Walthamstow Cricket Tennis and Squash Club
48a Greenway Avenue • Walthamstow, London • E17 3QN
Hi everyone,
There has been a change of date since our last reminder of the AGM. It will now take place at 7:30pm on Wednesday 20th March, apologies for any inconvenience.
Please read on for the agenda and a very encouraging report of the Squash Section’s progress over the past year.
SQUASH SECTION AGM to be held at the club 20th March 2024 7.30pm
AGENDA
1) Squash Management Report
2) Treasurer’s Report
3). Nomination & Election of Squash Management Committee
4) Expertise required on Squash Committee
5). Future Plans for Squash Section
6) Coaching Activities
7). A.O B
Squash Section AGM:
Annual Report
March 2024
After the challenges brought by the pandemic and the closure of the courts through flooding, the Squash Section are delighted to report squash has more than bounced back with participation rates at the club the highest they’ve been in years.
Court usage during both peak and off peak times is up, the leagues are thriving with over 100 players playing in the most recent cycle, the ladder has around 75 players playing in any given month and the Junior Section is the busiest anyone can remember with over 50 juniors attending regular coaching sessions.
The driving force behind this boom has undoubtedly been our Head Coach Trevor Grinsted who arrived here two and a half years ago. The committee would again like to put on record their huge gratitude for all the work Trev has done for the club.
But this success would also be impossible without our members. And we would also like to thank all of you for helping create a such friendly, welcoming club with participation, enjoyment and friendly competition at its heart.
The Squash Committee
The Squash Committee currently consists of 8 volunteers: Diane Weaver (Squash Chair), Robert McKill (Club President), Mark Gallagher (Membership Secretary), Edwin Cadenhead (Acting Club Treasurer), Trevor Grinstead (Head Coach), Luke McLaughlin (Men’s Team Captain), Josh Cole and Kyle Anderson.
After several years with a much smaller committee and significant internal disagreements, the committee feel a corner has been turned and we’re starting to become a much more effective unit to support squash at the club.
We are still keen though to add more members to the committee, improve its diversity and recruit at least two specific roles: a Secretary and a Media & Comms Officer.
Please do get in touch with anyone on the committee if you would like to help out, or just want to know more.
Finances
Squash income for 2023 shows a marked improvement from 2022, though it should be noted that covid restrictions were still partly in force in 2022. Income from Squash Membership subscriptions increased from £16,435 in 2022 to £26,932 (+68%) and income from Court Fees increased from £21,333 to £29,228 (+37%).
This left the Squash Section with a balance of around £39,000 going into 2023/2024.
Unfortunately inflation has driven running costs up across the club, particularly utilities and maintenance costs, and hit bar income. The overall club management committee (comprising Cricket, Tennis and Squash) has been closely monitoring the situation and has decided to raise membership fees by approx. 7.5% from 1st April 2024, our new financial year.
In light of this, the Squash section has decided squash court fees will be frozen at current levels, as they have been for over ten years. This will be reviewed again in 2025.
Finally, Don Brereton the longstanding Treasurer for the club has decided to step down and we are delighted to confirm that Edwin Cadenhead will become our new treasurer as soon as a steady handover with Don is completed. Our sincere thanks to Don who has been a worthy Treasurer for many years.
Investment in Facilities
Some members may know that prior to the pandemic the club received a substantial amount of so-called ‘covenant money’ (approx. £230,000 after tax) related to a new development adjacent to the club.
The club commissioned an independent consultant Fusionland to hear from the three sections (cricket, tennis and squash) about their ambitions for improving club facilities and come up with outline plans. The resultant report offered many sensible options and long-term aspirations, however with cost estimates of over £3m it is currently prohibitive.
Subsequently the three sections have been exploring their most urgent needs.
For squash the most obvious need is fixing the roof. In addition, with our increasing participation rates (and associated squeeze on court availability) we would love to increase the number of courts available for our members. As any such development might make a quick-fix to the roof redundant the Squash section are currently looking into the viability of building more courts as matter of urgency.
At the moment we are actively researching costs, making planning enquiries and seeking the assistance of a squash consultant and other clubs who have recently carried out similar projects. We will keep the membership abreast when there’s more to report.
Regarding the other sections, tennis are relaying their courts (which have a lifespan of around 10 years and were older than that) using a portion of the covenant money (£65k) as agreed by the club management committee. They are also advancing plans for a fourth court to cope with their own rising rates of participation.
The most pressing issue for cricket is drainage which has long been a complicated issue with multiple stakeholders (as the problem stretches far beyond the boundaries of our club) and no simple solution. However there is some hope. The club is actively working with The National Flood Forum alongside other interested parties on a solution, with a suggestion to build a soak-away within the club’s boundary at an agreed location. We are currently awaiting a decision on funding.
Junior Programme
Perhaps the most gratifying aspect of our recent boom in participation has been the thriving junior section. There are currently 56 youth players enjoying at least one weekly coaching session. And these numbers have been sustained for a while now – we’ve had over fifty junior in the programme for seven half-terms running.
Many juniors have been consistently playing and improving over the two and a half years Trevor has been at the club. The leading 6 juniors train together on Tuesdays, have all gained experience in the internal adult league, and 4 have so far have gone on to represent our adult teams over the past 12 months.
Across the programme five of our players are currently in Essex Development squads with one progressing to the full county U16 squad.
The aim of the programme is to create adult players who enjoy playing squash with as high a playing standard as possible – and the signs are the programme is meeting that aim.
Leagues and Ladders
The leagues and ladders have been the driving force behind the recent upsurge in participation.
The Main League has 15 divisions of 6, totalling 90 players and including 7 teens. There are 3 more divisions containing 20 junior players. We had a record 101 players play at least 1 match in the Jan/Feb league.
The Lunchtime league started in January 2024 with 13 players and now has 30 players, boosting off-peak court use. Whilst the newly formed Team League is open to the 23 players who played a team game in the Winter 23/24 season.
The main Ladder has 138 players in the whatsapp group and has 70-75 actively playing in any given month. Racketball and Youth ladders are more volatile with numbers and can reduce down to 3 players or expand quickly to 20 players. But Racketball retains a healthy number of players largely playing in private groups.
Thanks to Trevor the leagues have also driven a very large take-up of Squash Levels, the global squash ranking system that allows players at all levels to track their progress. The club now has far more players involved (122) than neighbouring clubs Woodford Wells (33), Connaught (19) and Redbridge.
Team Squash
Congratulations to our Women’s team, captained by Lucy Pope, won the Essex team league in summer 2023. Unfortunately there have not been any Essex League games over the winter, but our strongest female players have subsequently found a team in the Middlesex Women’s League to play for.
Our two Men’s Teams competing in Essex Div 1 West have not been quite as successful – but have enjoyed some great individual wins. In the most recent Winter 23/24 season Walthamstow Blue (captained by Luke McLaughlin) finished 5th and Walthamstow Red (captain by Stephen Turnbull) finished 6th. Walthamstow Blues also won both derbys to retain the highly coveted Purple Trophy. Again.
The club will also be entering a Racketball team in the Essex Team open.
Coaching team
The club is currently in the healthy position of having 7 active coaches. Head Coach Trevor Grinsted (a Level 3 coach), Level 2 coaches Gail Farrow, Luke McLaughlin, Sagheer ‘Shaze’ Shahzad and Deniz Bozdemir plus our newest Level 1 coach, Rhys Evans, a graduate of our youth programme.
We hope other youth graduate will follow in Rhys’ footsteps.
Trevor, Gail, Deniz, Luke and Shahzad are all available to coach one-on-one sessions to any member. In addition Vicky Ashworth is available for cover and will coach the odd one to one session.
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