Fife Squash Club

[David Williams]

I have mentioned now on a few occasions the idea of starting a new, official squash club which would be centred around the St Andrews area. The main idea is to get some sort of proper club structure in place, SSRA affiliated, which would work towards having sufficient qualified members to be able to work with local schools and develop the sport in the area.

I'm thinking mainly Madras as the catchment area is so huge, but there's actually no reason we couldn't reach further south provided we don't encroach on another club's player pool - I'm thinking of Lundin Links here who I know are already struggling. We have no intention of poaching.

Possible benefits for members which have been suggested thus far include:

• A large scale individual box-league, hopefully hosted online (similar to ResultsZone but for individual players)
• Closed individual events for members only
• Regular training/coaching sessions once established
• Access to marking courses to improve overall level of marking
• Eligible to enter SSRA events such as masters, junior events for any junior players
• Personal accident, civil liability and travel insurance through SSRA
• Possibly enter a team into the Fife league?

My hope would be that annual membership would cost £10-£15, possibly dependent on membership 'type' e.g. whether they want to be registered as 'competitive' or not.

Members would probably need to accept that not every penny of their membership would come back to them - some would be invested in promotion of the sport. But the more cost-effective benefits we can have to provide a better playing experience, the better.

Other ideas/comments would be welcome.

[David Williams]

I have been having a play with this website: www.in-zone.co.uk/LeagueZone.htm

It seems to be working (I just plucked the first 6 names which came to mind)

View League Tables

It's free, so if people would be interested then it's something we could consider. Of course I'm not suggesting this be instead of people's existing box leagues, and maybe some players already have enough matches and wouldn't want to play in both. I certainly wouldn't want to detract from local leagues in any way.

Thoughts?

[gordonlogan]

My additional understanding from the meetings attended, there is the availability of funds/money to maintain & improve our facilities through 'hubs'.
For me this has a double benefit at Waterstone Crook, where we will reduce the Council money being spent on maintenance, insurance etc for squash, plus the obvious, of better playing conditions.

I like the idea of a virtual club where all clubs can join in NFife......and to confirm I believe we are known as North East Fife NEF teams 1 & 2.

We are meeting up this evening as team2 and see if anybody has some strong issues/feelings.

[David Williams]

I don't know much about how all that operates. My suspicion is that it would be a long way off because there is no sports hub in our area, so far as I can tell. But I'm pretty certain that if there are no sufficiently active and organized clubs, then there never will be.

We need to take this one step at a time and not get our hopes too high. I think it's worth bearing in mind that long term the club would need to be organized in such a way that it could become part of any potential sports hub in the area though.

I will get in touch with SportScotland and/or the East Fife Sports council and ask for advice.

[David Williams]

Draft constitution from Sport Scotland:

www.sportscotland.org.uk/Documents/Resources/clubconstitutionguide.pdf

[David Williams]

I have also had an offer of a 4 month free trial on this website: www.clubcourts.co.uk

I'm not sure if this is public or not but he has set up a demo here: www.clubcourts.co.uk/Club/MyDashboard.aspx

It's not free but does look a bit more functional with stats etc.

[gordonlogan]

Further to the comments yesterday, I had a brief discussion with the 2nd team at NEF last night.
There was a postive response from all of the 6 members present to the ideas mentioned, as you listed above, for short term and longer term aims.
Also, there did not appear to be a problem for name of a league and who joins, distance was only questioned if it went outside of Leuchars and St Andrews.
But anything which can reduce the costs to the Council for squash support would seem very positive as they decide what the outcome is of Waterstone Crook beyond 2015!
All in all I believe the enthusiasm was good to play different people beyond the team nights, and have a positive future with the inclusion of SSRA benefits.
An idea was proposed to run with it for a year or so and see who is interested and look at the the outcome.

[David Williams]

That's good to hear - thanks Gordon.

I think you are probably right that people wouldn't want to travel further than St Andrews - Tayport distance. Cupar is a possibility I would hope, if there are still players there this might be an opportunity for them to get involved again.

In terms of naming the club, I initially went for East Fife, thinking there aren't any courts (that I am aware of) directly south of St Andrews. The only other courts East of Cupar are Lundin Links so we would probably want to get in touch with them to check they are OK with us adopting the name despite most of us probably not wanting to play on their courts. Or we could call it North East Fife, or North Fife (I don't see any other courts North of Cupar?)

Of course matches don't need to be played at either player's home courts - it would be up to the players to agree a venue acceptable to both. So people could perhaps join from further afield provided they either don't enter leagues, or are prepared to meet in the middle and play at East Sands/Cupar?

[David Williams]

Things may have seemed quiet lately, but I have not forgotten about this - now my exams are out of the way and the season is under way I am starting to talk to more people about it, and so far feedback has been very positive.

Over the next few weeks I hope to have chance to discuss with St Andrews and T&G as those would be the other main player pools we would hope to bring on side. Once we have established enough interest we can look at getting together to customize the draft constitution.

[David Williams]

This was put on the backburner but after discussing it with some of the North Fife players, and also at a meeting with Norman McGlinchey and Jennifer McArtney last night, I feel now is the time to get things moving again.

I think this website would be very useful in getting something up & running:

www.playcaddy.com/

It offers free online leagues, knockouts, events schedules etc. Seems ideal for our purposes.

I will be contacting people over the next week or so with a view to gathering enough committed players to start thinking about an inaugural meeting. If anyone has any interest in helping please let me know.