NEWS - October 2010

The junior coaching programme continues to develop.Shenley now has an annual Level 1 Coaches course in the autumn and a Level 2 course in the spring. Both courses are organised in conjunction with England Squash and Racketball, which oversees the development of squash nationally. The junior section can now boast of having a Level 4 coach [the highest award available], a Level 3 coach, 8 Level 2 coaches and 3 Level 1 coaches. Currently there are 4 people from the club undertaking their Level 1 qualification.

On the playing side, there are currently about 100 playing members, in sessions held every evening except Thursday after school and 3 hours of coaching [3 x 1 hour sessions] each Saturday and Sunday morning. Steve Evans has started teaching Yr 10 girls in their curriculum PE lessons on a Tuesday morning, with a view to starting an all girls session after school on a Thursday.

There is also an opportunity for youngsters to play in the junior leagues organised by the Leisure Centre and to play during the school holidays in the 'Play Squash' sessions organised by the Club.There are also regular internal tournaments with the annual Christmas Cracker, the Easter Eggstravaganza, an annual handicap tournament on the Spring Bank Holiday and the Club Championship in the Summer.

The youngsters have started to achieve a good level of play and currently in the club we have; Girls County U19 No. 3, County U17 No. 3 and 4 and U15 No. 5.

In the Boys, we have in the U15's County No. 2, 4 and 5 and in the U13's County No 3 and 6. A few weeks ago, we provided 3 of the team of 5 representing Bucks in the Inter Counties Under 15 Tournament. Bucks beat Berks 5-0, Middlesex 5-0 and lost to Surrey 4-1. As a result Bucks will be in the semi final of the Inter Counties National Tournament in January.

We have two teams in the Bucks County Leagues. The first team, playing in Div 2 have won both their opening two matches 4-1, whilst the second team [Div 3] have yet to play their first match.

The ultimate goals are to widen the opportunity for youngsters further to play squash, to develop a Squash Academy at Shenley and eventually a professional team playing in the Professional Squash League [PSL].