Awful lot of noise around pottery, smashing item? (9,6)

I believe the answer is:

badminton racket

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'smashing item?' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?

'awful lot of noise around pottery' is the wordplay.
'awful' becomes 'bad' (similar in meaning).
'lot of noise' becomes 'racket' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'around' is an insertion indicator.
'pottery' becomes 'minton' (Minton was a famous pottery manufacturer).
'bad'+'racket'='badracket'
'badracket' enclosing 'minton' is 'BADMINTON RACKET'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for badminton racket that I've seen is " One providing shuttle service".)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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