Introduction

Welcome to the, almost, annual Newsletter for Autumn 2009. Where has the time gone?  I am pleased to say that the club is still running well with a good core group who have been with the club for many years.

Finance and Membership

The club is still in the black, just, as we have had a number of members leave with fees outstanding!  However, this has been partially balanced by a number of new members.  This is part of the reason to keep a joining fee for new starters. Stevenage Leisure have not raised their fees this year, which makes a nice change with just about everything else seeming to cost more this year. We currently have 22 active members, but we do have room for around 26, so please look out for any keen squash players who would like to join us and let me know or get them to contact me.  We are particularly interested in good players to keep the league standards up.

However, I still spend a lot of time chasing for people to pay their court fees. Could you all please try to pay me on time and not let the amount owed build up.  The dates when fees are due is shown on the court bookings sheet each week.  I know it is difficult to catch me sometimes if we are playing at different times, but you can always leave the money with someone who will pay me when I arrive, or simply set up a direct debit (please see me for details if you are interested).

Court Bookings

I have just submitted the Winter block booking request and have requested 10 courts (one court of the courts we use is paid for by another club, two of whose members play in our leagues).  To add or remove courts I need to give 4wks notice, hence the club policy of insisting that everyone pays a fixed amount every 4wks whether they have holidays or not.

I know it is difficult sometimes, but please contact me as soon as possible if you will be unable to attend on a particular week.  I can then either not plan your attendance or phone others to arrange cover, as it is important that everyone gets a game each week.

Recently I have been really struggling to get the results of peoples matches.  Lack of results being reported to me often delays the start of a new league session.  It is just as important to report that the planned game did not take place for whatever reason so that I can rearrange the game. 

Please check the league results each week and let me know of any errors. Notify me by email, text or now online (see below).

Online

As you will have noticed, I have changed the website again from Google Page Creator to Google Sites, this is because Google Page Creator was discontinued.  I tried to keep the format the same, so you shouldn’t have had any problems with the transition, especially as Google set up re-directions as well.

You can still leave result information directly on the website (see the Leagues web page, at the bottom), so please use it to keep the results up to date.

Additionally, I have made available on the web (to invitees only) access to the contact details of the club members.  Once you have access you can keep your contact details up to date yourself.  If you would like access to the contact details please email me.

Future

As in previous years I will be holding a handicap knockout competition, starting the first week in November (the week after half term), with a presentation of prizes at the Xmas bash. 

Again I am looking for a volunteer to organise this years Xmas bash, so please let me know if you are prepared to help out.  For the last few years this was organised by Andy White, who did a great job of sorting out venues, dates etc, but unfortunately Andy is no longer with the club, although I have heard rumours he may make a cameo appearance at the Xmas bash.

Also, as the latest official rules now follow the American style of scoring, I thought I see what people thought about changing to this method of scoring when playing our league matches.  I have therefore started a poll to see if people want to change.  Please vote before the handicap knockout as we can start the new method after the handicap knockout.

Many thanks to you all for helping to keep this club running and for patience when I ‘lose the plot’ and muck up the league bookings.  Hopefully this is not too frequent to spoil the aim of the club, which is for everyone to get a squash game each week.

Regards

Trevor

Club Treasurer and Organiser