Saturday Junior Coaching 28th February 2009

This Saturday we will be running three coaching sessions. The first session is from 9.00 to 10.00 for beginners and the second is from 10.30 to 11.30 for more advanced players. And the final advanced session is from 11.30 to 1.00pm.

Remember that eye-protection must be worn for all junior sessions.

9.00 - 10.00 session. Coaches: Steve Swanton, Ashok Babbar, and Ray Scrivens
10.30 - 11.30 session. Coaches: Mike Macnamee, Ashok Babbar, and Ray Scrivens
11.30 - 13.00 session. Coaches: Martyn Symmons and Mike Macnamee

Saturday Junior Coaching 21st February

This Saturday we will be running three coaching sessions. The first session is from 9.00 to 10.00 for beginners and the second is from 10.30 to 11.30 for more advanced players. And the final advanced session is from 11.30 to 1.00pm.

Remember that eye-protection must be worn for all junior sessions.

9.00 - 10.00 session. Coaches: Ollie Thorne and Ray Scrivens
10.30 - 11.30 session. Coaches: Martyn Symmons, Ollie Thorne, and Nick Dickens
11.30 - 13.00 session. Coaches: Martyn Symmons and Ben Stutchbury

Who is the Laziest Coach?

At the advanced session on Saturday all our juniors stepped up to see who were the laziest coaches. This was a mini-competition between two teams each of which had a chance to be the lazy coach for 10 points.

What is a 'lazy coach'? Well it is a player who gets to stand in one of the back quarters of the court and insist that all their shots are returned back to them by their opponent - or maybe 'victim' is a better word.

After 5 points with them forehand and then 5 on the backhand, there is a role reversal and the victim get to have their own back for a similar 10 points.

Each player's score is the total points they won either as lazy coach or as victim.

Here are the final results
Team A vs Team B
Chris 13 Tom 13
Guy 12 Jack 13
Charlie 14 Nick 14
Will 20 w/o Conrad
Sam B 13 Sam Pr 14
Peter 10 Ollie 14
Beth 8 Dan 16
Amy 12 Anna 16
Jaime 11 Ben 18
Totals: 113 to 118

So Team A are the lazy coaches for this term!

Watch your feet!

So no-one cares about foot-faults do they? In case you didn't know, the rules about serving clearly say that you have to have one foot in the box when you hit the ball for the serve.

And just to be clear the line is out as in all things squashy - that means that you can't use the line as a way of sliding out of the box - if your foot is even clipping the line then it is a fault - plain and simple.

The other thing is that the foot in the box has to be on the floor. If you jump up to serve then make sure you leave one foot on the floor.

So what is the deal? Well I suppose you can argue that it is not very important - but to be fair it can be an attempt to gain an unfair advantage. Say by getting a better angle - getting closer to the front wall - or blocking the centre of the court. And a foot-fault is a fault just like any other - either you play by the rules or else you are not playing squash.....

So if you play someone who does this then just appeal to the referee - Rule 8 says first off that if it is clearly an invalid serve then you get the point.

And even if you have played a rally on it you can still appeal. Also you are not the ref so there is no requirement that you have to be consistent on this. If you see a foot fault then you can still play the rally and if you lose then appeal - a fair ref will then give you a let if they own up to not watching.

It may seem small minded to be so anal about this - but on the other hand isn't it such a small thing to ask of the server - really?

Here is the rule on appeals in full (my italics added):

11.1.2 If, after the service, there is no call, the receiver may appeal, either immediately or at the end of the rally. The Referee, if certain that the service was not good, shall, without waiting for an appeal, stop play and award a stroke to the opponent. In response to an appeal the Referee shall: (11.1.2.1) if certain the service was good, award a stroke to the server;(11.1.2.2) if uncertain, allow a let.

Saturday Junior Coaching 14th February

This Saturday we will be running three coaching sessions. The first session is from 9.00 to 10.00 for beginners and the second is from 10.30 to 11.30 for more advanced players. And the final advanced session is from 11.30 to 1.00pm.

Remember that eye-protection must be worn for all junior sessions.

9.00 - 10.00 session. Coaches: Ray Scrivens and Keith Maloney
10.30 - 11.30 session. Coaches: Mike Macnamee, Andy Thorne, and Ray Scrivens
11.30 - 13.00 session. Coaches: Martyn Symmons and Mike Macnamee

New County Ladder Comberton highlights

So there is a new County Ladder published this week in the run up to the County End-of-Season Tournament in March. Comberton make a good contribution to the boys ladder - with 27 players in the top 100. We have been strengthened at the top of the ladder with Rob Dadds being list in the U-17 for Comberton this season. But we have also taken a hit from wild-card Harry Taylor who actually plays for Norfolk but makes a guest appearance in our ladder from his outings for the Leys junior team. Harry has pushed Comberton's county champion Tom Symmons into second place in the U-15 listing. However even with that we currently have 6 out of the top 20 in the county playing at Comberton.

But maybe our best showing is ladder places in the 20s and 30s - the players there: Will Harris, Jonny Brown, Sam Bradshaw, Alan Leung, Jack Murphy are not likely to hang around long before pushing into the top twenty.

More of a problem for us is that our best girls have not appeared at all in the new girls ladder! Maybe some ladder challenges are in order.

Saturday Junior Coaching 7th February

This Saturday we will be running three coaching sessions. The first session is from 9.00 to 10.00 for beginners and the second is from 10.30 to 11.30 for more advanced players. And the final advanced session is from 11.30 to 1.00pm.

Remember that eye-protection must be worn for all junior sessions.

9.00 - 10.00 session. Coaches: Ray Scrivens and Ollie Thorne
10.30 - 11.30 session. Coaches: Ray Scrivens, Martyn Symmons, and Nick Dixon
11.30 - 13.00 session. Coaches: Martyn Symmons and Mike Macnamee

Plucky performances all round from Comberton’s Junior 4th team

It’s not often a team manager can be pleased with a result that sees all his players lose their matches, but the attitude of our 4th Team at their Division 3 Cambridgeshire Junior League fixture last Sunday did them all credit.

Our no. 1, Will Thorne, hadn’t played in the County Leagues for a couple of years, and our other two players, Will McArdle and Glyn Lewis, were newcomers to the League. We started off playing the strongest team in the division, St Ivo. Glyn came close in the first two games, but the stronger serving of his opponent eventually wore him down in the third. Will McArdle had the toughest job, playing a St Ivo player who wouldn’t have been out of place playing in the division above, but despite always trailing in the match he never gave up on the rallies. Will Thorne likewise had experienced opposition to contend with, but ran the St Ivo player close in the third game. Overall, despite our efforts, we were unable to salvage a point, with St Ivo winning 12-0 including three bonus points.

Against our hosts, Hunts County, Glyn scored more consistently, accumulating a respectable tally of points in each game, while Will McArdle did very well to take a game off Callum Valler and only just lost the fourth. Will Thorne concluded our afternoon with an epic battle which included three games which went beyond the normal distance, but was just edged out 3-2 in the end. Overall score: Hunts County – 12, Comberton – 3.

Despite the overall results all our players enjoyed their afternoon’s squash, all gained valuable experience, and all played with great determination not to give up. Well done all three of you!


Ray Scrivens
4 February 2009