The First Badminton Rules: From Poona to Portsmouth, 1893

Last updated: July 2026 · Written by the team at Badminton House

Last updated: July 2026

It helps to separate origin from standardisation. That distinction prevents a common historical mistake: the first badminton rules were not created from scratch in Portsmouth in 1893. Players had already used Poona rules in British India, and J. H. E. Hart revised that code for the Bath Badminton Club in 1887 before Hart and Bagnel Wild revised it again in 1890. Portsmouth mattered because clubs still differed over fundamentals such as court dimensions and net height. On 13 September 1893, representatives meeting at Dunbar in Southsea formed the Badminton Association and agreed rules for both the organisation and the game. Follow the dates as a practical timeline—Poona, Bath, then Portsmouth—and badminton’s shift from local custom to a shared rulebook becomes much easier to understand.

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The first badminton rules began with Poona

Badminton’s earliest competitive form is associated with Badminton House in Gloucestershire. In 1860, London toy dealer Isaac Spratt published Badminton Battledore – a New Game, a pamphlet about battledore and shuttlecock as played there. No copy is known to have survived, so its rules cannot be reconstructed. A clearer glimpse appeared in 1863, when The Cornhill Magazine described sides playing across a string suspended about five feet above the ground.

The game’s first rules are generally traced to British players in India, who framed the Poona code in 1873. Poona—now Pune—gave the early game one of its common names. English players continued following the rules used in British India until 1887.

The timeline is not perfectly settled. One account credits the newly formed Bath Badminton Club with written rules in 1877, while another identifies Karachi in 1877 as the first attempt to create a code. These competing dates describe steps toward codification; Poona remains the principal starting point for the rules later revised in England.

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1887 and 1890: Hart rewrites the Poona code

Until 1887, players in England generally followed rules inherited from British India. J. H. E. Hart, a pioneer of the game in India and later a member of the Bath Badminton Club, substantially revised that code in 1887. His work adapted the earlier Poona framework for English club play rather than inventing an entirely separate game.

The process did not stop with one draft. In 1890, Hart worked with Bagnel Wild on another revision. These two dates matter because they show that badminton’s laws were already being refined before clubs created a single governing association in 1893.

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1893: one association and one rulebook in Portsmouth

Major S. S. C. Dolby, honorary secretary of Southsea Badminton Club, led the campaign for a common code. In August 1893, he wrote to every known badminton club and arranged a notice in The Field, inviting representatives to form a “Badminton Association.”

The meeting began at 2 p.m. on 13 September 1893 at Dunbar, Waverley Grove, Southsea, near Portsmouth. Delegates representing nine clubs unanimously formed the world’s first badminton association. They framed and approved rules for the organization, then discussed and decided the rules of the game. Publication was entrusted to F. H. Ayres of London.

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What standardisation changed after 1893

Standardisation created a common base, not a frozen rulebook. In 1901 the waisted court gave way to the rectangular 20-by-44-foot layout still recognizable today; see the court dimensions and lines guide. Laws for six- and eight-handed games were deleted in 1907. The 15-ace, serve-only system was replaced by 21-point rally scoring in 2006, while December 2018 replaced the below-waist service judgment with a fixed 1.15 m criterion. An approved 3×15 system is proposed to become standard on 4 January 2027, with 3×21 retained as an approved domestic alternative.

The 1911 code also specified a 16-feather shuttle; explore modern feather and synthetic shuttlecock options.

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Which Date Should You Call the First Badminton Rules?

The best answer depends on what “first” means in your context. Use the milestone that matches the claim rather than treating every date as interchangeable.

For a one-line answer, distinguish origin from standardisation: Poona supplied the early code; Portsmouth supplied the association-backed rulebook.

The next time you serve, remember that you are playing within a framework refined across generations. We play badminton ourselves, and we are always happy to turn rules or equipment questions into practical advice. If you need help finding what fits your game, contact us.