We are coming up to that time of year when memberships will soon be due. If you know of anyone who is interested in joining please spread the word. I will be updating the prices for the coming year in the next week or so.
I am thinking of updating the booking system so that we can also have a league system online. Let me know if you would like this option and hopefully we will have leagues up and running for October, if the interest is there.
The meter on Court A has been altered so it now also takes £2 and 50p coins.
The squash tournament will be coming to a close this weekend. Come along from 2pm on Saturday to watch our top players in action.The courts will be open and lights on from about 1pm so feel free to come along and get a game in beforehand.
The squash refereeing course will be taking place in the afternoon of Sunday 11th August. It last four hours and costs £10 to attend. Let me know if you are interested in attending.
The Club annual general meeting takes place on Sunday 4th August at 7:30pm. It's your chance to hear how the club is doing and to air any concerns.
A reminder that the squash courts will be out of action this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
I have also been approached by England Squash about hosting a refereeing course at the club. The course lasts four hours and on completion you are a Level 1 Squash Referee. There will be a cost involved but it all depends on numbers (no more than £10). If interested let me know.
July 6th is fast approaching, if you are going to attend Brondesbury's Got Talent tickets are £20 and available at the bar or from me. We already have one squash member performing, can you guess who it is?
The squash courts will be open most of the day on the 6th so as well as the grand final everyone can get some games in.
I am going to be doing the draw for the club tournament at the end of the week. If you do not want to take part in this please let me know. The final will be taking place on Saturday July 6th.The draw will be posted on the squash noticeboard inside the clubhouse.
As a result there will be a hiatus with the leagues for the next couple of months. When they return I thought about giving http://www.squashmatch.com/ a trial run. All you need to do is register and add yourself to the Brondesbury League. It is all online and they even have an iphone app. There is a cost of £5 each month but you can drop in and out of the league as you choose. The first month that we introduce it will be free.
The team are playing in the Middlesex Summer League and the first home game will be Thursday 23rd May. All the fixtures are up on the noticeboard. Come along and show your support at any of the home games!
It has been a while since the last club tournament so let's start thinking about a date which suits everyone, or as many people as possible -
23rd March
24th March
30th March
31st March
6th April
7th April
13th April
14th April
It would start late afternoon and be followed by drinks and food in the clubhouse.
Let me know which date suits you best and I will go with the most popular. I will also put this up on the noticeboard for those that don't have/check their emails.
There is also a number of social events happening at the club
Wednesday 6th March - Pie and Games night. There will be table tennis, card games, darts, and whatever other games are lying around the clubhouse. THe pies have been sourced by Carl whose reputation in the club is resting on the quality of these pies.
Saturday 9th March - Racketball tournament (from 4pm) and Quiz night (from 7:30pm). The racketball tournament is as frienly or competitive as you want it to be. The quiz on the other hand will definitely be competitive. It follows the format of Pointless where the least popular answer is the one you are looking for. Teams are to be made up of no more than 6 people and it costs £2 per person. Contact Julia ([email protected]) with your team, places are going fast so don't hang about.
As meetings go last Friday was a fairly relaxed affair. In order not to interrupt the table tennis and ale drinking it was kept as brief as possible. A short summary of what was talked about -
There are currently about 70 members, unfortunately we don't have any juniors but this is something which we are working on. Thanks to Steve for all that he has done for the club and for passing on all his know-how. He can still be found on the court or at the bar a few times a week.
A local school will be using the courts during off peak hours (once a week from 21st for a period of four weeks). This will be a bit of extra revenue for the club and it is also hoped it will introduce junior members.
The tennis coaches have also expressed an interest in using the squash courts in cases of extreme weather. Again this would be off-peak and they would have to vacate the courts should squash members wish to play. An agreement is going to be put in place to ensure the courts are properly looked after.
It has come apparent that the current booking system is not fit for purpose. A number of online booking systems available and I hope to make a decision shortly. I intend to have this implemented in the next month and will send out further communication in due course.
The courts are probably due for a bit of TLC. I intend to get quotes and see if the money is their for at least one of the courts. Carl also said he would research what is required to upgrade a squash court and see if we could do all, or some of it, ourselves in order to keep cost to a minimum. Any work will not be done until the summer months when the courts are a bit quieter.
The owners of this website have contacted me to see if we would be interested in using their site. It can be used to create a ranking system within a club or inter-club. It has only recently launched so don't let that put you off. It is free for the first six months so I see no harm in giving it a try.
https://www.squashchampions.com/
Lastly, and most importantly, there was a lively debate about the general cleanliness of the courts (see what you are missing out on not coming down on a Friday). The lack of brush/mop is a major contributing factor in this. I will look into buying one and it will be everyone's responsibility to give the courts a quick once over if they are looking dirty before/after your match.
There is probably more but I'll save that for another day. If you remind me I will at least know you have read to the bottom of this email If anyone has any ideas or questions surrounding the above then feel free to get in touch.
