Ladies Squash Day Report & Photos

Jun

What a success!

I had an idea a year or so ago that it would be great to try and get as many of the ladies in Hertfordshire together at an event to enjoy playing some squash and to catch up with friends, old and new.

With help from the HSRA this event went ahead yesterday at Nuffield St Albans and was a resounding success. Over 40 ladies attended the event throughout the day, which was a great turnout.

The day started at 2p.m. All ladies playing squash were grouped in boxes of four or five and played round robin matches to ascertain the winner of each box. These winners went forward into a straight knockout competition and the rest of the players continued to play in the plate competition. There was a wide range of ladies playing, talented junior Grace Gear , all the regular team players from the Herts Leagues, county players and also ladies who have since given up squash but came along and were inspired to step on court and have a hit again, namely Sally Ann Webster and Nadia Nadim. It was great to see that they hadn’t lost any of the racket skills!

The plate final was between two ladies from Scotland and both called Fiona! Fiona Cattermole and Fiona Mclure had a close and hard fought game with Fiona Cattermole winning 2-0. In the main final Grace Gear played Libby Montgomery, with Grace winning 2-0.

The players were then treated to a buffet in the lounge, where we were joined by even more ladies who had come along just for the social element of the day.

Prizes were provided by Salming, thanks to them, every player was given a pair of socks and the prize for 1st place was a pair of Salming shoes and a top and skort for 2nd place. I presented the winners with their prizes and then moved on to the presentation for the Winter league 2015/16.

The winners were Nuffield Ladies, Laura Wood, Louisa Dalwood, Hilary Birt, Sarah Teague, Lesley Garner, Jessica Foster. Congratulations to all of them.

This year, for Best Individual player of the Season, Herts SRA decided to donate a trophy for this achievement in memory of a squash player who tragically died last year aged 59.

Jan Ingham was a very talented squash player and played league and county squash for Hertfordshire in the 1980’/90’s when squash was at its peak. Jan stopped playing squash, but remained good friends with many of her team mates and I was pleased that many of these friends were at the Ladies Event. I thought it would be a fitting tribute to name a trophy after Jan as she embodied enthusiasm and commitment to the game.

Jan’s husband Clive and her mother Mary were obviously very proud of this tribute and were at the event to present the trophy to its first winner. This was very poignant for everyone who knew Jan and had played squash with her.

Clive and Mary presented the Jan Ingham Trophy for Best individual player for 2015/16 to Louisa Dalwood from Nuffield St Albans.

It was then back to eating, drinking and talking for the rest of the evening.

I very much hope that we will be able to run this event again next year and, from the feedback that I received and from being part of the event, I think this will happen!

Thanks to everyone who supported this event and made it so successful and enjoyable!

Isobel Smith

12th June 2016