Evening star., 1937-03-21
BADM|NT0N BEING
REVIVED HERE
Representative Phillips Has
Launched Game at Con-
gressiona| Country Club.
By viii p. Kennedy.

having quite furor-pretty
soon there is to be an exhibition in
the House gymnasium and at the Con-
gressional Country Club by expert
players. Representative Alfred N
Phillips, jr, Democrat, of Connecti-
cut, publisher of the Darien news
paper which has a 4l-year record,
Yale graduate, gentleman sportsman,
apostle of great out-of-doors life,
yachtsman, woodchopper, amateur
boxer, oarsman, manufacturer, pistol
shot is the neophite Congressman re-
sponsible
"Badminton" is the seat of the
Duke of Beaufort, in the south of
Gloucestershire, England, a stately
Pallad1an ediflCe of 1852 with a
famous park. From it have been
named kind of claret cup and a
game, predecessor of lawn tennis. |
played with a shuttlecock instead of |
ball. Representative Phillips is
somewhat of an expert at this game. |
which he considers the finest indoor
N1OiiiC liNC yCdIo dSp--dlUeT
serving two 2-year terms as Mayor of !
Stamford, and before entering upon |
his third term-he organized a bad
mlnton club in his home CITY and was
Its president. He protests that it is a !
fast game-once he took on the court
at Stamford Harvard foot ball cai,-
tain who thought it was a SISSY" |
game, and before he got through. he
knew he had had perspiring ordeal |
Representative Phillips has started !
the game at the Congressional Coun- /
try Club. He had arranged with the |
vice president of big athletic equip !
ment house, who was his roommate
at Yale, to send a couple of expert /
players to the National Capital to |
show what real he-man's game it is. |
And yet, the Stamford Club is a
family affair and the wives and |
mothers, sweethearts and daughters |
play the game. He has Just received |
word that a badminton tournament |
is to be played between the Stamford |
Badminton Club, which he organized |
and the Stamford Community College. |
which he organized. The latter is a |
tWo-year-course junior college, with |
w. P. A. funds offering an opportunity
Tor higher education to those who !
couldn't otherwise afford it.
When Washington really gets going
at badmlnton, the game can be |
played out of doors on a cement court
with rubber bird" sufficiently heavy |
so that it will not be carried bv |
breeze.
Representative Phillips is a booster
for all out of doors sports and recrea-
tion to build up the morale and health |
of the people. He believes it is the |
duty of the Government to furnish |
opportunities for such outdoor recrea- |
ton for all the people. Just now he .
is sponsoring a bill before the Con-
necticut Legislature to take over the |
Mianus River gorge, somewhat similar |
to the gorge on the Potomac River to |
Great Falls, which is threatened with !
being cut up for real estate develop
ment. 1t is on the line between
Greenwich and Stamford, and he
wants it saved for public recreation.
He spends his week ends from con-
gressional duty in worshiping in Ma
lures tabernacles. One week ago he
went skiing at Stowe, Vt, at The
Lodge, and received instructions from
an Austrian professional on going
downhill in a serpentine curve. 1t
took them 212 hours to go up and 7l2
minutes to come down A recent
week end was spent at Pound Ridge
Reservation in Westminster County,
,toti r1,
trict.
Representative Phillips is a member
of the Naval Affairs Committeeman
is an ardent and Well-experienced
yachtsman. His first sailbOat was
an old rowboat with a mast made
from a pole on which to roll rugs,
with sheet for a sail. He is serving
his third term as commodore of the
Stamford Yacht Club one of the
Oldest on Long Island Sound, and
is a member of the Long Island
Yacht Club Association.
His two daughters, in their teens,
are very accomplished sailors. Last
year, at the Larchmont yacht meet
they sailed their boat back home
alone and came into the harbor we'll
after dark. They had stopped on the
way to rescue young man whose
boat had been capsized. When at
home, the Phillips family spends most
of the time on the water. The
Congressman has a 52-foot power
boat, the June, with seven comfortable
beds.
He is also a trailer enthusiast
III
the Broadmoor garage. 1t is the last
word in everything, specially built in
Baltimore to include many of his
own special designs and gadgets, in
cluding built-in electric light plant
and a blue-and-White tiled lavatory
with a shower bath and chromium
fittings. He brought it here to go
trout fishing in the Spring. He also
thought there might be some skating
hereaboutS and SO had coal stove
put in. He pulls the trailer with
Ford V-8. 1t is named the Rainbow,
emblazoned in a special emblem,
named after a famous clipper ship.
1t carries his flag as commodore of
the Yacht Club.
He was Mayor of Stamford for three
terms-first when he was 28-in
1924, in 1867 and 1856. Along
in 1926 he had dredged a lagoon
in the big public park named after
the Attorney General-Cummings
Park-and he used an old warehouse
for a municipal yach club house.
This is the only municipal yacht club
in New England-and the lagoon is
the municipal yacht basin. The in
terest has grown so that now the
basin cannot accommodate half the
boats the people would like to have
This yacht club is the center of
activity for the Sea Scouts and the
yacht division of the Stamford Boys |
Club It has had q wonderful in