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c/o Brymbo Sports & Social Complex, College Hill, Tanyfron, Wrexham LL11 5TF 01978 752577 |
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Now into our second full year ...
On 1st March 2009 the Club celebrated its second anniversary and membership now exceeded 100 members, including individual seniors and juniors as well as family members, with enquiries received on a regular basis.
At the AGM in May, a recommendation from the Club’s Committee was agreed that Member Subscriptions for 2009-2010 be retained at their current levels for the three categories – Senior, Junior and Family.
We attracted new members from Total Fitness as subscriptions there became due; some were also discovering the Club partly by recommendation but also via the Club’s website which was still being developed by Jim Tunley. Having the website has greatly increased the profile of our Club and has served to provide up-to-date information for existing members and juniors on what is going on within the Club.
Following a successful three month trial of an on-line booking system, in 2009 the Committee took the decision to go forward and commit to continue with this arrangement with HBI Consulting Ltd of Tunbridge Wells. This initiative, together with the Club’s website, has been fundamental to our steady progress this year.
This was a confident time and the members even began to look ahead at potential future developments. At our AGM we discussed, for the first time, our prospects for funding if the Club wished to consider a third court ! With the Olympics being held at London in 2012, however, it was understood that any capital grant funding for such projects were held in suspense. It was agreed that, at the appropriate time, we should make a tentative approach to both the Sports Council for Wales and Squash Wales, with a subsequent approach also to the Brymbo Directors, for their support to this vision.
Officers of the Club during 2009-2010 were elected as follows:
As a Club, our priority is to try, as best we can, to keep on top of maintenance issues , particularly the two squash courts. Earlier in 2009 we carried out some repairs and re-decoration on one court and had plans to paint the front wall of the second court later in the year.
This year we started an initiative to encourage Adult Squash Improvement within the Club’s membership. Despite difficulties in finding the best evening to do this, for the first programme we managed with 15 willing participants - all of them acknowledged their poor playing habits but were equally keen and prepared to have a go to improve both their squash and fitness.
North Wales Ladies Squash Challenge
Matches between Saints Club, Prestatyn and Wrexham Brymbo are proving to be both successful and enjoyable for all concerned.
During May / June, the Ladies competed over a series of four matches between Wrexham Brymbo & Saints with our Prestatyn friends winning in the very last point of the very last match - with Emily Strickland beating Margaret Meadowcroft 15-14 in the 5th game - to take the series.
Click on the following links to see the two teams
and read reviews from the first two matches -
Christmas Tournament ... delayed until February ! - after some enforced delays to matches during this competition, sponsored by Darren Booth, there were two hard fought matched at the Semi Final stage on 6 February 2009, but these were eclipsed in a superb Final.
Friday the 13th proved lucky for the Club with a brilliant final match in which the youth of Hannah Davies overcame the experience of Darron Hewitt.
Our Tournament Finalists:- Hannah & Darron with sponsor, Darren Booth
Over the weekend 20-22 November 2009, a number of Club players took part in the North East Wales Open, hosted by The Saints Club, Prestatyn.
The highlight must go to Hannah Davies and her friend Tesni Evans (from Saints) who, in the Welsh overall rankings are 74th and 27th respectively, but took on and beat the Tournament's two top seeded players Jenny Wright (ranked 3 in Wales) and Beth Winstanley (6th). These superb performances took the North Wales pair to the Final where Tesni won the title.
Other players finished as follows -
Our teams in 2009 ...
Our teams in the North West Counties Leagues had contrasting 2008-9 seasons - the Ladies Teams did very well in the 2nd Division with our First Team finishing in second place and just missing promotion on the last game of the season (losing to the team that won the league) and our Second Team finished mid way in the Division 3 table.
Our NWCSL Thursday Team, however, suffered with injuries all season (old age playing its part !) and, with the Leagues being restructured, were close to relegation.
The North Wales Leagues Tuesday Teams all finished the 2008-9 season in respectable positions. We also fielded a Junior Team in North Wales, to give our youngsters the competition needed to develop their game and particular thanks go to Paul Gowing for all his help in the organisation and transportation of team members.
Notable of our Juniors who stepped up to team play in the North Wales Leagues this season (and performing really well) were Perry Shoemark, Alice Jones, Emily Jones and Aled Goddard.
2008-09 Season Special Awards
Congratulations to all our award winners !
Our Juniors in 2009 ...
We acknowledged the following successes by our Juniors - some fine individual performances:
In January 2009, the Club had three representatives in the Girls Inter Counties matches and thanks to Margaret Meadowcroft who travelled up to Newcastle with the North Wales Under 19 Girls, however, due to an unfortunate late withdrawl by one of the girls the Team was always going have a tough time. Playing teams from Yorkshire & Northumbria, Hannah Davies and Llinos Evans both performed really well (considering Llinos was suffering with a back injury) with Hannah winning her two matches.
The same weekend, Mark Davies travelled to Barnsley with the North Wales Under 15 Girls Team which includes Wrexham Brymbo's Emily Jones. The North Wales Team lost to Northumbria & Yorkshire but did well to beat Lancashire. Well done to Emily who played particulary well at No.1 in the Team against very strong opposition.
The British Junior Open is the most prestigious and longest-established junior open on the world calendar and attracts up to 500 of the very best players from all over the world - it is considered to be the World Championships of Junior Squash.
It was pleasing that four local girls flew the North Wales flag at Sheffield over the weekend 2nd to 6th January 2009 - Llinos Evans, Hannah Davies, Emily Jones (all Wrexham Brymbo) and Tesni Evans (Prestatyn) and they did us proud.
Llinos Evans, also in the U17 girls, was in her first British Open and finished 28th. Llinos came up against the No 2 seed from USA early on, an extremely strong player who reached the semi final. Llinos continued to perform well in further matches.
Hannah Davies represented Wales in the Under 18s Home International Test Matches in Cardiff over the weekend 17 / 18 January and won 3 out of her 4 matches. In one match she beat the English No 5 Under 17 Lucy Townly in a very exciting 5 set match; a girl Hannah had not beaten before.
On 29 March 2009, our Juniors played host to a team from Llanfyllin with Hannah Philpott, Jazmine Hughes, Joseph Newnes, Thomas Hewitt, Aled Goddard and Edward Avery representing our Club.
In March & April, Perry Shoemarkcontinued his steady progress in not only representing North East Wales in the English Under 13 Boys Inter Counties Team, finishing a creditable 4th at finals weekend in Northamptonshire, but also claiming his first tournament victory.
Follow the link to see Perry following his victory:
Our other juniors played well in the Midtown Open Tournament and congratulations also to the following:
Always on the look out for our future stars, in May we visit Wat's Dyke Primary School in Garden Village as part of the Club's Wrexham Schools Mini Squash Programme, run in association with Squash Wales.
Mini Squash visits Wat's Dyke Primary School
Also in May 2009,Thomas Hewitt had a superb 2nd place in the Under 11s competition at the Bethesda Open Squash Tournament.
The European Team Championships took place in Girona, Spain from 7 - 10 May and we congratulated Hannah Davies on her selection as part of the Welsh Under 17s Team.
Congratulations to all our juniors who took part in our 2009 End of Season Tournament on 16th May.
Tournament Results:
Follow the links to see some of our future stars !
During June 2009, the Club was heavily involved with developing junior squash and the Under 11 squads held in Deeside with players coming from Flintshire, Denbighshire and Wrexham.
Follow the link to see our Under 11 squad of players:North Wales Under 11 Squad
Our Junior Coaching programmes continued well in 2009 boosted with two of our members gaining their UKCC Level 1 Coaching Qualification - Darron Hewitt and Hannah Davies and both made regular contributions to the coaching sessions.
With thanks to the staff and parents of pupils at Marchwiel Deiniol Primary School, in September 2009 they were involved with a squash taster session as part of the Wrexham Schools Squash Programme.
Follow the link to see the Marchwiel youngsters with their Coaches:Year 4 pupils
It is important to note that the Club's squash coaching programmes are geared to Squash Wales structures - to view these, follow the link:
In October we were pleased to report the Club's coaching programmes had been rewarded by our Juniors achieving the following successes.
[1] From our younger players at the Club, some have been selected for the North East Wales Under 11s Squad. For this they would receive additional coaching throughout the season at Deeside Leisure Centre, playing with Juniors from Flintshire and Denbighshire.
Wrexham Brymbo coaches Mark Davies & Margaret Meadowcroft took the sessions.
[2] Six players, Thomas Hewitt, Hannah Philpot, Luke Griffith, Morgan Williams, Harley Steele, Owen Platt and Benji Parrish (some of who have previously taken part in the Under 11 North East Wales Squad) were also selected to join the Under 11 North East Wales Talent Identification Squad at the Saints Squash Club Prestatyn.
[3] The Area Performance Centre was generally a mix of our older junior players. This squad was based on players from Denbighshire and Wrexham with sessions held at Prestatyn.
Over the weekend 10/11th October, Hannah Davies & Llinos Evans played for theNorth Wales Inter Counties Under 19s Team against Cheshire and Lancashire, both winning their matches.
Over the same weekend, Emily Jones played for the North Wales Under 15s side against Cheshire, Lancashire, & Leicestershire. This Team were also overall winners of their series, with Emily winning one and losing two matches.
Wrexham Brymbo coaches Mark Davies & Margaret Meadowcroft were selected to coach the two successful teams over the weekend.
Meanwhile, Perry Shoemark played for the North Wales Under 15s Boy’s Team against Merseyside, Lancashire and Cumbria, playing in two of the matches and winning both. Other team members were Emyr Evans Alex Pendleton and George Thomas (from Saints).
In November 2009 we congratulated Hannah Davies who did so well in the National Squash Centre, Manchester as she provided a glimpse of her great potential by achieving a top four place in the Girls Under 17 section of the British Junior Closed Championships. To reach the semi-finals of such a prestigious competition is superb and great reward for all of the hard work put in week after week.
Hannah at the British Junior Championships
Hannah with Tesni Evans (Saints)at the British Junior Championships
Also in November, the Coaches report an excellent response from all of the Wrexham players involved with the North East Wales Under 11 Squad at their training session at Deeside.
Everyone enjoyed the challenges and we are fortunate to have some real talent within this squad from our Club - well done to all concerned !
For John Evans, one of the Club's most promising young players, it was a day to remember in November 2009 as he meets up with two of his childhood heros !
Click the following link -
In December 2009, Hannah Davies travelled to Langnan am Albis, Nr Zurich Switzerland and won the Swiss Open Girls Under 17 Title beating a French girl, Oxane Ah-Hu. [11-4, 6-11, 11-5, 12-10]- a fantastic personal result and for North Wales squash.
2009 Swiss Junior Open title for Hannah
(In this second photo, Hannah wears a new Club shirt that was introduced in December 2009).
As part of the Welsh squad, Emily Jones narrowly missed out in the play off for 11th place, in the Girls Under 15 event. She lost to Gabriella Caoasi from Hungary [11-8, 11-9, 5-11, 9-11, 7-11].
Welsh squash was rewarded with five of the eight Swiss titles being played for - an amazing weekend.
The 2009 Juniors Christmas Tournament was a super evening with some excellent games of squash from our younger players.
The Club acknowledged the on-going support from all parents and to John Williams, our sponsor, who made the presentations, to members of the Coaching Team for their work in developing our juniors and to Margaret Meadowcroft for her superb organisation.
The results: Group One - Winner: Perry Shoemark. Runner-Up: Alice Jones. Third: Joseph Newnes. Fourth: Aled Goddard. Group Two - Winner: Luke Griffiths. Runner-Up: Owen Platt. Third: Ryan Davies. Fourth: Harley Steel. Group Three - Winner: Hannah Philpot. Runner-Up: Natasha Jackson. Third: Nia Johnston. Fourth: Rebecca Parish.
Well done to all of our Juniors in taking part and playing some very good games.
2009 Christmas Tournament Players
Acceptable Behaviour .... Finally, all members were reminded of the Club's Acceptable Behaviour Code for our Junior Members; this is particularly important when selected to represent our Club at Performance Centre or matches.
Acceptable Behaviour Code for all Junior Members
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