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Evesham Rowing Club Squash Section Report
for the year to 30 September 2006
Round-Up
This year has been yet another year of significant change and upheaval for the squash section. The lack of access to the squash balcony during the entire squash season due to the club refurbishment had a serious impact on all the teams, and also resulted in the postponement of the club championships and cancellation of the ever-popular handicap tournament. However, I think everyone now agrees that the new changing rooms more than compensate for the disruption during the building phase. The other major improvement that we are all now enjoying is the installation of individual electric court heaters. These have made an excellent job of regulating the heat on courts 1 and 2, and even court 3, with all its external walls, can now be used by the older members amongst us without fear of injury! Court 1 floor is just about holding up, but we are undoubtedly living on borrowed time, and it will probably need to be replaced in the near future.
Membership
The gradual erosion of the membership due to age, injury and desire to 'spend more time with one's family' has continued, but is offset by the continuing expansion of the junior section. There was a worry that the sharp increase in subs might have had a detrimental effect on the membership, but this didn't happen. I think all the players realised that unlimited squash for £200 a year (or £4 a week) is very good value. The usage of the courts remains high during peak periods, but there is plenty of spare capacity at off-peak times.
Juniors
The junior section has continued to expand. We had the difficult task of replacing club squash coach Errol Ferris when he emigrated to Spain, but our captain, Richard Avery, rose to the challenge, and got himself qualified to England Squash Level 2 Coach level in the nick of time. Well done Richard! We have lost (temporarily, I hope) a few teenagers due to GCSEs and A Levels, but we have had quite an influx of youngsters to fill the gaps. Thanks are due to all Richard's coaching assistants: Neil Thorneywork, Paul Heneghan, Neil Healey and Andy Hicks.
Mini squash has proved very popular, with the stamp and passport scheme proving to be highly motivational - I think some of our smallest juniors would sell their soul to the devil in exchange for another stamp in their passports!
Our juniors have been making their mark in county and area events. Lauren Campbell won the Worcestershire U15 Girls' County Closed competition. Matt Powell, Clare Heneghan and Thomas Heneghan regularly represent Worcestershire in Inter County events. Clare and Lauren were also selected for the Mid West Area Academy - designed to provide those players demonstrating talent with the pathway where they can progress to represent England! In addition, Clare was selected to play for the West Midlands in the Inter Area Academy Championships.
Club Night
Club Night on Thursdays at 19:30 is still proving very popular with players of all standards (from juniors to Men's 1st team) attending regularly. This is probably the best way for new members to integrate themselves into the club and allows them to play against a wide variety of players with a view to 'finding their own level". Although not compulsory, most members retire to the bar afterwards for fluid replacement.
Training
Training sessions on Tuesday nights have taken off in a big way. We started off booking one court for a double session for team players to practise routines. Then, because of interest from many non-team players, we relaxed the requirements to include anyone who can keep a rally going and wants to improve his/her squash. We have now started reserving two courts for these sessions. Brett and I try to invent tortuous routines that turn the brain into spaghetti and the legs into jelly; Ben Salcedo is in charge of verbal motivation!
Competitions
Due to the lack of access to the squash court balcony, we cancelled the handicap tournament this year, and delayed the club championships until November. The timing obviously didn't suit everyone as there was a relatively small entry this year, but there was still plenty of exciting squash.
Winners and Runners-up:
| Competition | Winner | Runner-Up |
| Club Open Championship | Paul Sewell | Brett Green |
| Ladies' Championship | Frances Heneghan | Clare Heneghan |
| Club Open Plate | Jonathon Bomford | Paul Heneghan |
| Junior Handicap Tournament | Matt Powell | Thomas Heneghan |
Senior Teams
For various reasons the majority of the men's second team squad disappeared during the summer of 2005. The club's entry to the men's section of the Worcestershire League was thus reduced to only two teams with the previous year's third team squad stepping up to replace the seconds.
The revamped second team endured a tough season in Division 2. Despite their best efforts they failed to win a match all season and finished bottom of the division. Gray Wilson was the team's MVP with 3 wins from 10 appearances. Hopefully the team will find their level and enjoy a more competitive season in Division 3 next year.
The first team squad remained largely unchanged, and competed well in Division 1, but suffered from Paul Sewell (#1) not being available for the first half of the season. They ended up in the bottom 2 and were officially relegated!!! Fortunately, the league organisers took the extenuating circumstances into consideration and allowed them to stay in Division 1 for the 2006/07 season. On a positive note, the 1st team reached the semi finals of the cup and were knocked out by a strong Barnt Green side, 4-1.
The ladies had a tough year after losing two of their top three players, including the captain, the latest in a long list of top players to leave the club or retire from team squash over the last few years. Fortunately, Ros Porter was at hand to take over the captaincy and guide the ladies through one of their most difficult years. Frances Heneghan stepped into the #1 position until injury removed her after just two matches. Thankfully, four new players were introduced to the team allowing it to run another year; these were Lisa Hobbs, Sam Porter, Charlotte and Lauren Campbell. Despite lots of enthusiasm and effort from everyone, the ladies still finished bottom of the league. Nevertheless, there were a few memorable victories: Charlotte's superb 3-1 win against Barnt Green and Lisa Barlow's gutsy 3-2 win at Hornyold, Malvern. The end-of-season result may not have been as good as in previous years, but the ladies agreed that the social side of it was tops!
I have no information on where the vets came in their divisions, but their previous record has been pretty formidable. Worthy of special mention is our indomitable Gray Wilson - over the years he has played 38 times for the County (at Veteran and Vintage level) consisting of 86 games, with 64 wins and 24 losses.
The juniors fielded teams in the U17 and U13 categories. The U17 team was competitive and acquitted itself well, finishing round about the middle of the league, but the U13 team suffered from lack of numbers - they didn't field a complete team all season!
Due to the building works at the club all teams were forced to play the majority of their home matches away. A BIG thank you to all the players for going that extra mile to enable us to compete throughout the season. Fortunately all the clubs that hosted our 'home' games were more than hospitable, and we looking forward to hosting them next season with our much-improved facilities.
The club entered one team into the newly organised Midlands Summer League. In past years the club has competed well in the Premier Division. This year, due to a diminished squad, we entered in Division 1. The team competed well, winning all of their fixtures in the first half of the table and comfortably holding first place. Unfortunately they couldn't quite match this level of performance and lost a couple of key games towards the end of the season. Final standings have yet to be confirmed but the team finished second or third, only 12 points behind the winners. Brett Green was MVP with 12 wins out of 13 appearances, only dropping a miserly 5 games all season! With the top two teams winning promotion, we could see a return to the Premier Division next year!
This year's captains are: Men's 1st team: Brett Green. Men's 2nd team: Ben Salcedo. Ladies team: Ros Porter. Vets A: Jonathan Bomford.
Outlook
The County Community Coach scheme is about to take off. This will bring in pupils from the local schools on Wednesday afternoons, introducing youngsters to squash, in many cases, for the first time. This is expected to result in a significant rise in junior membership.
All squash teams are struggling to find a full complement of players in the 2006/07 season. Despite that, most of the teams are still competitive, accumulating a number of wins so far. Hopefully there will be no relegations this year!
There will undoubtedly be an impact on squash membership when Evesham Leisure Centre moves to new premises and no longer provides squash facilities for the Evesham area any more. Despite letters in the local press to the contrary, we have the capacity to take on dozens of extra members and look forward to welcoming them into our section, and particularly into our teams!
About 18 months ago, I wrote a web-based online booking system that would allow people to book and cancel courts from home. We have been waiting for the club to go broadband so that this could go live. This has now happened, and Richard Avery has nearly finished installing the servers, so by the time you read this, we might have dragged the club into the 21st century!
Thanks
Many thanks are due to all the squash committee members who put in lots of work behind the scenes. In particular, Richard Avery's enthusiasm during one of our most difficult years proved an inspiration to us all. Steve and Ros Porter deserve special mention for their joint captain double act; added thanks to Steve for staying on top of all the court maintenance issues - they are undoubtedly amongst the best courts in the county. Finally, thanks to all you players for sticking with the club through thick and thin, and thanks for not grumbling too much at all the volunteers who keep the club running year-in, year-out.
Paul Heneghan
Squash Section Secretary
22 February 2007