Squash has its benefits, notably, it can transform a community with sporting inclusion – by making the sport more accessible to those with disabilities.
Following recent success in May for UK Squash; this month has been great for squash developments in the local community, despite the planned removal of the squash courts at the Bath Sport and Leisure Centre (which in our opinion a poor strategic move for a social enterprise leisure management company) only to replace the courts with trampolines!!
Furthermore, there has been much success for UK Squash with wins for juniors and seniors in the European tournaments, plus Laura Massora winning the PSA Dubai World Series in Dubai.
Leyland Lions Junior Squash & Racketball Club – Photo credit: Lancashire Times
However, there were two exciting squash developments in involving the local community, which we believe show how squash widening participation for people in the local community.
New Squash Centre of Excellence
In collaboration with a national charity, Leyland Lions Junior Squash & Racketball Club, a squash academy based at Leyland Leisure Centre, Lancashire; launched the first squash Centre of Excellence in collaboration with UK Deaf Sport; the club was asked England Squash to be the first of four ‘squash academies’ to promote and nurture sporting excellence in disabled children.
The key audience for the scheme will be children of primary school age and local business Cloudy2Clear Windows has agreed to be title sponsor of the initiative.
England Squash has plans for three other Centres of Excellence; from which all centres will be able to gain a ‘DEAFinitely Inclusive Club accreditation’ and the programme is the first of its kind endorsed by England Squash.
Revamping old building to squash educational centre
Meanwhile, in the US, Portland Community Squash a non-profit organization, which delivers squash coaching, mentors local students and runs leagues, have announced plans to acquire the Congregation Shaarey Tphiloh Synagogue and install four squash courts with plans to use the existing classrooms to deliver the educational programmes.
Initial Design (Photo Credit: Portland Community Squash)
Jamaican Squash star on the rise
Many months ago, we wrote about how squash participation in Jamaica was on the up; well we had a great reason to be cheerful this month – Chris Binnie being ranked number 82 in the Professional Squash Association (PSA) world rankings.
Chris Binnie of Jamaica – Photo Credit: Squash 365
This bodes well for future players, and hope see more young people not only from Jamaica, but also from others from parts of the Caribbean community participate in junior squash.
For any particular community in Jamaica, Chris’s success will help encourage all communities that support Squash to continue with their grassroots programme.
This shows that squash is going to become one of the major sports in Jamaica, along the lines of Bobsleigh team of the 1988 Winter Olympics, which became a hit movie Cool Runnings.
Olympic reconsideration?
Do these recent developments show that squash is becoming popular again? Yes, tennis and football are global sports with strong participation rate because of tournament success – now with squash; the governing bodies of the games are using the latest success of players in world events to nurture young people from the inner city through the widening participation scheme.
These community developments in the squash are in all honesty a clear indication that a hasty decision was made by the International Olympic Commission (IOC) not to feature squash in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, as it evident the UK and other countries are widening the participation of the squash – long may it continue.
