News & Events
County Success for Henley Squash Juniors
Players from the Henley Junior Squash Club featured prominently in the recent Berkshire and Oxfordshire County Championships, gaining one county title and three second places and three third places.
The Berkshire County Championship was held at the Windsor Squash Club and four Henley juniors competed; James Dunning, Miles Edwards, Beth Ireland and Jake Ireland.
See full report here
Handicap Tournament 2015
This year’s Handicap Tournament was run on Saturday 17th October.
Jonathan Betts was the eventual winner – pictured here receiving his prize from squash legend Ross Norman.
Full report coming soon.
Prizes were kindly donated by club sponsor Aktuel Translations. ‘As ever, we’re keen to support Henley sports clubs wherever we can and Henley Squash Club is no exception. Ross Norman is a great ambassador for the game and we are proud to have him come along. For me, he embodies the idea of never giving up – having met and lost to Jahangir Khan on 30 occasions, he dug deep and won the world title, when it counted, on their 31st meeting at the World Championships final in 1986, ’ says Aktuel Translations founder, Robin Bennett.
New Team Shirts
Winters Squash starts in September with all teams wearing the new team T-shirts!
Our two main sponsors, Aktuel Translations and Invesco Perpetual, are shown prominently on the front and back of the shirts – with our other sponsors, Growth Creation, TMS2 and Comtest Wireless also on display.
Apologies for the model in the pictures – he is not as young as he used to be!
All team players will receive one T-shirt free (qualification: must have played for the teams 3 times) with additional shirts available for £30. Non-team members of the club are more than welcome to purchase shirts as well – place your orders with Duncan Nightingale. Sizes available: XL, L, M, S.
Henley Juniors Excel
This weekend Thame Squash Club hosted a four way tournament between the local Oxfordshire Junior Squash teams of Abingdon, Henley, Oxford and Thame. Each team had 5 players and the Henley team was represented by (from left to right in the photo) Tom Lynskey, Luca Babb, Miles Edwards, Art Lawton and Jack Lynskey. The Invesco Perpetual sponsored team started the tournament strongly with a 4-1 victory over Thame, only losing 4 games. In the second match Henley again won 4-1 over Abingdon and managed to drop only 2 games. This left an exciting finale against Oxford and the Henley boys played exceptionally well as a team and ran out winners 5-0 without dropping a single game. At the end of the tournament Henley Juniors were crowned champions ahead of the host team as runners up.
The event was extremely well organised and run by Will John, a former professional world ranking squash player, at the Racquets Fitness Centre and we hope to organise further fixtures with our local rivals again soon. Henley Junior Squash Club is based at Henley Leisure Centre on Gillotts Lane and welcomes all new members with a range of activities and events throughout the year.
FREE Squash taster sessions
The club is hosting a series of taster sessions on Wednesday 8th April at the Henley Leisure Centre throughout the day and evening – in order to provide potential new junior and adult players with the opportunity to try the game, and for existing ‘beginners’ to develop new skills.
This will be a fun environment for those with no or limited squash experience. Separate sessions will be held for adults and juniors. Expert tuition will be provided throughout the day by various qualified coaches including Ross Gore, who is also an Oxfordshire County Coach.
Due to the generous support from Invesco Perpetual’s Community Support programme, the taster sessions will be FREE! Squash rackets can be provided by the club. For further details and to reserve a place, please contact Ross (titansquash@gmail.com, 07966 105754).
Members of the Henley Squash Club at an Adults and Juniors Fun Tournament
Sponsor for Club Championship
Henley Squash Club’s annual Club Championship will be played over several months in ‘F.A. Cup’ –style!
Building on an initiative from the last competition, the early rounds will feature beginners and players from the lower divisions of the Club League. Those that win through will face stronger players who join in subsequent rounds. The draw for each round will be made after the previous one is complete, culminating in a final near the end of the year.
“Although the final rounds should still be between the best players in the club, this format will give plenty of scope for giant-killing upsets” said tournament organiser and 1st Team Captain, Simon Street.
The competition will be known as the ‘Aktuel Championship Cup’ with new club co-sponsor, Aktuel Translations, providing financial backing.
“We are proud and pleased to be supporting one of Henley’s most vibrant sporting clubs – not just with the Aktuel Championship Cup, but also a special charity event later in the year” said Aktuel founder, Robin Bennett.
Henley Squash Club has strengthened its sponsorship position for 2015. As well as Aktuel and long-term sponsor Invesco Perpetual, a number of other Henley-based companies have provide further sponsorship: Comtest Wireless, Growth Creation, and TMS2.
“The new club team strips will look pretty impressive with all the new logos” said Club Chairman, Duncan Nightingale. “We will now be supporting two teams in the Berkshire League, four teams in the Oxfordshire League – and with plans for a Ladies team as well, they will be getting plenty of exposure”.
The fund-raising initiative for 2015 has not yet closed, so any more Henley-based companies who wish to be part of the Henley Squash Club ‘story’ should contact Duncan at www.henleysquash.co.uk
Club Chairman Duncan Nightingale and Aktuel founder Robin Bennett with the Aktuel Championship Cup
Handicap Tournament 2014
Henley Squash Club held its annual Handicap Tournament on Saturday 29th November. Once again, we had a good mix of adults and juniors taking part. With a little tweaking of the handicap system this year (to give the adults a chance), the group stages saw plenty of close games. The finalists from the group stage were : Jonathan Betts, Charlie Homewood, Art Lawton and Hilary Lunn.
The first semi-final saw Jonathan play Charlie in what was probably the game of the tournament. Both players were hitting the ball hard and covering the court really well, the first game saw some long rallies, but Jonathan eventually won 12-10. Jonathan then won the second to reach the final.
In the second semi -final, Hilary Lunn took on Art Lawton. Both juniors played really well but Art eventually prevailed to meet Jonathan in the final.
Jonathan had the highest handicap and started each game on -9. In the end, this handicap proved just too much and Art won the final 2-1.
Thanks to all who took part and especially to Jane Gray for providing the mince pies and other refreshments.
3rd Team are Champs
The final matches of the Oxfordshire Summer League were played on Thursday 31st July.
Henley’s 3rd Team finished top of Division 5 and win promotion for next year’s Summer League!
Players in picture are (left to right):
Roger Betts, Paul Ireland, Jake Ireland, Simon Stone, Charlie Homewood.
The following players contributed to the 3rd team’s success during the season:
Paul Ireland (10 appearances and team captain)
Charlie Homewood (9 appearances)
Roger Betts (8)
Richard Little (6)
Simon Stone (5)
Alan Smallman (4)
Jake Ireland (4)
Matt Blagg (4)
Duncan Nightingale (3)
Roger Booker (3)
Carl Ramsey (1)
Fiona Dixon (1)
James Little (1)
Mike Lynskey (1)
The 2nd team fared less well. They suffered a ‘hangover effect’ from the last Summer season when, fielding several guest players, they played in the heady heights of Division 1 and even had a win against the 1st team! This year, playing in Division 2 and desperately short of players, they finished well bottom and will play a division lower next Summer.
The 1st team lost skipper Simon Street to a nasty tendon injury early in the season and were short of players for several matches. So finishing 4th (and narrowly missing 3rd place) in Oxfordshire’s elite division was a very creditable performance in the circumstances.
The final League Tables for the Summer 2014 season can be seen here.
The Winter season kicks off in September. Henley will field 4 teams in the Oxfordshire League and 2 teams in the Berkshire Veterans League (over 45s). Anyone interested in playing for the teams should contact Simon Street.
Christmas 2013 Opening Times
There are plenty of opportunities for Squash League players to finish their December matches over the Christmas period! And for all members, why not burn off that Christmas Day excess before the New Year celebrations start! Here are the Leisure Centre Opening Times (normal times for any days not shown below):
Friday 20th : CLOSED
Tuesday 24th : 6.30 – 16.00
Wednesday 25th : CLOSED
Thursday 26th : CLOSED
Friday 27th : 6.30 – 20.00
Saturday 28th : 8.00 – 20.00
Sunday 29th : 8.00 – 20.00
Monday 30th : CLOSED
Tuesday 31st : 6.30 – 16.00
Wednesday 1st : CLOSED
Thursday 2nd : 6.30 – 22.30 (normal opening times)
Also, remember that team squash has finished for the season, so Tuesday and Thursday evenings have FREE COURTS for the rest of December and until the new season starts in early January. The full schedule of free courts is here.
2013 Club Handicap Tournament
Henley Squash held its Squash Handicap tournament on 30th November. Eighteen players took part and it was great to see such a wide mix of ages and abilities playing, from first team players to juniors still playing in the junior leagues. A handicap system was devised that meant some players had to always hit the ball to the back of the court and also play the ball above the cut. Players were divided into four groups and the top two from each group progressed to the quarter finals. The first game was between Simon Street and Jake Ireland. The adults amongst us knew we were in trouble when Simon lost 21 / -2.
After many good games, the quarter finalists were : Jake Ireland, Mike Lynsky, Duncan Nightingale, Mike Hornsby, Paul Ireland, Adam Garrod, Beth Ireland and Max Djemil.
The adults fell by the wayside and we were left with a final between Max Djemil and Beth Ireland. After a close run game, Beth was the eventual winner. Well done Beth.
We hope to make this tournament an annual event which gives us time to fine tune the handicap system!
« Previous Page — Next Page »