What's happening to our Courts?

Junior members know that we had to finish the sessions early this term because of work on the courts.

What you may not know is that the work is much more than the usual annual summer clean-up, fixing, and painting.

This year we have decided to completely replace the floors of Court 1 and Court 2.

You probably don't realize how complicated the floors are. To save on shocks to the players' feet and legs it is actually more like the deck of a ship. There is spring and give built in by holding the floor boards above the ground on carefully spaced supports.

Each of the new floors will be costing us over £3000.

We will also be spending at least another £3000 on mending and painting the walls. This will also sort out the joins around the doors.

At the end we will have three great looking courts. We all need to work at keeping them looking and playing nice.

That means making sure none of us makes marks on the floors or walls.

So please make sure you and any of your friends do not play in shoes that leave marks or bring dirt onto the court.

Likewise make sure there is nothing on the edge of your racquet that leaves marks on the wall. And be careful not to leave an obvious mark if you need to check that!

We are all proud of our Club - the corridors and changing rooms may not look top quality, but our courts are just as good as any in Cambridgeshire. Let's all make sure they stay that way.

What's happening to our Courts?

Junior members know that we had to finish the sessions early this term because of work on the courts.

What you may not know is that the work is much more than the usual annual summer clean-up, fixing, and painting.

This year we have decided to completely replace the floors of Court 1 and Court 2.

You probably don't realize how complicated the floors are. To save on shocks to the players' feet and legs it is actually more like the deck of a ship. There is spring and give built in by holding the floor boards above the ground on carefully spaced supports.

Each of the new floors will be costing us over £3000.

We will also be spending at least another £3000 on mending and painting the walls. This will also sort out the joins around the doors.

At the end we will have three great looking courts. We all need to work at keeping them looking and playing nice.

That means making sure none of us makes marks on the floors or walls.

So please make sure you and any of your friends do not play in shoes that leave marks or bring dirt onto the court.

Likewise make sure there is nothing on the edge of your racquet that leaves marks on the wall. And be careful not to leave an obvious mark if you need to check that!

We are all proud of our Club - the corridors and changing rooms may not look top quality, but our courts are just as good as any in Cambridgeshire. Let's all make sure they stay that way.

JS4 on Tour

With our own Club courts currently out of action for repairs, the JS4 session went on the road to Colchester this Saturday.

A group of six juniors from our elite JS4 coaching group met up with players from Chris Vine's North Essex Squash Academy (NESA).

They had a day of coaching and friendly games at the University of Colchester squash courts.

Chris is a level IV professional coach and talked to our players about bringing variation into the way they play each game - particularly when serving.

Ideas included:

Varying the pace of the serve.

Varying the target that you are aiming for, for example short from a harder service or trying the 'straight at em' line.

Varying the angle by playing a backhand service from the right box.

Even changing your usual choice to pick the left box to serve from when you come in to be 'hand in'.

After lunch in a series of quick-fire round-robin games, all our players played all the NESA juniors. Finally even Chris Vine took to the court to play some of our older players - narrowly losing to Jack Murphy & Tom Symmons.

It was a great day when we all learned something. And a great end to the season for our JS4 squad.

Under 13 Champion 2011: Owen Mellors-Bourne

The Club’s annual Under-13 Tournament was held on Sunday 10 July, with eight contenders taking part in a Grand Prix to decide this year’s Champion.

The competitors were divided into two box leagues, and after all the round-robin matches had been played Owen Mellors-Bourne emerged as winner of Box 1, with Joe Hicks runner-up, while Adam Peer narrowly edged pole position in Box 2 over Harry Harland-Mears. In the semi-finals Owen won a close match against Harry and Adam proved too strong for Joe.

Meanwhile the 5/6 playoff saw Charlie Brock victorious in a close encounter with Dan Chaplin, and Alex Morrow won a tight match versus Orlando Hodgson.

The tournament concluded with Harry securing third place in his playoff against Joe and Owen winning an exciting best-of-three final 2-1 against Adam.

Many thanks to all who took part and performed so well, congratulations to Owen on winning the title, and a particular word of praise to our two volunteer markers, Nick White and Will Thorne!

Comberton U13 Grand Prix this Sunday

This year the Club U13 tournament will be a special new Grand Prix event on Sunday 10th July.

Games will start at 2.00pm with qualifying league matches for all competitors. This means you will get to play plenty of games.

Players must be members of Comberton Village College Squash Club and Under-13 on 22nd May 2011 - so that means born after 22nd May 1998*.


You can register with Ray Scrivens (rs10002@cam.ac.uk). Or just turn up on the day.

*This is the date of the other club finals which is why we chose it.

Saturday Junior Coaching (9th July)

This Saturday will be our last of this season as the courts are being closed next weekend for replacement of floors and maintenance.

This week we will again combine JS3 and JS4 with Mike and Martyn running the joint session. Next week JS4 are going on tour to Colchester for coaching from Chris Vine who is a Level IV coach.

This Saturday the first session is for mini-squash players and will be from 9.00 to 10.00.

The JS1 session is for beginner level squash and will be from 10.00 to 11.15.

The JS2 session is intermediate and is from 11.15 to 12.30.

The combined JS3/JS4 session is from 12.30 noon to 1.45pm and is for more advanced players.

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

Coaches

9 am - 10 am mini-squash session. Coaches: Ashok Babbar, Janet Banks, and Julie Miller.

10 am - 11.15 am JS1 session. Coaches: Keith Maloney and Ollie Thorne.

11.15 am - 12.30 pm JS2 session. Coaches: Ollie Thorne and Keith Maloney

12.30 - 1.45 pm JS3/JS4 session. Coaches: Martyn Symmons and Mike Macnamee.

Saturday Junior Coaching (2nd July)

This Saturday we have a special schedule that combines JS3 and JS4. This will let our guest coach Colin Griggs see more of our juniors.

The first session is for mini-squash players and will be from 9.00 to 10.00.

The JS1 session is for beginner level squash and will be from 10.00 to 11.15.

The JS2 session is intermediate and is from 11.15 to 12.30.

The combined JS3/JS4 session is from 12.30 noon to 1.45pm and is for more advanced players. This week we will have a special session with Level III guest coach Colin Griggs.

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

Coaches

9 am - 10 am mini-squash session. Coaches: Ashok Babbar, Janet Banks, and Julie Miller.

10 am - 11.15 am JS1 session. Coaches: Ray Scrivens and Andy Thorne.

11.15 am - 12.30 pm JS2 session. Coaches: Chris Shaw and Mike Macnamee

12.30 - 1.45 pm JS3/JS4 session. Guest coach: Colin Griggs.