News from the Club ...

2012 Club Championships well underway

Most Preliminary and First Round matches have now been played and next week we will also hold our Juniors Championship, on Monday and Wednesday evenings, with the Club Championship Finals on Saturday, 26 May.

To conclude our Club Championships, our Presentation Evening on the evening of the Final, commences at 7.30 pm in the Sports Club and will include music, food and a good night out for all.

All members are asked to support the Club and attend - tickets cost £6.00 for adults (juniors free).

Club's AGM - Note from Meeting

Click on the link below for a copy of the note from our AGM held on 14 May

Germany calling ... for Hannah

As part of a strong Welsh Womens Team, Hannah Davies flies off to the European Team Championships 2012 in Nuremberg, Germany which run from 1-6 May.
For more detail visit the Juniors Page.

Championship hopes dashed ...

Our hopes of securing the NWCSL Division 3 Championship came to an end at Presbury Squash Club on 19 April.
To read a match report go to the Teams page.

Important, coming up very soon ...

Members are asked to support the Squash Club in two key events coming up in the next few weeks:

First is the Annual General Meeting to be held on Monday, 14 May starting at 7.30 pm in the Sports Club Lounge. An Agenda and papers are now available (see above) and all members are encouraged to attend.

Our second major event will be the 2012 Club Championships.

Members are encouraged to support the Club and take part in the Championships - for an entry fee of £3.00, all players are guaranteed at least two games.

May Internal Leagues

The internal leagues for May are now posted on the website, accessible either by using the link (right) or via the on-line booking system. Please note, matches are to be played by Sunday, 3rd June 2012.

If any member wishes to join (or re-join) the leagues, please contact Jim Tunley.

Congratulations - our new Level Two Coaches

Congratulations to Margaret Meadowcroft, Hannah Davies and Jim Tunley on achieving their UKCC Level Two Squash Coaching Award. To qualify, the three have had to undertake four days of training and assessments, the last of which took place back in January.

Our Club now has four coaches qualified to Level Two (the other being Mark Davies) as well as several individuals qualified to UKCC Level One.

If anyone is interested in helping with junior coaching at the Club, please speak with a member of the coaching team.

Sunday evenings ... Club Night

It has now been agreed to extend the Sunday Club Nights through until the end of May .
Members are welcome to join in with Club Night between 5.30 and 7.45.

It is a a pay and play, drop-in arrangement which encourages members to rotate play with whoever else is available on the night.

There is a small charge of just £2.00 per person, so why not come and give it a go !

Our double national champion ...

Congratulations to Hannah Davies on her
superb achievement at the Welsh Junior Open Championships in Cardiff last weekend.
For the full story go to our Juniors Page.

Students on court ...

As part of the Club's on-going partnership with Glyndwr University, around twenty first year students have been taking part in a squash coaching exercise, supervised by coaches Mark and Hannah Davies. All of the students are studying for a Sports Science degree and this element is designed to introduce them to new skills and sports.
The photo below shows some of the students on court.

Eyes on the prize at Masters !

Five North Wales players recently competed at the Welsh Masters Closed Championships 2012 with varying degrees of success at the Swansea Tennis and Squash Rackets Club (18-19 February).

Two players, Mark Davies [over 50s] and John Ashton [over 40s] have done enough to qualify to play in the Home Internationals at Edinburgh later in the year.
A super weekend was had by all the North Wales players and here's how they got on:-

In the Over 35s – Darren Lee reached the Quarter Final but lost an epic 3 – 2 match to Eddie Jones - some great squash.

In the Over 40s – John Ashton reached the Semi Final but then came across Nick Jones who played extremely well to beat John 3 - 0.

Neil Rawlings also played in the Over 40s – he played Margaret Meadowcroft's nephew Marcus Thomas in the 1st round and scraped home 3 – 2. Neil played some topsy turvey squash - brilliance one minute and then ... not so good !
He reached the Quarter Final but then came across the rather good No1 seed, Mark Jones. Neil did well but lost at this stage.

In the Over 45s – Steve Daborn retired after the first round with an ankle injury, which has been troubling him for some time. For the rest of the weekend, he made a great taxi driver for the rest of the players.

Mark Davies played in the Over 50s and probably played his best squash for some time, reaching the Quarter Final and knocking out the No 3 seed Hugh Griffiths 3 – 2 (well coached by Darren Lee !)
Unfortunately for Mark, a combination of tired legs and a Saturday night out with the younger members of the squad in Swansea just proved too much of a handicap as he lost to Mike Workman the following morning !

At last ... the showers are fixed !

We are pleased to say that we now have fully functioning showers in the mens and ladies changing areas with the necessary work, to remedy the outstanding issue of the poor water pressure, completed on 9 February.

This has been a most frustrating period for all concerned and members are thanked for their patience.

Local players compete at National Championships

Three Club members competed in the Welsh National Championships at the Sport Wales National Centre in Cardiff over the weekend 6 - 8 January 2012.
Hannah Davies finished fourth in the Ladies A competition despite feeling unwell during the weekend and pushed the eventual winner, Deon Saffray, hard in the semi final.
Darren Lee came sixth in the Mens B event and
Mark Davies finished seventh in the Mens C event.
A good but very tiring weekend was had by all.

Essential Court Maintenance now completed

Following the closure of both courts recently as part of our on-going commitment to keep on top of maintenance issues, the repair and redecoration of both courts, the balcony area and the Men's changing room is now completed.
It was very disappointing that there had been an on-going problem with the front wall on Court 2 however, following some further repair work, it does seem to have remedied matters.

The Club wishes to acknowledge the quality of the refurbishment / decoration work by G2 Decorators and their volunteer support.

View the refurbishment below:-

Fast & Furious Christmas

The Club's Christmas Tournament was played over the weekend 16-17 December 2011 - see below for photos of our winners.

Club Championship Trophy awarded

Our new Club Championship Trophy has now been presented for the first time to 2011 Champion, Darren Lee.

In future, the intention is that the Club Championship will be played over one weekend at the end of the Teams season.

Juniors Christmas Tournament

Another successful event and thanks to all who took part - for details and pictures from this year's Junior Tournament, go to the Juniors Page.

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.
Mens B event - Darren Lee 2nd place; Mitch Blythen 10th place.
Mens C event - Aleks Stojanovic 4th place; Darren Hewitt 8th place; Perry Shoemark 13th place.
Mens D event - Thomas Hewitt 12th place.

Our new National Champion ...

Well done to Hannah Davies on winning the 2011 Welsh Junior Closed National Championships in Cardiff at the begining of November. See the Juniors Page for details.

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".

Teams selection this Season

Commencing with the North Wales Teams that started on 6th September 2011, the intention is that all team selections should appear in advance on the Club's website.
These will be available as early as possible prior to match day, on the Teams Page.

Teams for 2011-12 Season

We regret to report, the Club will have no Ladies Team in the North West Counties Leagues this season.

See the Teams Page for more information, as well as the fixtures for our North Wales Leagues and North West Counties League Teams.

Congratulations ... to our new coaches

On 10th April 2011, five newly qualified coaches achieved their UKCC Level One qualifications. Congratulations to Mike Penlington, Shaun Greenwood, Jake Fosterjohn, Luke Davies (from Glyndwr University) and Jim Tunley.
All members of this group have been at the heart of the Club's successful Mini Squash Experience with local primary schools.

Racketball at the Club

Thanks to kind sponsorship from Mike Povey, the Club now has four rackets and balls for racketball and these are to be kept in the "Juniors cupboard" by Court 1.
All members are encouraged to try this as an alternative game, but please do ensure the equipment is returned after use.

Hannah - Number 2 in Wales

Congratulations to Hannah Davies on reaching the Final of the Welsh National Championships in Cardiff.

In the Women’s event, top seed Tesni Evans (Saints Club, Prestatyn) beat Abby Hicks in the first Semi Final but the number 2 seed, Beth Winstanley, was beaten by 3/4 seed Hannah to set up an all North Wales clash for 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

Darren takes Championship title

Two amazing games of squash took place as part of the Club's Championship Finals on 12th November 2010.

The 3rd place play-off was won in emphatic style by Rob Evans beating Mark Davies 3 - 0.

The Championship Final match lived up to all expectations where, from 2 - 0 down, Neil Rawlings came back to take the match into a fifth set against Darren Lee. With some excellent squash from both players, Darren came through to win the set 9 - 7.

Congratulations to our new Champion and the other three players on their achievements. To see our finalists, click on the following link:
2010 Championship Finalists

Important - Members Please Note

To all members - at anytime, if you are the last to leave the Club, please ensure that the showers and lighting are turned off.

A shower in the Ladies changing area was left running overnight and all the following day - this has caused much damage to the ceiling, apart from wasting water and electricity.

Please be vigilant and aware of such problems that may arise - thank you.

Club's Juniors excel !

Visit our Juniors Page to see the latest achievements by our juniors, at home and abroad.

Club celebrates five years !

On 1st March 2012, the Wrexham Brymbo Squash Club celebrated its fifth year since it was established. In that time we have welcomed many new members and, through the Wrexham Schools Squash Programme, we have taken the Mini Squash Experience out into local schools to help develop skills with some good and quite promising young players.

Child Safety & Equity

The Squash Club fully supports and welcomes the work of its National Governing Body, Squash Wales, in the area of child safety and, as such, members and parents may be interested to see their Newsletter (January 2010) -"Child Safety - Our Priority"

Treat yourself in 2012 ...!

e have a small supply of good quality cotton polo shirts (navy or white) that will include the Club's logo. We will also be able to order t-shirts in the latest performance materials, in mens and ladies fit.

Prices start from £10 for adult sizes but, to try before you buy, contact Jim Tunley.

View the new shirts - Club's new polo shirt or new performance polo

Equity Policy

The Wrexham Brymbo Squash Club Committee is keen to ensure all matters within the Club are treated with respect and fairness and, as such, have now formally acknowledged the Squash Wales model Equity Policy.

To view the Equity Policy, click on the link
-Equity Policy

On-line Booking continues following successful trial

The Squash Club Committee met on 23 April 2009 and has agreed to enter into an arrangement with HBI Consulting Ltd of Tunbridge Wells that will maintain the On-Line Booking system. This is both an important initiative and financial commitment for the Club and our thanks to those members who did respond with their views following the recent three month trial.

Only active (paid up) members of the Club will be able to book a court and this may be actioned through either a PC or a WAP enabled mobile phone. The instructions sent out in January are also available on the website. The website also includes the facility for members to amend any of their personal details but it is particularly important to ensure the system does show your correct e-mail address.

Please note that having booked (or cancelled) a squash court, the system will automatically issue an electronic no-reply confirmation of booking back to your e-mail address - as we will not have a link and touch screen at the Club, it is recommended that members keep these and take them to the Club, to avoid any confusion!

Access the system using the link above

Please remember, this system also allows members to view their position in the monthly leagues and provides appropriate contact details.

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 does have 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 Mark Davies or Jim Tunley to chat it through first.

About our Club ....

Wrexham Brymbo Squash Club welcomes all levels of ability, from beginners to advanced.

The Club opened on 1st March 2007 and has two private, centrally-heated squash courts that are considered by many to be the best in the area. The Club fields four competitive teams: one in the North West Counties Squash Leagues and three teams in the North Wales Squash Leagues, these teams also include some of the Club's promising Junior players.

Since the Club opened, we have seen a steady growth in our membership to our senior, junior sections and, more recently the new family section and we are most grateful to our original sponsors, from the Sports Council for Wales, Squash Wales, along with the Directors of the Brymbo Sports and Social Complex, for allowing us to make this possible.

Through our Welsh SRA qualified coaches we have an active programme of junior coaching and practice sessions in the early evenings throughout the year.

The Club's website is integral to our on-going commitment to the development of Squash in Wrexham, with the Club at Brymbo at the heart of programmes to encourage young people to play.