This coming Monday we will be just 2 weeks away from the next stage of the easing of restrictions, which includes significantly more freedom for indoor sport.

England Squash held a webinar this week to brief clubs on the changes.  They have to caveat everything they say because none of the governing bodies for indoor sports will know for sure whether their proposals have been approved until they receive confirmation from Sport England in the preceding week, w/c 10th May.

But the full expectation is that 'squash/squash57 bubbles’ will return from Monday 17th May, together with the opening of the changing rooms and clubhouse bar.

So, we are planning accordingly!

Why not start to message your squash/squash57 buddies to form a bubble of up to 6 people?  To keep things simple, we suggest re-forming the bubble you were in when we had them last time around.  If you’re new to the club, contact John (john.gs@btinternet.com) and he’ll link you up with others of a similar standard.

Our club box leagues will be returning soon but we thought we’d hold off for a short while to allow everyone to get back up to speed by playing a few friendlies.  Go gently to start with!  We don’t want you hurtling into competitive play and immediately injuring yourself!

Even the most diehard squash players may benefit from including some racketball games in their schedule to begin with, rather than playing squash on consecutive days.  If you don’t have a racket, Adam has a couple that can be borrowed - with new grips and sanitised.

In fact, we want to build up a stock of racketball rackets for people to be able to try out the game.  If you have an old racket that you no longer use, Adam would love to accept all donations.

If you want some tips on getting fit for squash and squash57, including recommendations for warm-up routines (and why not return to play with a new resolution:  I will give myself time to do a 10 mins warm-up before I play!), the current SquashFit series from England Squash is excellent.  All sessions can be found on their YT site  https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLovDPOHeVVCOzqpVAUJoDqzAp4Vz0qth.  Session 6 was filmed this week at our place!  John was doing his best to follow along on the next door court - off-camera thankfully!

Just a suggestion:  come down to the club with your iPad or laptop, go on an empty court - no need to even put the lights on, and give one of the sessions a go.  We guarantee you’ll pick up a couple of takeaways that you’ll want to build into your warm-ups or workouts!

About the same time that we previously had squash bubbles, we had the Team Laura vs Team Nick challenge and we won 120 Dunlop squash balls.  At long last, the prizes are due to be distributed next week.  We’ll be handing them out soon to those who helped us get close to the top of the participation leaderboard.

Anyway, back to where we started.  This coming Monday, we’re 2 weeks away from being able to play properly again (yes, subject to confirmation).  From Monday 3rd May the booking system will be open to book your squash/squash57 bubble games w/c Monday 17th May!

Court booking times will once again be extended into late evenings from that point, as we’ll have the bar open.  We’re still required to retain the 10 minute ‘lights off’ interval period between bookings, which unfortunately prevents us from being able to use the fob points in the corridor to add a bit more time to a booking.  But we expect to be able to revert to normal operations when we get to the final easing of restrictions on 21st June.

It’s finally happening - we’re nearly there.  See you soon! 

Squash & Squash57 Committee

(John Shaw, Mark Shattock, Adam Fuller, Gill Trimmer, Rob Harbron)