August is always a quiet month in Berkhamsted and at the club, with many of our members on holiday. As we approach September, however, we are gearing up for a busier period, and preparing for our annual end of summer Club Open Day on Sunday 25 September.

Our Open Days are great fun, with free activities, food and drink (not free!), and we usually get lucky with the weather. So why not mention it to a couple of friends who could be interested in playing or returning to tennis or squash and come on down with them? It will run from 11am to 3pm and activities will shortly be open to book online - a separate email will go out about this shortly.

Tennis

Court 6b has been repainted, with lines for 2 mini yellow courts and 4 mini red courts, as well as full court tennis, to help free up other courts for adult members.

The dampening of the back wall on courts 7 to 9 seems to be working well.

We are coming towards the end of the Summer team matches and will be arranging the Winter fixtures in the next couple of weeks for matches beginning in October.  If you fancy having a go at team tennis, there are match practice evenings on Wednesdays (alternating weeks for men's and women’s squads), and anyone interested in joining a team is welcome to come along - just sign up with Tyrell.

On Sunday 9th October, we are hosting the finals of the Harris Cup, a knockout tournament for clubs across Herts. We have a team in both the men’s and women’s competitions, and we hope to have at least one of them featuring in the finals.  Mark the day in your calendar and come along to see some great tennis.

Squash & Racketball

This coming season we want to continue grow women’s squash and racketball at our club, building on the seeds of success that we had last year that saw the reintroduction of a women’s squash team and the launch of a popular Wednesday women’s evening coach led session.

If any of our women tennis members are interested in giving either squash or racketball a try, or if any of our women squash members have a friend who could be tempted, the Open Day on Sunday 25th September represents a perfect opportunity.  No equipment is required, other than non black soled trainers.  Rackets and balls will be provided, and a coach will be there to help.  Give it a go!

There is a lot to report this month, with the new season imminent, so we’re going to do a separate Newsletter in the next few days to all squash and racketball members.

For now though, we want to flag 2 upcoming events which we’d love you to support and enter please.

We have a round robin Fun Evening on Friday 23rd September, run by Richard Carr and Gill Trimmer. These are always a great evening, with everyone pretty exhausted by the end.  Entries to richardj.carr@hotmail.co.uk

Then we have our first ever Berkhamsted graded event on the weekend of 14th - 16th October, in tandem with a PSA Satellite Open at the club.  In effect, the A grade event will be professional players, with the other grades covering all standards from team players to casual hackers!  An entry fee of £22 guarantees you a minimum of 2 matches (there will be plate competitions) and some great squash to watch - a number of Adam’s pro training group will be in the top of the bill draw.

We are advertising this event to all local clubs, but we’d really like to pack the draws with as many of our own players as possible. Enter at the tournament website: https://www.tournify.uk/live/BGO202. Don’t worry too much about which grade to enter – squash levels ratings will be use to rank everyone.

Social

We have the return of Quiz night on Wednesday 19th October!  Diarise the date and look out for more details soon.

Then we’ll be turning our attention to the World Cup, from 20th November to 19th December.  With the new big screens and audio system, the club will be the best location in town to watch the matches.

The World Cup rather dive bombs the social scene in the lead-up to Christmas, so we’re slipping the annual Club Dinner Dance to Friday 27th January, as a late celebration of the New Year 2023.

More news coming soon on these events.

Other bits and bobs

Around the club, the focus is on finishing and closing the 2022 projects that are still work in progress:  the glass balustrade, the BT leased line installation for better internet connectivity, and the new LED floodlights on tennis courts 7 to 9.

The driveway wall adjoining court 7 looks much better after a fresh coat of paint and we’re arranging for the hashed area at the bottom of the driveway to be repainted, as there’s not much left of the original markings.

The bag rack in the players’ lounge continues to accumulate lost property at a rate of knots.  At the end of each month, we now discard all items that haven’t been retrieved.

Last month’s plea, to put the outdoor seat cushions back in the container boxes at the end of the evening, met with limited success.  With rain now returning to the climate, we have had a number of soakings. Please put them back when you leave.  Thank you.

That’s all for now.

Club Council

(John Shaw, Phil Trimmer, Michael Beavis, Tracey Mackey, Mark Shattock, Bobby Mercandino)