Storrington Squash Club Revitalised!

It is unusual for a town of Storrington’s size to have a squash club with three courts but in 1978 a group of tennis players from the adjacent tennis club met to discuss the formation of the Storrington Squash Club and they managed to raise enough money to build the club - which opened in 1981. By the end of that year there were about 300 playing members and over 200 social members.

 

Over the last few years membership had fallen to such an extent that earlier this year the club was struggling to balance its books.  Membership had fallen to around 60 seniors and 12 juniors as the club, along with many other sporting clubs around the UK, found itself competing with Facebook, computer games and the like for youngsters’ attention. Also some of the older members of the club were no longer able to participate in such a physically demanding game.

Nevertheless out of the club’s junior squad eight individuals, including one of the girls, represented Sussex at County level and currently the club can boast of having 3 County Champions at this junior level. Indeed over the last 4 years SSC has provided the largest entry of individual players, girls and boys, at the annual County Championship. Not bad for the smallest club in both East and West Sussex!

During the summer of 2009 several founder members of the club have taken over the reins again and they have now appointed Mike Corby of Coolham, as club chairman.

 

They could not have chosen a more qualified person. Mike is a businessman who has not only owned and managed a large number of leisure centres until he retired recently, but also for many years he was captain of England’s squash team as well as captaining Great Britain’s Hockey team over 3 Olympics – an amazing sporting achievement!

 

When Mike was asked how he proposed turning the club around he replied: “We are most fortunate to have a lot of highly qualified professional people within our membership, so we have reorganised the committee structure and delegated responsibility so these people can get on and make decisions”

He went to say: “One of the most important decisions was to appoint Brigitte O’Brien as ‘front of house’. Brigitte who runs her own catering business now operates from the clubhouse in Greyfriar’s Lane so is on the premises throughout the day. The Ladies’ coffee morning on a Wednesday is now proving a popular addition with Tums and Bums at 9.30am followed by Pilates at 10.30am.

 

When asked about the quality of squash at Storrington Mike said: “The club has 2 teams in the Sussex leagues, the first is ‘comfortable’ in Division 3 and the second likewise in Division 5. We are really fortunate to have the services of 2 qualified coaches, Karla Pett and Graham Stevenson, both of whom currently focus on the junior squad on Monday evenings but who are also available to all members upon request, and I’m confident that the overall standard will rise as the year progresses.”

 

Contact: Michael Standring

01903-884750

michael@standringfamily.com

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