Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Opening up the court
SQUASH CLUB LAUNCH SESSIONS TO ATTRACT MORE YOUNGSTERS INTO THE SPORT
Canterbury Squash Club have launched an initiative aimed at encouraging more youngsters to take up the sport.
The club, based in Giles Lane, are keen to build up their junior membership and have started running sessions on Saturday mornings from 9am to noon. The sessions cater for children of all ages and abilities from six upwards, and those who want to push on will have the opportunity to be coached to reach their highest potential. Canterbury’s aim is primarily just to get more children playing squash but long-term goals include producing an England junior international within the next 10 years, as well as a top 10 ranked UK adult player. Nicola Smith, the club’s junior welfare officer, explained: “We’re really keen to give as many children as possible the chance to try squash. “Parents bringing their kids (to play at the club) is absolutely brilliant, but we want to make sure all the kids know about squash, and about the club, and give it a try.
“It’s a great game and can be played all year round. “It’s not like outdoor sports where parents often have to sit around in the rain watching, there’s a comfortable lounge where they can have a tea or coffee while their child plays.” Canterbury are running the scheme with support from local coach Tom May and Brian Hollands, who is junior squash development officer for south east Kent.
The latter has plans to run introductory sessions at a number of local primary schools and has already started at Blean where the response has been encouraging. Canterbury hope to get some referrals from that but are just as happy if children just want to turn up on the day.
The weekly sessions cost £5 an hour and will run during term time, with beginners at 9am, intermediates at 10am and higher ability children at 11am. The club will provide rackets and goggles, children just need to wear non-marking trainers. All sessions will be supervised by England Squash qualified coaches.
Club officer Smith added: “We’ve got a good core of strong junior county players who are in their late teens but we feel it would be nice to have a few younger ones as well. “The future of the club has got to be with the juniors, we’ve got a reasonable membership of around 20, but ideally we’d like to see that up to 100.” Further details about the weekly sessions can be obtained from Brian Hollands by emailing him at brianatfolkestonesportscentre. co.uk or by phoning him on 07963 326697.