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On the 25th March 2009 the 5th
largest squash facility in England closed its doors. The tenants Riley’s, the
snooker company, had gone into administration and whilst many of its profitable
premises were seamlessly reopened, it’s squash and snooker club in Lewsey, Luton
stayed firmly shut. Years of neglect meant that many of the local squash
community thought the facility was gone for good.
However, this week it has been confirmed that it will
reopen on the 1st July in a virtually unique partnership involving
Active Luton, the charitable sports trust created by Luton Borough Council to
run its sports facilities in the town and Luton and Dunstable Squash and Rackets
club, a new club borne out of the Ashes of the facilities disparate group of
users.
Paul Main, the Chair Designate of the new club said, “This
is great news. It’s taken a lot of hard work by a lot of people, too many to
individually mention, to get us to where we are now. It’s up to us to prove
there is the demand for squash going forward and build on the goodwill that has
undoubtedly come to the fore during this process. Peter Nicol MBE and Kelvin
Hopkins MP have been extremely vocal in their support and the new club owes them
in particular a debt of gratitude”.
Helen Barnett, Chief Executive of Active Luton, said, “When
the opportunity to take over the site came along it was too good an opportunity
to miss. One particular group of squash users ticked many boxes in terms of the
work they were doing getting adults back into sport and relationships they had
with local schools partnerships so it makes sense to work with them to promote
the sport.”
The aim of the club over the next six months is to increase
participation in squash and ensure good usage whilst a feasibility study is
carried out to see what other sports can be accommodated in the building.
Mark Williams, Eastern Regional Manager for England Squash
& Racketball, expressed his delight at the news, “The irony of the timing of the
closure was incredible because just two weeks earlier Dunstable Squash Club,
which was based there, had been awarded their Clubmark Accreditation and as a
result been given a substantial grant to purchase Mini Squash gear to get more
juniors playing the game. Thankfully that has been saved and now the future
looks positive for both the facility and squash in the area.”
The club are holding an opening ceremony on 1st
July at 7.30pm and all squash players in the area are welcome to come and have a
hit and there will be a variety of coaches around should anyone wish to get a
bit of advice. The philosophy for the night, in the words of Robert Edwards, the
Voice of Squash will be, “Let’s play squash!”
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