SHUTTLECOCKS

I play badminton - doubles - on a Monday night during the winter, and we use proper shuttlecocks rather than the plastic ones. The advantage of the former is that they give a much better flight, the disadvantage is that they begin to disintegrate, feather by feather, when you hit them hard. We are not as bad as the professionals, who seem to change the shuttlecock almost after every point. But we do get through a fair number of them.

They cost about kr.100 for ten, or just over £1 each. We get through about four on average during an hour's play, so that means a cost of kr.10 per man per week. That's reasonable for us; but is it a good price for the poor people who have to make them?

I suspect not. Take off VAT at 25% and we are down to kr.8. There is transport from Indonesia or wherever they are made, plus profits for all the middlemen. That doesn't leave very much for making what is in reality a pretty fiddly item. Lots of feathers all have to be cut to the same length and then interwoven, before sticking them in a sort of cup with a rubber knob on it. If I made one, I doubt that it would fly true off the racket.

I guess that if they doubled the price to kr.20, that would make quite a bit of difference to the people who make them. Would it make me stop playing badminton? I don't think so. Is this sensible suggestion going to happen? No.

Walter Blotscher