England Squash Masters

Malcolm Willstrop - Rest in Peace

Very sad news, that the legendary Squash Coach Malcolm Willstrop passed away on Monday.

There have been a host of much-deserved tributes from the greats of the game as well as family and friends. He was responsible for many players realising their potentials, from club players to World number ones. Seeing the courts full of players of various standards and Malcolm controlling it all from the balcony was a sight to behold.

From England Squash Masters we would all like to send our condolences to all Malcolm’s family and friends. He was a fixture at Pontefract Squash Club and always supportive of our Regional events there and made the presentations more than once. A larger than life character who lived for Squash and gave a tremendous amount to our game.

Thank you, Malcolm. Rest In Peace

Stuart Hardy

Chairman

Squash In The COVID-19 Crisis - Return To Play Update

Hi Folks

As you are all aware we are getting closer to playing our fabulous game. Please read the following statement from England Squash, this will allow an understanding of what is, and what is not permitted.

As England moves to Step 2 of the COVID Spring Recovery plan, squash makes it long-awaited return this Monday 12 April and we can’t wait to see clubs and venues reopening their doors, communities reunited and you back on court.

What can I play?

As with all indoor sports, squash clubs/venues are only allowed to reopen in Step 2 for the following activities:

• solo practice or one-to-one coaching for adults

• same household play including support bubble (as defined by Government)

• out-of-school setting (OOSS) activity

• school, college or university groups engaged in curriculum-based, coach-led/supervised activity, children who are participating in coach-led/supervised/OOSS activity or players with disabilities.

Returning to your club/venue

Clubs and venues are working hard to understand and interpret our Back to Squash guidelines to assess whether they can open safely for the above activities, based on their own circumstances.

Please be patient with your club/venue as they implement safety procedures to keep you and other players safe. Get in touch with them directly to find out if and when they will reopen, what their rules are - including booking procedures - and whether they are operating reduced opening hours.

Be mindful that your club/venue may not be able to meet the measures required to keep their staff, volunteers and members safe, and should they choose to remain closed, please respect their decision.

Play safe, stay safe

Below are some guidelines that you must follow in order to play to keep you and fellow players safe:

Let's work together

We need to work together to keep squash safe and our clubs and venues open. It's important that we all follow the latest guidance to reduce the risk of COVID-19.

When will squash return to normal?

We anticipate that squash as we know it will return to normal once lockdown restrictions are relaxed on 21 June (Step 4). To help you plan your return, we’ve created a timeline to illustrate what squash’s phased return to the full game could look like in line with the Government’s four step roadmap out of lockdown.

Got a question?

Check out the England Squash Back to Squash hub for frequently asked questions.

We look forward to seeing you back on court soon!

Keep well.

ESM Committee

Squash In The COVID-19 Crisis - 2021-2022 Provisional Calendar

As we are all aware by now, squash is due to return in the near future.

To that end, ESM have compiled a provisional calendar for tournament squash for 2021-2022 depending on current and future Government pandemic regulations and controls.

1st-3rd October 2021	- ESM Regional - North
5th-7th November 2021	- ESM Regional - Midlands
8rd-12th December 2021	- British Open Masters
14th-16th January 2022	- ESM Regional - East
9th-13th February 2022	- National Championships

The above dates and venues for all events will be confirmed once ESM have more information as to when we can all safely return to competitive squash.

Keep well and prepare for our return.

Stuart Hardy

Chairman

England Squash Masters

Squash In The COVID-19 Crisis - Update

All of us at England Squash Masters hope you are all keeping safe, well, fit and your spirits up in the these weird times.

We have been working on the proposition that we should try and prepare for events, then if the situation allows us to proceed we are ready to go. However, if we don’t prepare, nothing will happen.

As mentioned previously, we sketched in a calendar for the middle of 2021. It will, unfortunately, not come as a surprise that the Masters Home Internationals (April and May), and the European Masters due to be held in Edinburgh (June) have been postponed / cancelled.

We await further updates on status of the World Masters in Poland due to be held in August.

We can only hope that better times are coming. Keep safe and well and we hope to see you at a Squash event soon.

Stuart Hardy

Chairman

England Squash Masters

Squash In The COVID-19 Crisis

These are incredibly difficult times for everyone and especially those of us who love Squash. At England Squash Masters we have tried to keep in touch with all our partners in the game as well as the players who have given the Masters such terrific support for the last 16 years.

From conversations with Keir Worth, Chief Executive of England Squash we know that Squash has fortunately been grouped with other indoor sports such as badminton, indoor tennis and table tennis in spite of the enclosed nature of our game. They are part of a group who make representations to the Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Sport England who formulate guidelines.

Sport overall has been given a special dispensation as can be seen by decisions concerning sport as opposed to the hospitality industry. However, they received a very strong message that Tier 3 would be close to lockdown with a minimum of contacts between households. We are awaiting a decision regarding sociallly distanced coaching.

Tier 2 obviously allows for drills / sides in ‘bubbles’ and solo hitting as well as socially distanced coaching. So, some improvement there.

England Squash tend to get some criticism but this is not fair. They can only make representations and hope to influence the Guidelines that then come back from Sport England and the Department of Culture Media and Sport.

As Keir said to me, “I can assure you that we are working as hard as we can with other sports, Sport England and the DCMS to safeguard Squash as best we possibly can.”

Keep safe and well, everyone. Keep playing. Better times ahead!󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Stuart Hardy

Chairman

England Squash Masters

Courtesy of David Banks Cartoons

England Squash Masters Strava Group

As disappointing as it is that we are back in lockdown, ESM is still looking for ways to help our players keep fit and stay in touch with each other. Strava is a popular application which can be used to keep track of many fitness activities, as well as organising events and keeping in contact with friends. For our players who use Strava, we have created an England Squash Masters Strava Group which users can join and share their training activities. Please have a look and let us know how you are keeping fit through this winter!

Follow England Squash Masters on the following social media sites:

Squash Player Magazine

2021 Issue 1

Comment: Where are we taking this great rebound sport?Columns by: James Willstrop, Gerry Gibson and James Zug.

News: Mohammed ElShorbagy breaks his Egyptian exile but it doesn’t end well.

World Squash: The world squash community pays tribute to Hany Hamouda, the humble power behind Egyptian

Squash.

Features: Laura Massaro’s new book; Rodney Martin’s beginnings; Perry’s Match Points; Dessouky from Zero to Hero; inconic covers in Squash Player’s 50th year.S

State of The Game: Danny Lee explains the importance of coaches and Steve Lewis the rise and fall of proprietory clubs in the UK.

Thinking Out of The Box: Is Wall-Squash an important complement to Court-Squash? What should the rules be and all about Street Rackets.

Interview: PSA’s Tommy Berden explains the InFRont relationship and Zena Wooldridge her World Squash role.

Club & Court: All the Club and Club news plus the new Tin Tech from Melior Sports and the spectaclular ‘Tpoint’ courts in Tel Aviv.

On Court: Analysis and Round-up.

Workshop: News; Q&A; Tatical Errors Part 1; Mind Game and Perfect Practice; Rules Quiz; Marlowe on Shot Selection; Khan on Reading the Play; Coaches’ Corner with Peter Nicol; Hesham on Variations on the Swing; Danny Massaro’s philosophical look; Derek Ryan on Training Around Shoulder Pain.

Gear: Coll’s tribute to Baljet, Stellar launch, Racket Report and Sponsorship News,

Head refresh their racket range, String Review Part 2.

Gallery: Nathan Clark loses his passport.

SquashLevels

All England Squash Masters results are sent to SquashLevel.com the Worlds best squash player ranking system.

To view the ranking order of Masters players over the last 12 months click here or the image above.

Event Points 2019-2020

To view the event points standing for this season click the image below.

Note points will only be displayed for those players registered with England Squash Masters.

New Feature: Clicking the player ID on the points table will show the player SquashLevels history.

2019-20 Regional Event Sponsor

Karakal
2019-20 England Squash Masters Regional Event Sponsor

England Squash Masters are pleased to have Karakal as the sponsor for this seasons regional event circuit.

Karakal are offering ESM registered players a discount on purchases of equipment - please click Membership Benefits for more information.

Click here or the logo above to visit their website.

GB Veterans Autumn 2019 Newsletter

Autumn 2019 Newsletter

In this issue:

GB Vets take on Cambridge University
Festival of Squash
2019/20 Fixtures
Club Championships Reminder
Membership News

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