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Squash Section Report to the Executive Committee
7th December, 2006
Squash Activities
We had a very successful Club Championship a couple of weeks ago, where Paul Sewell retained his title of Men's Champion, but was pushed right to the limit by Brett Green. We have a new ladies' champion - Frances Heneghan, who beat her daughter Clare in the final. We also experimented with a new Handicap Junior Tournament - this was held on the final day and was won by Matt Powell, with Thomas Heneghan runner up. Once again the tournament was organised by Paul Heneghan, our indefatigable Squash Secretary, and we are most grateful to him for his efforts, which include keeping us up to date on the Website.
We are quite worried by the low entry in these events this year, and think it is systematic of the general decline both in the numbers of squash players, and their commitment to organised events. In the last six years, the entry has been as follows:
Year Mens Ladies 2001 25 5 2002 25 2 2003 27 8 2004 14 7 2005 19 5 2006 13 2
All our teams in the county leagues (men's, ladies' vets' and juniors') seem to be struggling to find players to make up their teams at the moment. The men's and vets' teams seem to be holding their own in the first few games of the season, but the ladies are always struggling to put out a full-strength team, and a change in the categories in the junior leagues now means that we have to field some of our 11-year old players in the U19 category!
As usual, several of our players have represented the county. Gray Wilson is still notching up victories in his incredible record of 38 appearances, Brett Green regularly gets selected, Clare Heneghan plays at #1 or #2 in the U15 Girls (and sometimes U17 Girls) category, and Thomas Heneghan had his first county match playing for the U13 Boys last month (he didn't win, but acquitted himself very well against some high-quality opposition).
Clare Heneghan has achieved the honour (yet again) of being selected to attend the Area Mid West Squash Academy run by England Squash. The Academy aims to identify and groom players with the potential to play for England in the future!
Marking Course
A marking course was organised at Barnt Green at the beginning of the season; it was attended by the Heneghans (Paul, Clare & Thomas). Brian Gurnett seemed quite keen to hold one at our club if we were interested and paid his petrol money.
Training Sessions
Richard Avery is organising regular training sessions. These are for players of ALL standards, but are limited to four or eight places depending on whether one or two courts get booked out. There is also a strong likelihood that we can get some occasional sessions run by a top-quality national coach like Keir Worth or Andy Longman.
Club Night
Club night continues to be popular with new members, beginners and improvers, including recently, some of our Junior players. We appreciate the continued support of several team players, who are able to offer advice and encouragement to the less experienced. Members of all sections are welcome to join us, and to 'have a go' at squash.
Junior Squash
Special thanks go to Richard Avery for putting himself through the Level 2 England Squash Coaching Qualification to fill the void left by Errol after his emigration to Spain. Richard has introduced Mini Squash to two of our youngest players, and it is proving very popular as they are making excellent progress. Thanks also to Paul Heneghan for organising the junior teams, junior training and junior county events. Thanks to Neil Thorneywork for his regular help at the Saturday morning sessions. Thanks also to Neil Healey and Andy Hicks who are now regularly making themselves available to provide valuable input to the junior sessions. Without these volunteers, we simply would not have a viable junior section. We will be introducing England Squash's 'Improver' scheme for the older children, which takes the juniors who have completed the Mini Squash awards, on to the next level, and potentially up to County standard.
Court Maintenance
The new heaters have been exceptionally well received, and everyone is delighted with them.
Online Bookings
Broadband is now enabled on the new phone line. Paul H and myself will start configuring the servers and other equipment from now and over Christmas.
Social & Administrative
No news yet
Club Facilities
Where are we on the snagging list?
Recruitment
We now have one of the best clubs for squash in the county - great courts with decent floors, walls, lights and heating - nice changing rooms - free tennis, rowing and weights/fitness rooms - high-quality squash. Yet, our numbers are dwindling. Our first team is in jeopardy and it is hanging in the balance whether we retain them next year - if we lose one more player, then the 1st team faces certain demotion to the 2nd division which will force the remaining players to seek new clubs in order to get games of the appropriate standard. We will then not attract any 1st-team standard players in the future, and I believe this could have a devastating effect on the standard of squash in the ERC. We desperately need to recruit new members, get existing members who play mainly tennis or row to try out squash, and we also need to discuss ways of retaining/attracting players of 1st-team standard. The men's team captains are meeting this week to make a start on dealing with this problem.
Richard Avery
Squash Captain
4th December
2006