The Sports Club

Since moving to a new neighbourhood, Jamie had spent nearly every evening at home. He missed having people to talk to after work, and when a poster advertising a beginners’ badminton session caught his eye, it felt like a reasonable first step. He signed up for Wednesday, despite the fact that his sole experience of the sport consisted of watching it on television.

When he arrived, the squeak of shoes on the sports-hall floor made him wonder whether he had made a mistake. Everybody seemed to know exactly what they were doing, and the quick, confident rhythm of the rallies suggested years of practice. Fortunately, a woman named Priya noticed him hovering at the edge of the court and introduced him to two other players who were fairly new themselves.

The first game was awkward. Jamie kept swinging too hard and missing the shuttlecock altogether. Instead of laughing, Priya showed him how to hold the racket and encouraged him to watch the shuttlecock rather than guess where it was going. By the end of the game he had managed several clean returns, which felt like a small victory, and he noticed that nobody was keeping score.

During the break, the group chatted about work, local cafés and other things they enjoyed. Jamie learnt that Priya had moved to the area only a year earlier. She remembered how hard it had been to meet people at first, and she told him, with a shrug, that the club was as much about company as about sport. The remark struck him as more honest than any advertisement.

Before leaving, Jamie added the next session to the calendar on his phone. He knew he would need a great deal more practice, but his original fear of making a fool of himself had almost vanished. He had come hoping to learn a game; he left with the unfamiliar sense that the neighbourhood might eventually feel like home.