COMMUNICATION
Clubs and Individuals complain that posters, Entry Forms and reports are not received or are not placed on notice boards.

This lack of communication results in poor and late entries for our Closed Championships. All clubs have been circulated with a request to submit the name and address of a contact person but, sadly, few replied! I have compiled a list of known individuals who are officers or team captains and it is to these persons, rather than to the actual clubs, that mail is to be circulated until further notice.

It is in the interest of all concerned that you keep the records up to date so that ALL mail will be received by a responsible person. If documents are addressed to the wrong person, please advise the office immediately so that records can be updated.

MEMBERSHIP
It is very pleasing to report that Kent is the ONLY County in which EVERY Club and Team has affiliated to England Squash & Racketball and to the Kent Squash & Racketball Association under the revised format of Registration Fee and £6 per Adult and £4 per Junior Squash/ Racketball member.

A total of £26,500 has been collected, £3,750 retained by the County and the residue of some £22,750 passed to England Squash & Racketball. This payment to the Governing Body is in excess of £10,000 more than in previous years.

Unfortunately there is no increase to the County as our own scheme of the past three years required a minimum payment by individuals based on 30 per court for clubs and 20 per court for teams without own facilities. In the main, the Clubs estimated payments were on budget but many teams (without their own courts) fell well short of 20 members so the income to Kent fell from £750 to £500, from this source, and we lost CUACO, Sidcup, Price Waterhouse, Brenchley and Dartford Finn Clubs. We had hoped for around £4,500 to service all our clubs and county teams. As a result, the County cannot pay fees to its leading players UNLESS there is specific sponsorship forthcoming.

As a result of the revised membership scheme, as anticipated, it decimated our own Kent SRA Individual Membership. We had just THREE individual members join last year and NONE this year so now, probably, is the time to discontinue individual membership of the County Association as Kent is unique in having such membership. Naturally the nineteen whose ten years membership concludes over the next two years will continue to receive the limited benefits.

NAMES & ADDRESSES OF ALL PLAYERS
These details are required by England Squash & Racketball in Manchester.

They are not retained by the County nor are they passed to a third party UNLESS there is an Insurance claim by an individual. In spite of several requests, a few clubs have failed to submit the names and addresses of their members although they have paid the £6 and £4 fees!

The Governing Body constantly reviews the benefits to members and it is considering posting, free of charge, copies of the Squash Player magazine to ALL. Obviously, this is impossible if the name and address is not forthcoming so please check that your club has submitted your name and address to England Squash & Racketball , via the Kent SRA Office. All those adults playing for Kent have their Individual Membership of £40 reduced to £6 and Juniors from £20 to £4 so it is essential that these players are not penalised because the club fails to comply with a simple request for names and addresses !!

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Kent was well represented in the National Squash Championships in the new National Squash Centre in Manchester. We achieved no less than five finalists in the thirteen events. Colin Payne (Over 40), Candy Wilton (Over 35), Mandy Preuss (Over 40), Karen Hume (Over 45) and Becky Czuczman (Over 50) were the finalists but found the opposition too strong with the exception of Becky who won her first National Championship. Well done!

JUNIOR SQUADS
Our thanks are extended to the following who organised our Junior County teams:

Phil Harris (U19), Alan Stone (U17), Steve Garrett (U15), Ralph Shaw (U13), Peter Morgan (U11) and Mary Scott-Miller (All girls).

Without the assistance given by parents, we could not field all of these teams. In addition, Allam Soliman, Adham AbouTaleb, Rae Anderson, Paul Johnson, Matthew Beattie and Steve Broadbridge have coached and trained our young players.

The attendance of the boys' training sessions on a monthly basis, throughout the winter, has been good with the average being twenty-six. The format is under review and the likely changes for next autumn are to have 1000 until noon on eight Sundays as feeder squads with two elite squads from noon until 1700 hours. The latter will be selected by the coaches and Paul and Adham are visiting all clubs and schools with known junior sections to locate the talented young players.

VALEDICTORY
At the Annual General Meeting, in July, we say farewell to some of our Officers.

Barry Matthews is retiring after serving as our Chairman since 1991 and before that as Secretary of the Welling Cup from 1984. He will be missed as he has been very much the hands-on Chairman, helping with every day matters, attending Meetings, County Championships, Inter-County Championships, transporting teams and getting the junior boys finances in working order.

Even when he was very poorly, awaiting a transplant of his new heart, he was more than active. Of course, outside of squash he has won gold, silver and bronze medals at World, European and National Transplant Games. He assures us that he will retain more than an academic interest in our Association.


Oliver Pollard is bowing out after no less than twenty-five years of loyal support. His main contribution has been with the organisation of the Inter-Club Championships but he has assisted with the Senior and Junior County Closed Championships and Inter-County. We will miss his colour coded documentation and "errror freee excelantt tipying"!

Peter Morgan, whose son Tom is rapidly moving from the junior ranks, feels that he should step down from office as the Parental Representative for the boys. Peter has undertaken this task since 1999 and over a difficult transitional period, has been very supportive of the various changes. In addition, he has assisted with the organisation of the South East Area Inter-County event run by Graham Stevenson.

Alan Thatcher has been nominated as Chairman to take over from Barry and Graham Moscrop (Secretary / Treasurer of the Priory League) to represent North West Clubs in lieu Oliver.

Steve Hazzard has agreed to take on Peter's role as representative of the parents of the boys.

Phil Harris is replaced by Martin Dunn as one of the Parent Captains with Alan Stone, Steve Garrett and Ralph Shaw moving up age groups with Martin Dunn taking on the U13s.

CLOSED CHAMPIONSHIPS
An encouraging sign, this year, was increased entries in the Championships and young players entering the senior events.

Colin Payne equalled Paul Johnson's record of six wins in the Men's Squash Championships and Keeley Johnson retained the Women's title. Mike Stead and Jo Stabler are the County Racketball Champions. Other champions are as follows:

  Squash :
  Men Over 35- Colin Payne
  Men Over 45- Clive London
  Men Over 55- Steve Sherren

  Women Over 35/40 combined Candy Wilton

  Boys U17- James McMeckan
  Boys U15 - Steven London
  Boys U13 - Robert Shaw
  Boys U11- William Frankson

  Girls U17 -Stephanie Shaw
  Girls U15 - Natalie Coombs
  Girls U13 - Jennifer Bryant

  Racketball :
  Men Over 35 - Ray Jennings
  Men Over 45 - Dave Worrall
  Men Over 55 - John Prowse
  Women Over 35-Jane Frizoni

OUR OWN WEBSITE
We have a new and revised website being organised by Steve Cubbins so send e-mails to kent@cubbins.com  if you have anything to record or via the County
Office.

We have TWO addresses:
www.kentsquash.co.uk  and
www.kentsquashracketball.co.uk 

INTER-COUNTY
Teams fared less well than in previous years with relegation for the Men's Over 45s, and Boy's Under 13. However the Men Over 55 have returned to the Premier Division, the Women¹s first team was placed third and the Women's second team was runner-up - both women's finals were played in the new National Squash Centre in Manchester.


Ian Wright
Honorary Secretary for the Management Committee.
March 2003