John David Eddy (born 1944) is a retired

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

player from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

who won national and international titles from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.

Career

Eddy represented

and won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

in the mixed doubles, at the

1970 British Commonwealth Games The 1970 British Commonwealth Games (Scottish Gaelic: Geamannan a 'Cho-fhlaitheis Bhreatainn 1970) were held in Edinburgh, Scotland, from 16 to 25 July 1970. This was the first time the name British Commonwealth Games was adopted, the first tim ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Eight years later he was part of the team that won the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

in the new team event, at the

1978 Commonwealth Games The 1978 Commonwealth Games were held in Edmonton, Alberta from 3 to 12 August 1978, two years after the 1976 Summer Olympics were held in Montreal, Quebec. They were boycotted by Nigeria, in protest at New Zealand's sporting contacts with apar ...

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

, Canada. Though a highly competent singles player, the crisp hitting Eddy's greatest success came in doubles. He won the gold medal at the 1968 European Badminton Championships in men's doubles with

Robert Powell Robert Powell (; born 1 June 1944) is an English actor who is known for the title roles in ''Mahler'' (1974) and '' Jesus of Nazareth'' (1977), and for his portrayal of secret agent Richard Hannay in '' The Thirty Nine Steps'' (1978) and its ...

. Two years later he also won the gold medal at the 1970 European Badminton Championships in mixed doubles partnered by Susan Whetnall with whom he shared the

All-England The All England Open Badminton Championships is the world's oldest badminton tournament, held annually in England. With the introduction of the Badminton World Federation, BWF's latest grading system, it was given BWF Super Series, Super Series st ...

mixed doubles title in 1974. Eddy and Powell were men's doubles runners-up at the All-Englands in both 1969 and 1970. Eddy and

Eddy Sutton Edward H Sutton (born 1948) is a former English badminton international player and a former national champion. Biography Sutton became the English National doubles champion after winning the English National Badminton Championships in 1975 wit ...

won men's doubles at the Danish Open in 1975, the only English team to do so since the 1930s. He compiled an impressive winning record on four successive English

Thomas Cup The Thomas Cup, sometimes called the World Men's Team Championships, is an international badminton competition among teams representing member nations of the Badminton World Federation (BWF), the sport's global governing body. The championships h ...

(men's international) teams between 1969 and 1979.Davis, 126. He represented Staffordshire at county level.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eddy, David English male badminton players Badminton players at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games Badminton players at the 1978 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Living people Commonwealth Games medallists in badminton 1944 births Medallists at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 1978 Commonwealth Games