Beginners and Improvers Fall in Love with Squash at Club Towers

The first few months of 2020 have seen an influx of new or returning players to the wonderful sports of squash and racketball. We wanted to share with you all that has been going on and some of the big successes.

We’ll start with our Ladies’ Squash and Prosecco Evenings organised by coaches Jen and Juliet. Our first one of these was back in October for National Squash Week and we’ve run them monthly since then. They’ve proved popular and have had a great turn out each time. If you are looking for a friendly bunch of ladies to exercise and socialise with then this is the night for you. The evenings cater for a wide range of playing standards. To find out more and book for our next session, please speak to the Reception team. We are aiming to run more ladies squash evenings so if you would like to know when these are please let the Reception team know and we can add you to our WhatsApp group. Do also look out for more information in our app and on Facebook.

Staying with the ladies, last Sunday was International Women’s Day and to celebrate we held a day of Squash – four sessions in total including a junior session and a squash taster. We had 28 people join us across the day, which was great to see. A few had never tried the sport, and some hadn’t played for some time, but all really enjoyed themselves. We hope to see them on the courts again soon.

This event was supported by England Squash who are behind a campaign to get more girls and women playing squash with their #squashgirlscan campaign. They have a number of stories from women and girls which may be of interest which can be found here.

We are lucky to have Ed Norris at the Club who, along with our other coaches, is keen to see more of us on the squash courts. He has created a social squash and racketball WhatsApp group to encourage members to arrange matches and knockabouts. He’s also in the Club most Thursdays holding a social squash and racketball morning (dates below) – no need to book for this, just turn up.

From this group Ed and 6 members recently played an away challenge match at Luton & Dunstable Squash Club. The event was pitched at lower level league and casual/social players; those who wouldn’t normally get the chance to play a team squash match. We lost all five pairings despite some close matches but picked up lots of game experience along the way. Everyone enjoyed a post-match discussion over some food and drinks afterwards. We look forward to hosting them here in the future and hopefully this time picking up a few wins!

How to Get Involved: If this has encouraged you to get involved with our squash programme there are a number of ways:

Squash Welcome – whether you’ve recently become a racquets member, or you’ve been a racquets member for a while and would like to give squash a try but are not sure where to start, the best thing to do is book a free squash welcome with Ed. He will take you through some shots, give you some basic starter coaching and advise you on the next steps available to you at the Club. He will also introduce you to racketball. This can be arranged at a time convenient for you. Please speak to the Reception team and they can put you in touch with Ed.

Social Squash – Ed manages a WhatsApp group, telling members when the social squash is on (it runs most Thursday mornings) and helps to arrange matches. If you would like to be a part of this group, please do speak to the Reception team and they can put you in touch with Ed or add your name to the Social Squash sign-up sheet in the squash corridor.

Juniors – Our junior sessions take place on Saturday mornings at 9.30-10.15am for members aged 7 and over and 10.15 – 11am for ages 4 – 7. On Wednesday evenings at 5.45 – 6.30pm it’s the turn of our advanced junior players. If you would like to try a free session, please speak to the Reception team who can arrange this for you.

Gentlemen!

We had noticed since opening that the courts are primarily used by our male members (and this is common for Squash clubs across the country) so we are pleased to see girls and ladies on the courts after the initiatives from Jen and Juliet. However, we are just as keen to get more men and boys playing so any men reading this please do feel you can get involved in any of the ways above. We have had a “Squash and Estrella” night suggested but we think this is the norm anyway!

Racquets and Shoes!

We have lots of racquets available to borrow so don’t worry about asking for one at Reception. We do ask though, and this is important, that you wear non-marking, indoor shoes to protect our courts. Thank you in advance for your help with this.

Dates for the Diary

28^th March – Bedfordshire Cup Squash Finals Day – we are hosting the finals day for the Beds Squash League which has seen two of the Club Towers teams drawn against each other in the semi-finals alongside Letchworth, who play Open University 1. Please do come and watch some excellent Squash and support our teams.

19^th, 26^th March, 9^th, 16^th, 30^th April – Social Squash – 11am – 12pm – no need to book just turn up.

29^th April 20^th May 17^th June, 7.15 – 8.45pm – Ladies Squash and Prosecco Evening – please book at Reception.

Here’s a few pictures from our recent events:

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