It’s that time again, it’s your monthly Newsletter for March.

As usual we start with a call for anyone who uses Twitter to follow us at https:/www.twitter.com/BerkoSquashRbll (and turn on notifications).  We’ve grown to 87 followers and should pass 100 soon.

On a less usual note, we wish everyone well in these difficult times.  The office will continue to keep members advised of any changes to club operating procedures and any impact to us of government advice on the use of sports facilities.

Okay then, let’s turn our thoughts to squash and squash57.  Some of the dates below may be subject to change due to the crisis we’re in, but let’s go with them for the time being.

Squash57

Olly Culwick was the first ever tennis coach to beat the squash57 players at their own game when he won the box round in December.  Surely it is only a matter of time before Tyrell emulates him.  Nick’s up in box 1 too, Ed seems to have taken to the game like a duck to water.  Jeremy is getting there.  Craig not so much (sorry Craig!).  Can Thorpey continue to keep them all at bay?

Will it be another Thorpey vs Shattock squash57 final this year?  Should be some great games at the QF and SF stage of the club champs.

Club Champs

All tournaments are progressing nicely under Sean’s excellent management.  Club Finals Day is Saturday 25th April.  Please put it in your diary and come along.

Other Future Dates For Your Diary

We’ve had to push back to Saturday 20th June the club friendly away against Hazelwood in Winchmore Hill, as the previous date in May clashed with the inter-counties squash finals weekend, which would have robbed both clubs of some of the better players.

It will be squash and squash57 and we’d like to have 20 or so players of all abilities to join in.  It will be a fun, social event, with food provided and, potentially, a coach/mini bus for transport.

If we can get a good take-up, we’ll run a similar fixture at home against Tring, reinstating the local derby event that fell out of the calendar a few years ago.

Team and player news

Thank you to everyone who has been watching the 1st team in their home matches this season.  They have had a brilliant campaign, leading Herts Division 1 most of the time and bringing an exceptionally high standard of squash to the club.

Unfortunately, they were pipped to the post by Bishop's Stortford, who had the advantage of being gifted 2x maximum points walkovers by St Albans.  Not that we’re sore about it.

Better news though, the mighty Bucks team won their Division 3!  Great work guys and enjoy your well-earned end-of-season beer and curry evening on Friday!

And a further shout-out to their regular number 1, Steve McBride, who got to the QFs of the O60s in last month’s British National Masters Championship.

Coaching

It’s great to see so many players coming along to the Juniors coaching and the Ladies coaching on Saturday afternoons, taken by Grace.

Adam and Grace will soon be adding a Skills & Drills squash57 coaching session to the weekly calendar on Monday evenings.  Please let Adam know if you are interested in coming along (adam@best-academy.co.uk).

And have you thought of gaining a coaching accreditation yourself?  In particular, we’d love the parents of our Juniors to have the best opportunity to be able to help their children, whether it is playing squash with them or helping them at team events.  Before next season commences, we intend to hold a Level 1 Coaching course. Again, let Adam know if you are interested.

Court Improvement Projects

We hope you like the new flooring in the squash corridor - you can no longer use the dark carpet as an excuse if you fluff your shot in the back corners of courts 5 and 6!

And we hope you agree that court 1 is looking brilliant after having the walls cleaned and the floor sanded and re-marked.  We’re now looking at how to best spread the remainder of the annual maintenance budget across courts 2, 3 and 4.

Please remember, as we mentioned in last month’s Newsletter, wear only non-marking squash/squash57 footwear on the courts (no black soled trainers!) and don’t bring mud onto the courts by wearing your squash/squash57 footwear from the car to the clubhouse.

Next week we will be putting some stretch mats on a hook in the squash corridor, to assist you in warming up before you play.  It’s something that not enough of us do/do properly.

Club kit

You may remember that we said we’d do one more order of kit from Dunlop.  Apologies to those who responded, as it has taken a while.  We submitted the order but Dunlop took a while to reply, only to then advise that they are now out of stock in most of the shirts, and they will not be replenishing them as they are bringing in new styles for next season.

We have, however, had a hunt around a few online sports retailers and managed to source what seem to be about the last 20 shirts in existence of the type that so many of us are now wearing!  All being well, we should start to receive these next week, and we will then link up with the local printer that we used last time, for the addition of logo’s and player names.  Have patience, things are on their way!

And on that note we’ll sign off.  Until next time, and with every best wish in these times,