The Sports Council for Wales has rallied behind a badminton club for young people in Anglesey, serving up National Lottery funding for coaching and equipment.

An £800 Community Chest grant has helped Beaumaris Junior Badminton Club to send volunteers on coaching and first aid courses, as well as to purchase new equipment such as nets, rackets and shuttlecocks.

The Welsh Badminton Union affiliated club, which trains at Canolfan Beaumaris has enjoyed an influx of new members since boosting coaching provisions. Numbers have swelled so much that an additional weekly training session has been introduced to give more coaching time to newer members of the club.

Beaumaris Junior Badminton Club Treasurer, Brian Kirkham said,

"We have already spent quite a bit of the grant already. Two of our students have been on a coaching course and have started helping out. We have started another club on Fridays because we have got 30 members now and we have ordered new equipment, such as racquets and shuttles.

"We couldn’t have done what we are doing now without the Community Chest funding. We were at rock bottom and that’s why we applied for the grant to keep us afloat."

Since the inception of the Sports Council for Wales’ Community Chest scheme in 1999, communities across the length and breadth of Wales have been investing heavily in sports and physical activity projects.

Chair of the Sports Council for Wales, Philip Carling, said:

"Community Chest has been and continues to be a huge success and is very popular throughout Anglesey. The increase in funding and the greater scope of the scheme will increase its effectiveness.

"Panels based in each of the 22 local authorities in Wales hold the purse strings and have delegated authority to award grants to worthwhile projects. We want to hear of bright ideas and projects that will get more people in Anglesey more active, more often."

As a result of the popularity and undoubted success of the scheme, the Sports Council for Wales is raising the level of grant. Organisations keen to develop sport and physical activity in Wales can now receive up to £1000 for a qualifying project over a 12 month period.

The scope of the scheme has also been widened. Grants have traditionally been awarded to sports clubs and sporting bodies. Now most organisations seeking to develop physical activity and sporting projects will be eligible for an award.

The Community Chest has recently been infiltrating additional areas of work such as the voluntary sector (e.g. Voluntary Youth Clubs, Women’s Institute) and the workplace, as well as continuing to support projects in the health and education arenas. So while funding the local football club might get the younger members of the community moving, backing a walking group will encourage more adults to get active.