History
Couzens Badminton Club was formed in August 2013 following the merger of Purwell and Broadway Badminton Clubs. Below is a potted history of Purwell, and some memories of long serving members of Broadway.
Purwell BC
Purwell Badminton club began life as part of Hitchin Badminton club in November 1976 as a third night of Hitchin Town Badminton Club. . After a few years this night opted to split and became independent. As our part of the Club used Hitchin College, situated near the river Purwell at Walsworth we adopted the name Purwell Badminton Club in 1976.
Several years later the College threatened closure for refurbishment so we looked for a new venue and luckily the purpose built sports hall at Hitchin Boys School opened in 1998. Purwell Badminton Club was the first Club to take up residence and helped in making decisions such as the hall's colour scheme!
Always been known as a friendly Club Purwell supporting the local leagues, entering one or more teams in both Stevenage League and Letchworth League with varying degrees of success over the years.
Broadway BC
Some memories of the history of Broadway from one of the last chairmen of Broadway, who was also a founding member of Purwell George Caple:
" I first met them in 1976 / 77 when I formed a "friendly team" at HTBC. I set up a few fixtures and one was against Broadway. The match was played somewhere in the "Broadway" in letchworth. Next memory is of talking to Alan Timberlake, who as Chairman of Broadway BC was trying in 1978, to find somewhere for his Club to play matches. I said that the Queen Street hall was underused and that he should approach the management with a view to hiring the facility, which he did. This was the start of Broadway's Friday night home matches. It was around that time that a mighty recruitment drive created the new Broadway BC as a very strong Club with Rod Dix, Linda Clark, John ??? and Rose Castle, Brian Sherwood, Noreen Marshall, Pauline Heathcote (Rew) and others. This was in time for the 1979 / 80 season.
In the summer of 1980 I was invited to join, and did so, becoming chairman a couple of years later."