richmond Badminton Club, as the name suggests is located in Richmond. It has sessions on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from 6:30pm - 10pm. You can also visit the website www.richmondbadmintonclub.com. If you are interested in drop in at RBC you can contact WWC or myself. I play there on Sundays only. Hope this helps.
Thank you viver, WWC, badrad and Dave for all your assistance to our fellow Singaporean. Looks like merlion is pretty new to Vancouver! But he has good company, including Cappy, who has not revealed himself.
hi merlion, which day, time and location would best suit your weekend schedule? the choices listed are but a few. there are a number of other alternatives as well, but these are a good cross section to select from.
Heh! Loh, now that you put it that way. I do feel bad for not timely extending warm welcome to another fellow ex-Singaporean . Now to rectify the situation... Welcome to BF, Merlion! Did you just move to Vancouver recently? Most recreational badminton are played in community centers and quite a few organised by private groups renting school gyms. You should checkout the community center near you and grab a free copy of the annual recreational guide for more info on where to play around your neighbourhood. There's quite alot of places to go to for badminton but most of them open at different days of the week. However as Viver has mentioned, should you desire a more competitive level of games... there's the Vancouver Racquets Club. It's a private club but you could drop in for a limited number of times as guest of a member. For more info on VRC, check out the link provided by Viver and also the number of related threads in the "Places to Play" subforum. Here are also a few linkz to get you started. http://www.richmond.ca/parksrec/about/guide.htm http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/residents.htm#sports Have fun!
Hi badrad, your miniature Merlion must be real expensive as it looks like pure solid jade to me! Anyway there are some more pics of our Merlion, mainly taken during the night with one pic showing the 'baby' merlion in the background.
