Lichfield Squash Club News

It has been a very busy month at the Club on many different fronts, with lots of positive developments to bring you.

It has been particularly pleasing to see the courts getting busier as a result, with record booking levels achieved since the New Year, which only look set to grow further.

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Club Leagues

One reason for the increased level of bookings has been the Club Leagues, with an expanded player base. The Leagues are set to grow further, with some new members asking to join.

The big news on the league front though is the transfer at last from In Zone, the old system, to MyCourts. This will happen when the Leagues refresh this Wednesday, 1st March.

We will send a separate email to everyone to explain how the new system works, so look out for that. In the meantime, if you want to join the leagues, please drop our Coaching and Competitions Officer, Gary Snowden, an email - garysnowden@hotmail.com

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B2022 Funding Update

As recently announced, we have been awarded a grant by Sport England from the B2022 Commonwealth Games Legacy Fund to build coaching capacity and provide some participation programmes.

We have 2 members who will be obtaining their Level 1 coaching award, with another going for Level 2, and are currently talking to England Squash about accessing the training.

In addition, we have assembled a team of coaches, both from within the club and some locally based professional coaches, to deliver our participation programmes. This team is currently designing these programmes, which will include for juniors, after school, beginners/improvers and experienced club players. We will announce details soon, including how to book places.

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Staffordshire League Team

Our Staffordshire League team has performed well since the New Year, climbing to second in the table.

With 2 matches left to play, we still have a mathematical chance of winning the league, although leaders Burton Manor would need to slip up in at least 2 of their remaining matches. One of these is against us on 15th March so you never know …

Our next match is at home v Lilleshall, this coming Wednesday 1st March. It would be great to see some members coming along to encouage the team and also discover what team squash is all about. The match starts at 7.00pm so we’d love to see you there.

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Club Nights

One of the most pleasing aspects of the way the club has developed over recent months has been the establishment of 2 regular Club Nights – Monday evenings for more experienced club players and Tuesday evenings for beginners and improvers.

Everyone who has participated in these club nights seems to have really enjoyed them and there is a good appetite for them to continue. In addition, it has been pleasing to see the player development as a result, with some of the beginner/improvers now even ‘graduating’ to play in the experienced club player group.

If you are interested in joining either Club Night, please drop me an email to jimbob1965@btinternet.com or call/WhatsApp 07816 620504.

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New Website

We are currently in the process of redesigning the Club website and should be in a position to launch this in the next few days. Many thanks to Dominic Roberts, who is a bit of a ‘WordPress Guru’, for undertaking the necessary technical work.

We have changed our hosting to a faster, more secure service, provided by local company Cocoonfxmedia Ltd. Please note that our old site, currently located at www.lichfieldsquash.co.uk, has now gone offline as the server where it was hosted has been switched off. We will point the domain to the new site as soon as it is ready.

Please note that this does not affect our membership and bookings system, which is hosted on MyCourts, a standalone platform. The new website will of course link through to this where needed.

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As mentioned at the start, there is a lot going on at the Club at present, with an exciting few months to come. We look forward to developing the Club further and the squash scene generally across Lichfield.

A Committee of sorts has begun to form so thanks to those members who have inputted thus far. We are always happy to see more members get involved, so please get in touch if you have any ideas or suggestions.

Cheers

James

James Roberts, Club Chair