On Wednesday 13 November, Dave Neller (Chairman of Essex SRA) attended the England Squash council meeting & AGM. Below are the following summary of the meeting.
- ES rolling out some new or upgraded initiatives:
- Role of honour of players representing England over the years.
- Upgrading Squash Finder (will need County help).
- Refreshing website content ( welcome ideas etc)
- Current Squash insurance with membership is raised from 5 – 75 to 5 – 85 years old
- Lots of discussion on what balls to use, agreed ES should advise not mandate, but the advice should be in terms of getting the best result from the experience.
- Optasia initiative involving elite players, talk about clubs being invited to host.
- Coaching – cost and value discussed, some concern that coaches fade away after the investment, and that leisure centres do not value the coach or help with the costs of courts etc.
- Membership – currently 30 of the 35 counties have mandated membership for their leagues. Around 7500 players have signed up to the new membership scheme, it is expected to grow to about 18,000 by Jan/Feb time
- Suggestion that ES and WSF are looking at an event to replace the Commonwealth games as squash has been dropped from next event (together with a number of other sports).
- Olympics – awaiting details, selection criteria and funding, will be 2x men and 2x women competitors per country.
- ES expect same level of funding from Sport England to 2025 extended into 2027.
If you want further detail of meeting discussions and papers, please view the links below:
