2023 - our 16th Year

This year, we initiated an initiative designed to encourage more Women and Girls' participation in squash; it worked well and helped us gain some new members; our weekly juniors coaching programme and the Squash Wales Academy Squad at the Club continued to attract more young people; and we also continued our uplift of the Club, both inside and out.

Some highlights from 2023 ...

Uplift in the Club

It started with new doors and decoration in July 2022, new signage in October and this continued with a further step on 14 December when new flooring was laid across the public areas. Some finishing off was still to be done - new skirting to be fitted and painted.

In the New Year, attention was back to some essential court maintenance, as well as improving the toilet and shower areas of the Club.

The uplift continued ... during January 2023

The Squash Club was closed for play on 3rd and part of the 4th January, while a new glass court door fitted, plus some necessary repairs to the both front walls.

The second glass door was fitted on Monday, 16 January.

Part of the benefit in this will be the added safety and greater enhancement of the facility.

The work was undertaken by CourtCare UK Ltd, who were asked to schedule a return visit at the end of this season, for a full court maintenance programme.

Size of our family memberships increased !

During late December and on New Year's Day, we heard the great news for two Club members.

The Squash Club sent huge congratulations go to Lewis and Ella Jones on the birth of Harrison on 18 December 2022 and then just a couple of weeks later to, Hannah Davies and Tom Clark on the birth of Harper Jessica who arrived at 1.42 am on 1st January 2023.

Power issues to the Club

For nine days (commencing 13 March), it was not so much a highlight, rather a bit of a nightmare; starting with an intermittent electricity supply, it quickly went to no power at all.

This was due to a fault the engineers finally tracked down with remedial works requiring a new strech of cable being run under the roadway from the Main Site. Following a week of frustration, with team matches and junior coaching sessions, not to mention individual games, all being cancelled, the lights finally came back on at the Club, at end of the day on 21 March.

2023 Annual General Meeting

The 2023 AGM took place on 25 May with ten members present.

Highlights Update:
* The meeting agreed NOT to increase the level of member subscriptions for 2023-24;
* No increase in the cost of a light card;
* Re-elected the existing Officers of the Club;
* Considered the matter of Teams Sponsorship in 2023-24;
* looked at the on-going general uplift of the Club;
* bestowed Life Membership of the Squash Club to Mark Davies and Jim Tunley, in recognition of their many years work in founding the Squash Club at Brymbo and helping develop junior squash across the Wrexham area.

The formal note from our AGM is attached.

2023 AGM Note

2023 Club Championships - the Finalists

Congratulations to our six members who reached the 2023 Club Championship Finals.

The Plate Competition Final: Andy Morris and Lee Harrison

Third / Fourth Play-off: Jon Davies and Will Silvester.

Championship Final: Josh Davies and Tim Arthur

All matches were played on 30 June.

UPDATE:Congratulations to our 2023 Club Champion - Tim Arthur.

Tim retained his title with a victory over the top seeded, Josh Davies.

In the Third / Fourth Play-off match, Jonathan Davies won a tight 5 set match against young Will Silvester.
The Plate Final also went all the way with Andy Morris beating Lee Harrison.

All of the matches provided some excellent, high quality squash - well done to all involved.

Darren and Jon at National Championships

Best wishes went to Darren Lee and Jonathan Davies who headed to Birmingham for the 2023 Racketball National Singles Championships.

Matches took place over the weekend 15 / 16 July, at the Edgbaston Priory Club.

UPDATE:Congratulations to our Plate Finalist:-
Darren won the Over 50s Plate
Jon was Runner-up in the Over 45s Plate

A good and successful weekend for both.

Improved emergency security / access

Following recent access issues arising at the Club, a fire key safe, allowing for emergency egress through the Cricket Pavilion was fitted in July; next to the double doors where the Cricket Section may access the Ladies toilets and defibrilator.

Jon does really well at British Racketball Championships

Congratulaions to Jonathan Davies on reaching the Semi Final of the Over 40s category in the 2023 British Open Racketball Championships at Hallamshire Tennis & Squash Club, Sheffield, over the weekend 7/8th October.

Loss of a great racket player

We were saddened to hear of the passing of Geoff Roberts on 16 October, at the age of 81 years.

Our older members will remember Geoff as a superb racket player - so good that he represented Wales at Tennis; he was also a County level player at both Squash and Badmington.

In the 1970s, Geoff was instrumental is establishing the former Wrexham Squash Club at the Rugby Club in Bryn Estyn Road; he was also a founder of the North Wales Regional Tennis Centre in Wrexham, and was a Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) Vice President and Counsellor for many years.
RIP Geoff.

Maintenance of courts

In July, we were hoping that essential maintenance work on our courts would take place, to include the repair and painting of all walls, as well as sanding and re-marking the court floors.
However, our contractors Melior Sports, were unable to attend as scheduled; they subsequently returned to undertake this work on 21st and 22nd December.

Squash set for 2028 Olympics !

On 9 October, we heard the good news that the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games Organising Committee had recommended that squash as one of five sports to be included in the LA2028 Olympic sports programme.

The welcome decision was significant and it marks an exciting milestone in the history of squash - inclusion in the Olympic Games for the first time.

The other four other sports are - Baseball/softball, cricket (T20), flag football, and lacrosse (sixes).

Our Teams in 2023 ...

2022 - 2023 Season

Teams Sponsorship

In our first season in the top flight of squash, the Club was fortunate to have much needed sponsorship from The Educate Group; our grateful thanks to them.

Mid Season Review - December 2022

It had been a superb first half and here are the Team's standings at December:

NORTH WEST COUNTIES & NORTH WALES LEAGUES START AGAIN - the Spring half of the Season started on 10 and 16 January respectively. An important time for our NWCSL First Team in particular, they will need a big push to retain their First Division status.

Friendly V. Neston. - as a warm-up to the second half of the season, we took a mix from all of our NWCSL Teams to Neston on 5 January; a great night of squash and our lads just edged the match !

The Club was to put out an all Welsh Team on 17 January which beat Alderley Edge 1 at Home, 4-1.

It's thought to be a first for the Squash Club, certainly in Division 1 - Owain Taylor, Rhys Evans, Josh Davies, Ryan Lewis and Dan Lewis.

A free week mixup at the Club - it was a free week for NWCSL teams on 26 January and so some of our players arranged a mixup, playing singles and doubles matches, together with an invited guest - Tesni Evans; it was a superb evening of high class competition and fitness.

An example of team work ! - the team work continued following the First Team match v. Bowdon on 28 February, but what would their parents say if they saw this ....<

Hannah's back on it. - just over two months after giving birth to Harper, Hannah Davies turned out for our Third Team v. Neston and narrowly lost her match, 2-3. What a tremendous achievement.

Congratulations to Tattenhall - with help and guidance from Dave Whitehead, the Tattenhall Club put out a team of juniors this season, in the NWCSL Division 4.

This included two of our Wrexham Brymbo juniors, Tom & Ethan Willis - they were out "On Loan" to Tattenhall, for the invaluable experience that they would gain playing in this League. They went on to become NWCSL Team of the Season and received their awards at the Machester Open event on 18 May.

End of 2022 - 2023 Season

What a finish from our First Team. - in our final match of the 2022-23 Season, the First Team emphatically beat Bollington 1 (5-0) to retain their NWCSL Division One status.

It was a brilliant end of season match at the Club on 28 March - congratulations to Owain Taylor, Rhys Evans, Josh Davies, Tim Arthur and Ryan Lewis who all played superbly.

2023 - 2024 Season

A second Season in Top Flight begins with a Win - our second season in NWCSL Division 1 started with a superb night and a win against Alderley Edge 1 on 26 September.

There were some outstanding and very close games, with brilliant wins from Owain Taylor [1] Rhys Evans [2], Jon Davies [4] and Will Silvester [5]; at [3] Josh Davies narrowly lost a tight match, 2-3.

Player of the Match was Will; a real gutsy performance as part of an excellent evening and a great start to the new season.

We're top of the League !!

A great night, despite the loss !

The First Team travelled to north Manchester on 3 October, to play the NWCSL Champions from 2022-23, Cheetham Hill.

With a number of supporters from Wrexham and sporting their new team shirts, courtesy of Dave Cadwallader, the Team did well against a strong and talented opposition - all of the matches, bar one, were lost 3-0 but the scores did not reflect the superb effort from all of our boys.

Man of the Match was our rising star, Rhys Evans, who almost provided a big upset on the night by taking three times World Champion, Nick Matthew to a fifth game.

Congratulations to all players on a super evening.

Another superb home win

Well done to a slightly depleted First Team (missing our No.1 Owain Taylor - who was playing in the USA) on 17 October, as they beat The Northern Seconds by 3 games to 2.

Playing in front of Team Sponsor, Dave Cadwallader, with young Rhys moving up to No 1, the Team played well against a decent Manchester side.

Man of the Match this week had to be shared between our two youngest players - Rhys Evans and Josh Davies, for their great skill and determination.

Heavy loss against Warrington 1

Our First Team came up against the mighty Warrington 1 on 31 October, with Adrian Waller (WR 29) playing at No 1 and the new British Junior Champion, Jonah Bryant at No 2.

Our No1, Owain Taylor took a game off Waller but that was the only point we achieved in a tough match.
The two youngsters, Rhys and Jonah, had an incredibly close and entertaining match, but Rhys eventually lost out 3-0.

First Team come close and they're on TV

The First Team came came really close to winning this Division 1 match at Grove Park (Cheadle Hulme) on 14 November, with matches of the top three seeds being streamed live on YouTube.

First up was Josh Davies - having gone 2-0 down, Josh put in a "man of the match" performance to level it; in a gutsy fianal game, he just missed out 8-11 to an experienced but tired looking Ky Hibberd. On the other court, Steve Jenks was to win his match following injury to his opponent and Will Silvester played well but lost out 3-0.

Back on the show court, Owain Taylor started well against debutant New Zealander, Temwa Chileshe; he went 1-0 up but was later troubled with a stress injury of the foot.
The final match featured Rhys Evans, playing the experienced Luke McFarland at No.2 - the constant pace, determination and fitness shown by Rhys won the day 3-1.
Overall, the match was won 3-2 by Grove Park, but valuable points were gained for our Team on another evening of superb squash from the Wrexham boys.

Tesni joins the First Team for second half of Season

Some brilliant news over the New Year as we welcome back to the Club, Tesni Murphy (nee Evans).

Recently married, Tesni has a current World Ranking at 25 (highest WR is 9) and she will be a valuable addition to our First Team; Tesni plays her first match for the Club on 9th January, against Alderley Edge 1 (Away).

Our Juniors in 2023 ...

January 2023

SW Academy North

Our younger players attending the Squash Wales Academy North weekly training sessions at the Club continued to make good progress with Coach, Mike Harris.

We had five players from the Club involved and they clearly benefited from this additional coaching arrangement.

Our players at Welsh Closed

Five players from the Club were in Cardiff over the weekend 20-22 January for the Karakal 2023 Welsh Junior Closed Tournament. -
Ethan Willis (Boys U15),
Jamie Silvester (Boys U17)
Will Silvester,
Josh Davies and
Rhys Evans (all Boys U19)

UPDATE 1 - Congratulations to Rhys on retaining his Welsh Under 19s title.

Well done also to Ethan who finished Third in the Welsh Under 15s Event.

New Coaching Year commences

The Club's Juniors Coaching programme for 2023 started up on 9th January and the Squash Wales Academy North Training sessions also started, on 10 Jaunary.

Will and Jamie at British Open

Young Will and Jamie Silvester travelled to Birmingham to take part in the 2023 British Junior Open Championships, between 4th and 8th January.

Will took part in the Boys Under 19 event, while Jamie played in the Boys Under 17s event.

February 2023

Selected to play for Wales

We congratulated one of the Club's junior players on his selection to play for Wales at the 5 Nations Home Internationals in Edinburgh over the weekend 21-23 April.

For Ethan Willis (Under 15s) this was a fantastic achievement and represents how much he's developed his game, through hard work in his training and play.

March 2023

Power cut disrupts Juniors

Apologies to all of our junior players, Club and Academy Squad, who've had their coaching and training sessions cancelled this month.

A fault occured in the supply cable to the Club which required some major work on the infrastructure to remedy.

April 2023

Welsh Team in Edinburgh

Young Ethan Willis was part of the Wales Under 15s Team at the 5 Nations Home Internationals event at Edinburgh. over the weekend 21-23 April.

May 2023

A day of training for Academy Squad

The Squash Wales Academy Squad (North) held their Half Term Training Day at the Club on 30 May.

With superb weather, Coach Mark Davies was able to try something different, with some outdoor fitness activity - see below.

This group of young players were the current crop from North Wales who receive additional coaching through Squash Wales, at a higher level.

It's that time of year ...

When many of our junior players are currently studying for or taking their exams; we wished them well.

Jamie selected for Europeans

More congratulations to our Junior Club Member Jamie Silvester who was selected to the Wales Under 17s Team.

Jamie represented Wales at the European Team Championships in Prague, between 11-14 May.

Another great achievement for Jamie, whose game has been developing superbly; we wished all of the Welsh players an enjoyable and succesful Championship.

UPDATE - Our Wales Under 15s Team finished in 6th place (from 18); the Under 17s Team came 11th (from 20 Teams).

June 2023

Academy Squad - training is tough, but FUN

Our Squash Wales Academy Squad (North) continued through to the school summer holidays with Coach.

July 2023

A First Cap for Ethan

Congratulations to Ethan Willis who was presented with his first Welsh Cap, in Cardiff on 27 July, by Greg Tippings, the Squash Wales National Junior Coach.

Ethan represented his country, in Edinburgh, at the 5 Nations Competition. It is a tremendous personal achievement for one of our own juniors - well done Ethan.

Three head to Wolverhampton

We were pleased to see three of our juniors going to take part in a Squash Fun Day in Wolverhampton in July.

The three, Lainey, Anna and Jessica were invited to attend by their Academy Coach Mike Harris at his Club in Wolverhampton - all three enjoyed playing in a new environment with local youngsters.

Summer of Squash

The Club agreed to participate in the Squash Wales Summer of Squash Campaign 2023 which took place each week throughout the school summer holidays, supported by our Club coaches.

The Summer Camp events were held each Wednesday during the holiday, from 10.00 until 11.30 am, aimed specifically at children aged 6 to 12 years of age; covering all of the basics and more during the six weeks.

Final session of the season

Our juniors played their final Club coaching session of the season on 17 July.

We hoped to get some other sessions organised during the summer holidays.

Juniors play Moreton Hall

On 15 July we organised a mix-up for the Club's juniors with Moreton Hall School pupils ; this with a greater emphasis to encourage match play.

August 2023

Brothers are doing well ...

Two of our juniors, brothers, Tom & Ethan Willis have had a good year as they continue to develop their squash skills..

SW Academy continues

It may be the summer holidays but the Squash Wales Academy North players continued to train.

Wales National Junior Coach, Greg Tippings, Squash Wales National Junior Coach, was in Wrexham to attend a session at the Club on 17 August, assisted by Mark Davies.

September 2023

2023 Welsh Junior Open - four from Club take part

Over the weekend 8 - 10 September, four of our junior members played in the Karakal 2023 Welsh Junior Open.

Taking place in Cardiff, our boys Will & Jamie Silvester (both U19s) and Tom & Ethan Willis (U17) & (U15) were all scheduled to play on the Friday evening.

UPDATE - Well done to all four players; here's how they finished the weekend:

Ethan was 15th in the Under 15s Event.
Tom was 19th in the Under 17s Event.
Jamie was 14th in the Under 19s Event, and
Will was 11th in the Under 19s Event.

New Academy Squad season starts ...

On Monday 4th September, a new season for the Squash Wales Academy (North) Squad commenced.

With SW Coach, Mike Harris taking charge of two groupings. They had an excellent first session that also introduced three new players.

October 2023

Ethan at Under 17s National Squad

Young Ethan Willis spent the weekend 30 September / 1 October in Cardiff as part of the National Under 17s Squad , training hard with real progress being made across the group.
Well done to Ethan who is enjoying his time as part of this elite squad.

November 2023

Ethan to play at Inter Counties

Congratulations again to Ethan Willis who was selected for the South Wales Under 17s Team (there's no team from North Wales), at East Gloucester Squash Club on 12 November.

December 2023

Final sessions of 2023

The first half of the season soon passed but we'll be ready to go again in 2024 with:-
* Monday Junior Coaching sessions;
* Saturday Juniors League and,
* Squash Wales Academy(North) Squad - for developing players.

The Coaching Team wished all juniors a Happy Christmas and we look forward to getting started again in the New Year.

Safeguarding ...

Child Safety & Equity

The Squash Club fully supports and welcomes the work of its National Governing Body, Wales Squash & Racketball in the area of child safety and, as such, members and parents may be interested to see the WSRB Safeguarding Policy & Procedures in Squash document.

"Child Safety - Our Priority"

Eye Protection - our Policy

For all Juniors and their parents / guardians, it is important that everyone to understands the Club's approach to Eye Protection - a policy which is also adopted by Squash Wales.

To view our policy click on the link below.

Eye Protection - the Policy

Calling all potential coaches . . .

Do you have what it takes to become a qualified squash coach - if so, your Club needs you!

If any Club member has an interest in committing to become a qualified coach, the Squash Club may be able to assist with necessary fees and mentoring.
Please contact either Jim Tunley or Mark Davies to learn more.