Lichfield Squash Club News - April 2024

Hi all

As per usual, there has been a lot happening at the Club lately, so this newsletter is once again quite a long read, but I do hope you can bear with it and read to the end. So, deep breaths and here we go …

England Squash Club/Venue of the Year Award

We have to start with the amazing news that the Club has been shortlisted for the England Squash Club/Venue of the Year Award.

Link to the story when this news first broke: https://www.facebook.com/lichfieldsquashclub/posts/pfbid02i9aFBuE6m58QUG3foYVeLmvg2BAZ3466HHDUaeaNNuAJi8XBNZVYNnFbRE5DjRvxl

We will find out the final outcome on Wednesday 10th April via the England Squash website and social channels, so be sure to check it out next Wednesday! Whatever the result, it has been a fantastic achievement to be shortlisted and great recognition for the hard work we have undertaken to grow squash in Lichfield.

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Memberships

Memberships have continued to expand and now stand at 118. A warm welcome to all those who have recently joined the club and we hope that you are finding it easy to integrate into the Club. Please shout up if you have any queries.

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Junior Squash Academy

Following the success of our Squash Stars course and initial trial of Junior Squash Academy for the older children, we ran a further series of combined Junior Squash Academy sessions to cover all age groups over February and March. This was attended by 13 children in total, who have all now become Junior Members of the Club.

See news story about the concluding session: https://www.facebook.com/lichfieldsquashclub/posts/pfbid08RWhF94vAXkRo2pnBQZgqDtmHuYoHd2hHqpLcHhmTQkRUSbe5NguCgR43hQ98YTXl

All the children thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and we hope we have some new lifelong devotees to the sport. A fun presentation morning is taking place on Saturday 20th April at 10:00am to celebrate the success of the children. All parents and friends are welcome to attend.

Junior Squash Academy will now take place each school term time, with the next one starting on Saturday 8th June, running for 5 weeks. We also plan to run another Squash Stars course this Autumn.

Junior Squash Academy is kindly sponsored by Andrew Downing Booth Estate Agents, as evidenced by our lovely Academy shirts shown above. https://andrewdowningbooth.co.uk/

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Court bookings and policies

The increase in membership, as well as growth in specific events such as Club Nights (more on which later), means that there is now inevitably greater pressure on court capacity. This means it is more important than ever that members follow some simple protocols regarding court bookings:

Try to plan your bookings as far in advance as possible – you can book up to 14 days in advance.
Try to spread your league matches evenly across the league period.
Liaise with opponents well in advance and always name them on the booking. This fires a reminder to them on the day of the booking, with a link to share the court fee.
If bringing guest players (i.e. non-members), always add Guest as opponent, which applies the £2 guest fee. Encourage your guests to join, if they are attending regularly!
Always sign in on the sheet by the Duty Officers room at the main entrance, including all players attending (just put number of guests if there are multiple guest players). Duty Officers have been asked by the school to check the register matches with court attendance each day.

Please also note that the fire door next to Court 2 is just that and should not be opened up for any other purpose. This caused a fire alarm trip overnight recently, so the school has asked us to reinforce this point.

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Open Evening Events

We have been pleased to run 2 recent Open Evenings – one general one in late January and one to celebrate International Women’s Day and encourage more women and girls to take up squash.

Here is a link to the news story about the January Open Evening: https://www.facebook.com/lichfieldsquashclub/posts/pfbid0Q7zognHyypmLJuXhwY8qGc6XwQ37xenSc5g9jSrSpDyf9qAgYp7ASUbHoKkQC3oLl

Here is a link to news story about the International Women’s Day Open Evening: https://www.facebook.com/lichfieldsquashclub/posts/pfbid0YUzxA4iCi7hLEpt8rfrrFmH4McoekUyVfhiZBveLhiFAEdqfPY4hx9bTs9Pt69uBl

We are pleased that both events resulted in some of the new memberships we have seen lately.

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Club Nights

We are really pleased to see that our Club Nights are going from strength to strength, with the Tuesday evening sessions usually fully booked at a capacity of 10 players.

This has also resulted in the establishment of a further Club Night session on Friday evenings at 7.00pm. This is a shorter 1 hour session and with a smaller capacity set at 6 players.

First attendance at a Club Night for non-members is always free of charge and is a great way for potential new players to get to know the club and our facilities.

If you are interested in attending any of our Club Nights, you can book using the Events module on MyCourts. Tuesdays are £5.00, Fridays are £4.00.

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Squash Coaching Courses

We are once again running a SQUASH START coaching course, which is suitable for beginners, improvers and returners. This will begin on Thursday 13th June and run for 5 weeks, ending on Thursday 11th July, and will cover all the main basic techniques and tactics of the game.

Cost is £35.00 per player and members will be able to eventually reserve and pay for their place using Events on MyCourts. In the meantime though, we are asking anyone interested to register their interest as spaces will be limited to just 8 players. Send an email to james@lichfieldsquashclub.co.uk or call/WhatsApp James on 07816 620504 if interested.

Full details of the course are available on the Facebook page event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/24852592227721593

We may also run a SQUASH ELEVATE course for the more advanced players soon as well. We are just establishing coach availability and will let you know details soon.

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Team Squash Update

Staffordshire Teams League concluded in mid-March and it is fair to say that we experienced a bit of a mixed season, winning 6 matches and losing 8. Please see the final league table above.

There were some great performances all round, including pushing the runaway winners, Burton Manor, in both matches we played against them. Congratulations to Burton Manor, as well as to our neighbours Tamworth for finishing runners up.

Thanks to all the players who turned out for the team this season and we look forward to participating in Staffordshire Summer League, dates to be announced soon.

In the meantime, we are looking forward to 2 team friendly matches (home and away) with Ashbourne Squash Club in Derbyshire during May, which has been arranged through our coaching links.

If you are interested in playing team squash, please get in touch using the contact details below.

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That brings you fully up to date with the latest club news and thanks for sticking at it if you have read this far! Keep enjoying your squash!

Cheers

James Roberts

Club Chairman

Tel/WhatsApp: 07816 620504

Email: james@lichfieldsquashclub.co.uk

04/04/2024