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c/o Brymbo Sports & Social Complex, College Hill, Tanyfron, Wrexham LL11 5TF 01978 752577 |
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Another big year for the Club !
The Club has now been up and running for over four years and we continue our momentum both on the squash playing front and in most other areas of the Club; this was important given some major decisions that need to be addressed.
Membership continued to be steady and the monthly leagues are very well supported. Our website remains influential in the recruitment of new members and the on-line booking system has certainly helped maintain an increase in the number of court bookings.
At our AGM on 16 May, the Officers for 2011-12 were agreed as follows:
Maintenance: There were a number of maintenance / upgrading projects during the year. The men’s shower facilities, which are shared with the Cricket Section, were refurbished this year – long overdue as they have been in situ for more than 35 years.
We were faced with a likely decision about the front wall of Court 2; whether we continued to patch it up or have the whole wall re-plastered by a specialist firm - a costly exercise.
By the end of December 2011, we had to close off both courts as work commenced over the Christmas and New Year period for their repair and redecoration; work was also undertaken at this time to freshen up the balcony area and the Men's changing room.
The Club acknowledged the quality of the refurbishment / decoration work by G2 Decorators and their volunteer support.
View the refurbishment below:- Court refurbishment 1 Court refurbishment 2 Court refurbishment 3
Fees:The meeting agreed a recommendation from the Club’s Committee to retain Member Subscriptions for 2011-2012 at their previous levels for the three categories:
Congratulations ... to our new coaches On 10th April 2011, five newly qualified coaches achieved their UKCC Level One Coaching qualifications. Congratulations to Mike Penlington, Shaun Greenwood, Jake Fosterjohn, Luke Davies (all from Glyndwr University) and Jim Tunley.
Club raises its profile at Glyndwr Members of the Club spent a day at the Glyndwr University Fresher's Faire on 28 September 2011, to canvas and encourage new and existing squash players to consider joining "the only Squash Club in town". Drumming up support In need of support !!
Local players in NE Wales Open A few Wrexham players took part in the prestigious Anchor Insurance North East Wales Open Tournament held at The Saints Club, Prestatyn over the weekend 18 - 20 November - this is how they got on:-
Ladies event - Hannah Davies 2nd place.
Fast & Furious Christmas Our Christmas Tournament was played over the weekend 16-17 December 2011 - great fun was had by all, click below to see photos of our winners. Fast & Furious 2011
Club Championship Trophy awarded Our new Club Championship Trophy has now been presented for the first time to 2011 Champion, Darren Lee. Darren Lee - Club Champion 2011
In future, the Club Championship will be played over one weekend at the end of the Teams season.
Our Teams in 2011 ...
By January 2011, our three teams in the North East Wales Leagues had experienced contrasting fortunes. The First Team performed extremely well and were Champions of Division 1 during the first half, at the end of the season we finished a close second to Saints by 5 points. This was an excellent, consistant team performance by all the players involved.
North East Wales League Division 2 – we had two teams playing in this league with our Junior Team achieving promotion from Division 3 after finishing second in the first half the season. Our Juniors were eventually relegated (on the last game of the season), but all had enjoyed the experience of team squash. There is no doubt players like Richard Ackerley, Perry Shoemark, Jac Gowing & Emily Jones will all have benefited from playing at a higher level, with some achieving very good results during the season.
In the North West Counties Squash League, our Thursday Team had gained promotion last season to Division 3, but knew they had to play well to make any impact in this higher Division. This they did and, until Christmas, were challenging again for promotion. Unfortunately, a couple of injuries at critical times combined with some rather shaky performances, meant the Team slipped out of promotion contention to eventually finish fifth in the league. This was still an excellent season and all looked forward to challenging for promotion in 2011-12, with some of our younger players moving up the order!
Special thanks from the Club to all of our Captains this year – Mark Davies, Rob Evans, Dave Thomas, Mike Povey and Sian Hughes - for their hard work throughout the season.
But, our Ladies Team bow out ... With some regret, the Club did not field a team this season in the North West Counties Ladies Leagues. Having survived the drop to remain in the League's First Division, there were insufficient players or strength in any depth to sustain the team and to ensure we could honour our fixtures.
For the Club not to run a Ladies Team was a set back and retrograde step, but one that we hope will be reversed in future.
In May 2011, our First Team reached the North Wales League Cup Final playing Chester Rugby Club away and a dozen supporters from the Club urged on our Team - Darren Lee, Rob Evans, Hannah Davies, John Evans and Geraint Jones.
All games were keenly fought until there was a tie in the match at 2 - 2. This then brought on court the number one players - Darren Lee (Wrexham Brymbo) and fellow North Wales player, Rob Wilkins (Chester Rugby). Some tremendous squash pushed both players hard to 2 games each. However, in the fifth game, Rob's pace came through for a win to Chester Rugby. A superb end of season and congratulations to both sets of players.
2011 North Wales Cup Winners: Chester Rugby
2011 North Wales Cup Runners-Up: Wrexham Brymbo
A Teams meeting on 6th June 2011 left a number of matters unresolved and a further meeting was necessary, on 20 June.
Note from Teams Meeting - 6 June 2011
Note from Teams Meeting - 20 June 2011
Starting in September 2011 the Club started to highlight team selections each week, in advance, on the Club's website.
This year, we sent our best wishes to Mitch Blythen who left the area to start a new job. Mitch joined us from University at the begining of this season and featured regularly as part of our First Team in the North Wales Leagues.
On 6th November 2011, Darren Lee and Hannah Davies (two members of our North Wales First Team) took part in the New Brighton Squash Club 2011 Power Play Championships with Darren finishing in 3rd place and Hannah in 7th.
Our Juniors in 2011 ...
January 2011 Hannah - Number 2 in Wales Congratulations to Hannah Davies on reaching the Final of the2011 Welsh National Championships in Cardiff.
In the Final, Hannah fought hard in every rally but Tesni was too strong, controlling the key rallies in the match, to come through to win 3–0. This was Tesni's first Welsh Senior National Title.
Congratulations to both players - a superb result for North Wales squash.
Hannah and Tesni compete in the Final
A Partnership for the future ... ! The Club has embarked on an exciting venture that we hope will secure a steady introduction to squash for primary age children in the Borough.
With support from the Wrexham Council Sports Development Team , Mike Workman at Squash Wales and five keen Sports Science students at Glyndwr University the Squash Club now has two Mini Squash Kit Bags which means we are now able to take the game out into local Primary Schools through the offer of a new Mini Squash experience.
During January, we introduced 160 Year 3/4 pupils from St Giles and Marchwiel Deiniol Schools to the Mini Squash experience and we hope to return to help embed with them some new racket skills.
A first Mini Squash Day was held on 25th January 2011 at the St Giles and Marchweil Deiniol Primary Schools with a total 160 pupils (all at Key Stage 2) taking part throughout the day. All of those taking part were also invited to a follow-on "taster" session back at the Club on 29th January between 12.00 and 3.00 pm.
We are grateful to the help received at the two schools and now have high hopes that this partnership will continue and help generate grassroots interest in our sport, with younger people.
As a result of these earlier sessions, Mr Terry Walker, Headteacher at Marchwiel Deiniol Primary School, invited the Club back to offer a six week Mini Squash course.
February 2011 Metalmin North Wales Junior Open Only four players from the Club played in this years North Wales Junior Open at The Saints Club on 26-27 February - disappointing as, in order to gauge players performance, our juniors need to be playing against players from other parts of Wales. The Tournament was kindly sponsored by Mark Davies's company, Metalmin & Co (UK) Ltd.
Thomas Hewitt played in the Under 13 Boys and finished 9th playing some good squash, but should be aiming for much higher next year.
Aled Goddard played in the Under 15 Boys, finishing in 8th place - Aled played well, always prepared to put in lots of effort, but does now need to focus more on shot selection.
In the Under 15 Girls event, Jazmine Hughes finished 4th and gained a lot of experience from this tournament, however, to improve her game Jazmine must take on court the lessons from coaching !
Hannah Davies won the Under 19 Girls title (finally not the bridesmaid to Tesni, her great friend, who was away) to fulfill her No 1 seeding. Hannah was rather embarrassed later, to receive the trophy from her father !
Through the coaching team the message should always be to encourage our junior players to enter these local tournaments. It is good experience for them and also for their parents in following their progress while watching other players from across Wales competing.
March 2011 Local Schools join in ! A further development with Mini Squash took place on 31st March when we welcomed back Mike Workman from Squash Wales. Mike came along to help us when we visited pupils at two of the Club's neighbouring schools - Brymbo, St Mary's Primary School and New Broughton, Ysgol Penrhyn .
This very local initiative was intended to spark encouragement for squash with some of the juniors who lived close to the Squash Club.
Mini Squash at Ysgol Penrhyn Primary
At the follow-up taster session in the Club on 2nd April 2011, 14 pupils attended and some would later join one of the Club's Junior Coaching Programmes after the Easter break.
April 2011 Hannah plays for Wales at Europeans We congratulated Hannah Davies who got her Welsh Senior Ladies Squad call-up to play in this years European Championships at Helsinki, Finland - the Welsh Ladies played superbly to secure a Silver Medal position and promotion to the prestigious European Premier Division.
Click below to see the successful Welsh Team:
Welsh Men & Ladies in Helsinki Welsh Ladies Silver Medalists in Helsinki
July 2011 2011 Junior Summer Tournament Congratulations to all the juniors who took part in this event on 3rd July. All of the players are part of the Club's coaching programme, with a majority having recently joined the programme following our recent Mini Squash visits to local schools.
There was some superb squash and excellent competition by all involved - if they can keep developing their game, some stars for the future for sure!
Results from the various competitions were as follows:-
To see the groups, click on the following links:-
(If any parent would like a copy of the pictures from the tournament, please contact Jim)
August 2011 2011 Women's World Junior Squash Championships Hannah Davies has been part of the Welsh Team that competed in the Women's World Junior Championships at Harvard University, Boston, where they finished in eighth place.
Welsh Team at World Championships 1 Welsh Team at World Championships 2 Welsh Team at World Championships 3 Welsh Team at World Championships 4 Welsh Team at World Championships 5 Welsh Team at World Championships 6 Welsh Team at World Championships 7 Welsh Team at World Championships 8 Welsh Team at World Championships 9
September 2011 Club's Junior Coaching starts again Our Autumn / Winter 2011 coaching programme commenced again on 5th September, with sessions held each Monday and Wednesday [4.45 or 5.30] through to Half Term and then Christmas.
As usual, many of our Juniors would not have played over the summer months a situation that, ideally, would change if they were to become members of the Club !
October 2011 Hannah seeded in British Junior Championships A total 24 Welsh players took part in the British Junior National Squash Championships 2011 in Manchester (27 - 30 October).
Hannah wins in Swansea Congratulations to Hannah Davies on winning the South Wales Junior Open event at Swansea following recent illness - this was the first compulsory junior event of the new season.
November 2011 Our new National Champion ... Well done to Hannah Davies who won the Girls Under 19 2011 Welsh Junior Closed Championships in Cardiff to become National Champion. Hannah, who was seeded 1, beat her fellow Welsh International, Fiona Murphy, 3-0 in the Final. A proud national champion ...
December 2011 Juniors Christmas Tournament On 14 December many of our very youngest players competed in the 2011 Juniors Christmas Tournament - it was just for fun, with everyone a winner !
To see some of those who competed, click on the following links:-
2011 Junior Christmas Tournament 1 2011 Junior Christmas Tournament 2 2011 Junior Christmas Tournament 3 2011 Junior Christmas Tournament 4 2011 Junior Christmas Tournament 5
The Tournament concluded the Club's 2011 programme of junior coaching (held each Monday and Wednesday) - the 2012 programme would commence again in January.
Hannah seeded 2 in Zurich Over the weekend 1-4 December, Hannah Davies travelled to compete in the 2011 Swiss Junior Open at Zurich where she is the number 2 seed - in this event in 2010 Hannah was runner-up to her fellow North Wales player, Tesni Evans.
Hannah lost her semi-final match to German, Caroline Seyegh by 3-1 and, in the 3/4 play-off, having had match ball in the fourth, Hannah was edged out by Belgium's Nele Gilis.
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