RE: October's Newsletter

Hello everyone!

October is here and we have a few exciting announcements and things to cover in this month's newsletter.

To start us off we have our winner of SSC Player of the month to announce:

Congratulations to Cameron Parry on being nominated as SSC's October Squash player of the month.

Now most of you who play in the internal leagues will know Cameron as being one of the toughest and strongest players we have in the club. Cameron is currently sitting at number 1 in the Premiership and he's very keen to keep it that way.

Cameron was not nominated to be POTM for his skill and rank though. We have a different story to tell which may surprise some of you.

As you may know SSC requires volunteers to run its committee, coaching sessions and events. In order to be authorised to coach you need to have passed your level 1 coaching course which can be held anywhere in the country.

Cameron has always helped coach juniors and members that ask for a bit of help so the progression to being a certified coach was a simple one. In order for Cameron to do this though he had to travel to Manchester. Now i realise Manchester is not far by train or car but how about a bicycle? Well Cameron realised he couldnt make the session in time by train so his only option was to cycle the 80 odd miles first thing in the morning. Now I myself am a keen cyclist and have a decent Tri and Road bike for such distances but Cameron did this on a hybrid.

It takes dedication and commitment to volunteer to help run our club but we the committee, felt that Cameron went above and beyond for SSC to ensure he passed his level 1 coaching for us this day. So that's why every committee member nominated Cameron for this award.

Congratulations Cameron, Ian Thompson will hand the Trophy over to you and we look forward to catching up with you for an interview.

Captain's Corner

In October we start our Shropshire county team matches. The season is bigger and better than ever with a new racquetball team and an extra division 2 team. That makes the club by far the strongest participant in the county with our recently grown membership to back it up.

By now, you should have started receiving some team captain communications about the upcoming fixtures and confirming your availability to play. If you are still not sure on what team you have been allocated to or who your captain is than please contact me. All scheduled matches and results can be found on the sporty HQ website (links below).

https://www.sportyhq.com/league/view/119
https://www.sportyhq.com/league/view/120

All players, need to be a club member and registered with England squash to be eligible to play. As a club member you can now register on the England Squash website and link yourself to the club to get your registration number, plus a load of other free squashie benefits . If you have not already done this, I would advise you follow the link below. Remember to just link to the club and you do not have to pay the £15 joining fee..

https://www.englandsquash.com/membership/players

Division 1 kicks it off on the 2nd October (Wednesday night) with a local derby. So come down and watch the club top guns battle each other. The racquetball. Division 2 and 3 teams all start the following week (Monday -Thursday). This season all matches will start at 7:30 pm and we have scheduled off week where possible (both teams away or at home).

Moira leaving

We posted out last month about Moira our cleaner leaving SSC. Many thanks for those of you who donated to getting her a leaving gift from the club. Moira was very touched - we gave her, wine, chocolates, flowers and a card bought from donations from members and a contribution from the club. Andrew Black arranged this in secret with the new cleaner Sandra, so Moira was unaware of it and for once, was speechless!

Presentation was done at midday on Friday 20th September and she passes on her thanks to everyone. She now cleans the music school - just off to the right of the Club car park, so she is not far away.

Thanks again to everyone who helped.

RECYCLE REQUEST

Just a quick reminder that we kindly request all members to make an effort when possible to take some of the bottles from the bar area home for recycling. If you've had a few bottles it would really help us if you could take them with you to be recycled as it quickly builds up in the bar area if no one does this.

Remember that we don't employ anyone to run the bar and it takes a team of volunteers to do this. If everyone gets involved with this initiaitve then you will be saving us a big job.

Many thanks.

SSC v Lilleshall 18 Sep 19

The last game of the season was a hard fought affair and the 3-7 scoreline did not reflect the determination and efforts of the players on the night, with many matches going to 5! Neil Manley impressed with a decisive win against Div 2 player Keith Hansell. Matt king who had never played team squash before this summer put out a valiant effort against Graham Hook. Tracy showed vast improvements against the higher seed David Haigh, proving that regularly playing out of your comfort zone can reap benefits. Stalwarts Paul Dixon and Richard Ewels were the dictionary definition of tenacity, leaving all on the court in their 5 game battles. Steve Marsh nearly nicked a game off Tom Stockings, similarly Mark Collins showed exceptional fleetness of foot and was on the verge of taking one off Joel Reed. Bradley Vaughan was composed as he took on and defeated Martin ‘The Brick Wall’ Powel. Fin ran out of steam against Martin Carey after a tough day at school, football, music lessons and PT – phew, forgot how exhausting school can be! In the finale, all players were crowded round the balconey for the 1st seed match, a controversial line up of Steve Nankivell agaisnt Linda Pritchard. Early rambuctious cheering ensued as Steve managed to take the first 2 games and both players showcased exceptional squash. In the end though, Linda managed to move up a gear in the last game and displaying expert multi-tasking skills – thinking and hitting the ball – managed to take the match.

Remarkably, SSC finished 2nd overall out of the 6 team competition, a phenomenal effort from all who took part over the summer!

Results table below

Pizza & Prosecco Ladies Night Fri 20 Sep 19

Women’s Squash Week was back - starting Monday 23rd September to Sunday 29 September! This week long campaign backed by England Squash aims to showcase women’s squash at every level and Shropshire Squash Club supported by Shropshire Squash and Shrewsbury School grasped this opportunity to hold 2 events to celebrate this!

On Friday 20 September, 18 ladies turned up eager to give squash a try. With borrowed rackets, they were put through their paces by Mike Thurger (Previous Welsh National and England Ladies Coach), Elaine Radcliffe (Shropshire Ladies Squash Development) and Tracy Waldron-Pegge (Event organiser). Impressively, after only 30 minutes of instruction, even complete novices were able to string a series of shots together and it was now time for a taster of competitive squash! Seeded into ability groups, all ladies had 2 games to play, whilst being introduced to the basic rules of squash. The evening ended with fun and laughter over pizza as the ladies reminisced over their squash efforts, clapping and cheering as prizes were awarded!

Coach Quote :

It’s amazing how the ladies respond to coaching and what skills they can learn in such a short time. Mike Thurger

Player Quotes :

I’ve never played squash before and am a complete newbie, I’m really enjoying trying squash and mixing with the other players!

Lucy Offland I played at university some 40 odd years ago, I’m really enjoying this evening, it’s reminding me of my misspent youth!

Jeannette Price So far this evening is brilliant, I’m loving the coaching, I’ve never been coached before.

Fenella Nicholas It’s great to get out and although I’m not a very good player, it’s something I can do with my daughters.

Julie Slater Organising this event is a steep learning curve, as I didn’t know that much about squash and am still learning the game myself.

Tracy Waldron-Pegge (Organiser) Over 23-29 September, Shropshire Squash Club also offered 25% off the subscription fee for any female wanting to join, this included a free coaching session.

The next event is the Ladies Squash Festival, on Saturday 28th September – this will be reported on in the next newsletter

Shropshire Squash Club – Women’s International Squash week

Women’s’ Festival of Squash - Sat 28 Sept 2019

The event themed as “Wonder Woman” saw 12 compete in the relaxed and friendly environment of Shropshire Squash Club. Many entrants were encouraged to participate having attended the, Social Squash, Pizza and Prosecco evenings. Tracy did a fantastic job at gathering 12 competitors for a fun and combative afternoon,

Part 1 – The Sword of Athena

9 relative beginners found themselves flit between being an Amazonian or a Goddess. There was a tight battle for the sword with players using their powers of agility, strength, durability and reflex. The power of flight was fortunately out of reach to these warriors in training. The tussle at the top between Jo Chanter, Jeanette and Sophie Wright went to a count back on points with Jo Chanter taking the “Sword of Athena”

Part 2 – Wonder Woman

With the Lasso of Truth, Bracelets and a Tiara up for grabs 2 more experienced players joined the field carrying a heavy handicap. The Goddess competition saw Georgie Lincoln despite heavy handicapping crowned with the Tiara as Wonder Woman. It was a great opportunity for players to go on court with such a promising young player.

The training ground for the Amazonians was a close encounter with Wendy coming second and taking possession of the Lasso of Truth. The victor and winner of the Bracelets was Jenny.

Well played to all

Jules, Shirl and Tracy

World Squash Update

Good luck to club pro-coach Miles Jenkins in the Texas Open. He will be competing in this high profile event in Houston, Texas from 16th-20th October. There is a tough field with top seed Nathan Lake from England holding a currently world ranked 60.

See the full draw and follow his progress on: https://psaworldtour.com/tournaments/view/9708?tab=about

or get live updates through this website: http://thesquashsite.com/

Junior Team News

On Saturday 28th September a junior team of Fin Aimer, Jaydan Ingram and Billy Schur took part in the first round of the North Wales development league against teams from Brymbo (Wrexham), Newtown and Llanfyllin. There were some close matches and some challenging handicaps given to our players in easier games - in one game Billy started -3, 8 playing up to 11 PAR!
This was a fantastic opportunity to gauge the progress of our juniors against local opposition as well as getting some match practise. We are hoping to increase links with other active clubs just outside Shropshire and will hopefully welcome some of their players to our club in upcoming tournaments.

Shropshire Junior Super League

I am happy to let you know that the first round of the Shropshire Squash Junior Super League will take place on Saturday 5th October from 1pm to 3pm (timings are approximate and depend on number of entries) at Shropshire Squash Club.

Entries close Thursday 3rd October.
The cost of this event is £5 per player (pay on the day).

This will be a good event for juniors of all standards to enter. Either as a transition from playing in their own clubs before they venture into England Squash events or for seasoned competitors looking for some tournament practice.

Please contact benschur@zoho.com / 07856 123177 to book your place or make an enquiry