Cork Racketeers

Some pics from last week

Tuesday and Friday

Committee meeting during a cloudy eclipse

Wrapping up Sunday’s Pride festivities with a little post-parade socialising!

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🌈🦄

And now that all the celebrations are out of our system, the countdown is on to our badminton comeback next week!

Happy smiling faces at Cork Pride! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🌈🦄

A grand day out was had at the Cork Community Pride picnic… and we even found a stray Flaming Feathers! 🧺🍕🍔🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🌻

A little taste of the on court action from Saturday’s tournament with Flaming Feathers.

Kindly sponsored by TransUnion.

Some tournament after party shenanigans at Wilde 💃🕺

The Cork Racketeers Invitational 2026 in numbers:

🔴 1 tournament
🔵 2 clubs – Cork Racketeers & Flaming Feathers
🔴 3 categories – Contenders, Challengers, Champions
🔵 6 winners – Andrii & Ivan, Brian & Nicole and Lorcan & Immanuel
🔴 7 committee members plus 4 non-playing volunteers
🔵 8 hours of play (plus 2 on Friday)
🔴 33 competing doubles partners
🔵 66 individual players
🔴 92 matches
🔵 A lot of sets
🔴 Countless points
🔵 And who knows how many shuttles?

But most importantly, an infinite amount of unforgettable memories.

Our 5th tournament was our biggest yet and we’re absolutely thrilled! Thanks to everyone who took part, especially our friends from Dublin’s Flaming Feathers. They’ve supported us since day 1 back in 2022 and we’re always grateful for their presence.

Congratulations to all our winners and every single player who competed. We should all take pride in every point scored in this special event that brings together the LGBTQIA+ badminton community and its allies to celebrate a day of friendly competition, inclusivity and fun.

And now, it’s time to start planning for 2027!

⭐️ Our 2026 Champions are Cork’s own Lorcan and Immanuel! After a tense final with Dublin’s William and Graison, they made sure that the title was returning to Leeside once more.

The top 4 was completed by Chris and Zandro from Feathers and Jens and Ollie from Racketeers.

Our Champions category was our top tier for those who qualified from the earlier Champions vs Challengers stage. This division covered a wide range of abilities: from those with just a year or two of league experience under their belts to players with overflowing trophy cabinets.

🏆 Congratulations to Ivan and Andrii, the winners of our Contenders category.

It was actually an all Cork final, with Brian and Cathal securing second place.

And Racketeers are not ashamed to boast about our delight at having a clean sweep of the semi finals, with Padraig and James and Jack O’C and Jack D falling just short at the last hurdle.

Contenders was our entry-level group. It’s for those who are new to badminton, as well as those who’ve been playing for a while but prefer to keep things social. It’s also where players who are just starting out on their league journey can hone their skills.