Stourbridge LTSC’s prosperity shows that
racketball is not merely a way of filling courts out of hours but a
key ingredient in a squash club’s success. The Squash Player visits
the Warkwickshire club to find out why and how
Stourbri higher during the day than in the evenings due to the popularity of
doubles racketball.
“Day-time racketball
is as much a social activity as a form of exercise or competition,
so it relies upon an all-day bar for drinks and snacks between and
after games,” says Club Manager, Judith Hardy. The racketball
section also has an active and varied social programme including
lunches, walks and other events.
Racketball has helped
the club to overcome the tennis-squash ‘tribalism’ which exists in
many traditional tennis and squash clubs, because tennis members
venture inside to play racket-ball in the winter and racketball
players play day-time tennis in the summer. “It has helped
integration across the three racket sports,” Hardy observes.
Moreover, since the
mid-90s, more and more squash players have ‘crossed the line’ to
take up racketball. The shift was helped by having top level squash
players such as Darren Bradbury and Jim Lord contending club
racketball finals in the late 90s, which made it a more ‘acceptable’
alternative to squash. These days the club racketball finals attract
more spectators than the squash finals.
Most importantly, it
has retained playing members in the Club well past their physical
capability to play squash. A number of previous men’s team players
play only racketball these days due to back and knee problems. “The
longer rallies are great for aerobic fitness with less pressure on
ageing joints,” explains Dave Allen. “And these days it’s almost
easier to find good racketball opponents than squash.”
Now the six courts are
just as likely to be filled evenings and weekends by racketball as
squash players. In many cases they are the same people that were on
court ten years ago, just playing a different game of bat and ball.
And the club has more racketball leagues than squash leagues –
singles and doubles leagues (and juniors) for day-time players as
well as for evening/weekend players.
Racketball is
attractive to a broader market (across age and gender), because it
is easier to get started and have rallies as a beginner, and the
game provides continued fitness and fun in later years, when the
physical demands of squash become too great.
What of the future?
Racketball is still growing at Stourbridge, especially with the
conversion of more squash players and gym members to the game. The
club’s challenge is to feed enough young squash players in at the
bottom to balance the transfer of ageing squash players. Stourbridge
has two teams (one of them female) in the new two-division Midland
Racketball League, which hopefully will grow and may even rekindle a
day-time inter-club league in future.
For Stourbridge,
racketball has simply made good business sense. It generates
significant additional income, improves the balance of its
membership, creates more volunteers and strengthens the social base
of the Club. Most importantly, it keeps players playing longer and
keeps courts in almost constant use throughout the day.
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