Midlands Squash Union

2011 has undoubtedly been a fantastic year for Midlands Squash. Firstly I would like to thank all the MSU committee members for their tremendous effort and hard work and for giving so freely of their time in the service of squash. They are a remarkable team of administrators, and without their commitment and dedication to squash we would not have achieved so much. I am extremely proud of my committee and it has been a pleasure to have served along side each one of them.

Since my last newsletter a lot has happened in Midlands Squash which I would like to briefly update you on – a more detailed report of the year’s activities will be delivered in my chairman’s report at the MSU AGM. The AGM is scheduled for the 23rd January 2012 at 18h00 at the MSU offices at the Collegians Squash complex. Everyone is most welcome to attend and notice of this will in terms of our constitution be sent out shortly calling for nominations of office bearers. All the members of the 2011 MSU committee have made themselves available for re-election next year.

The MSU office will close for the festive season on Thursday the 15th December 2011 and will re-open on Monday the 09th January 2012. I think Rennisha is looking forward to the break and I would like to thank her for her loyal support and the contribution she has made to squash. The acquisition of Rennisha as the secretary of Midlands Squash has proven to be a wise choice and she continues to grow and flourish in this position. She is forever willing to assist where she can and is well liked amongst the Midlands players as she has such a cheerful and pleasant demeanour. I am hoping she will be able to take on even more next year and thus relieve me and other committee members of some more squash work.

If you are reading this email from your club’s notice board and would like to receive correspondence/ newsletters directly from the MSU office then please kindly send an email to info@midlandssquash.co.za with your name and squash club and we will gladly add you to the database.

Our sincere thanks to Angelos Christodoulou of Accpick for kindly agreeing to sponsor our website again in 2012. Our website address is www.midlandssquash.co.za

We sincerely appreciate the support Angelos gives to Midlands Squash. We are currently looking at an electronic format for recording the winter league fixtures directly on our website in future. Briefly it entails the captains of the home side inputting/recording the club names, together with the player’s names and scores of the fixture for that week, and once ratified by the opposing captain, it is then automatically captured and the overall log updated. The system is used in Gauteng, Northerns and KZN Squash. Incidentially KZN Squash have now elected to do away with handbooks as all the fixtures are on their website. If the MSU was to follow in the same footsteps it would save the MSU a great deal on printing costs, postage licence and paper, not to mention time and offers tremendous possibilities for advertising on our website. If we are to introduce this system in 2012 we will continue, for the time being, to have scorecards that can be dropped off in the official MSU post boxes, posted to our box number, faxed to us or scanned and emailed to the MSU office.

IAN DIXON

It was with great sadness that we heard of the passing of Ian Dixon after a long illness with cancer, an illness he fought with such courage and determination. Ian had dedicated his life to the service of squash and leaves behind a legacy in the squash museum he had the vision to create and establish. Ian’s funeral was well attended and testimony to the wonderful man and friend he was to so many squash players. Our sincere condolences to June, Lesley, Gill and all their families. I will miss our chats my friend - rest in peace you “old fart.”   

DAVE SHORT MASTERS INTERPROVINCIAL TOURNAMENT

This tournament took place from the 3 - 5 June 2011. The entry fee was reduced by 25% from the previous year and this resulted in entries increasing from 34 teams to 42 teams this year. We had an additional 4 ladies teams participating from Midlands, South Coast, Easterns and Northerns. We also welcomed back Northern Freestate and Northerns had the biggest entry with 8 teams, one more than they had last year. In total 12 provinces participated. Midlands had two more teams than last year. Despite the reduced entry fee we still managed to make a 100% increase on the profit made from the 2010 tournament. This was a fantastic achievement and my thanks to Gail, Dave, Rob, Andrew and Rennisha for their contribution and hard work in ensuring the success of this tournament. Already we have had enquiries for the 2012 tournament from teams and players that did not participate this year, so we have decided in all probability to restrict the tournament to 250 players. The 2012 tournament will be held a week later due to the Comrades Marathon being held on the first weekend of June. The dates will be the 08th to the 10th June 2012.

JARVIS/KAPLAN CUP TEAMS

At the Jarvis/Kaplan Cup tournament in East London our Men’s and Ladies team were placed in 4th and 3rd position respectively in the B sections and Midlands once again won the Most Organised Province Award for the second year running. Well done Bugsy.

MASTERS SINGLES INTERPROVINCIAL

This tournament took place in Port Elizabeth from the 2 - 8 September 2011.

800 players in total participated. We took 4 men’s teams and 2 ladies teams, one more men's side than last year. Our congratulations are extended to our ladies 45B team (Linda Widlake, Cathy Jackson, Janine Talbot, Debbie Ralfe and Wendy Hoffman) on winning their section. It really was a most enjoyable tournament and our thanks to Gail Howes on putting this all together so magnificently as always. Yours truly was awarded the Leo Melville Memorial Award - an award for someone who in the opinion of the selection committee has significantly contributed to the development, growth and enjoyment of Squash in South Africa. A collage of photos from the tournament is on display in the foyer outside the MSU office.

MASTERS IPT SOCIAL

Prior to departing for the Masters Singles IPT, a Masters social evening and braai for all those playing in the Masters Singles and Doubles IPT’s was held on Friday, the 19th August at Collegians. We had 29 players participate and it was a most enjoyable evening of squash, with great camaraderie amongst fellow touring players.

MEDI CLINIC WINTER LEAGUE

The winter league prize giving was held at Lynwood Squash on Friday 14th October. It really was a fitting end to the season and our congratulations are extended to all the winning teams. All the trophies have been sent for engraving of all the 2011 winners names. We had about 170 players in attendance and the décor and food was outstanding. In particular I would like to thank Cathy Jackson, Andy and Kelly Bone and Sandy Pieters for all their hard work in ensuring the success of the evening. A lovely atmosphere prevailed and was a wonderful occasion to acknowledge yet sadly bring down the curtain on over a decade of support and sponsorship from Medi Clinic. We presented them with a stunning piece of art from Andy Bone which we hope will take its proud place in the boardroom or reception of Medi Clinic. It was also an occasion to acknowledge the input made by past administrators for years of service to Midlands Squash and certificates were presented to Sharon Potgieter, Garth Douglas, Graham Rusk and a special mention of Warwick Weedon for 25 years service to Midlands Squash – he richly deserved his standing ovation. Our congratulations also to the following prize winners for 2011:

Most Improved Female Squash Player – Kerry Koller
Most Improved Male Squash Player – Ryan Neumann
Club of the Year – Collegians Squash Club
Ian Dixon Award for Service to Squash – Mike Short
Gill Weedon Award for the Best Overall Performance by a Club – Greytown.
Squash SA Honors Award – Ravi Govender and Bongani Khumalo.

A collage of photographs from the evening is also on display in the foyer outside the MSU office.

DURBAN LEAGUE

Our Midlands ladies team are to be commended on winning the Durban Ladies 1st league. In addition they won the award for the best overall performance by any team in all the Ladies leagues.

MASTERS DOUBLES INTERPROV

This took place in Durban from the 9 - 12 November 2011. We had a record number, a total of 38 players participate. It too was a most enjoyable tournament although the prize giving was a little long and tedious. My thanks are extended to Trevor Fryer for spearheading the organisation of this event, together with his committee of Cathy, Gail, Andy and Rory – well done everyone.

MASTERS SPRING LEAGUE

This tournament was a resounding success and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who participated. We introduced a doubles component to each team which saw entries increase from 60 to 72 players. It was held every Monday night from the 24th October to 28th November 2011 at the Hilton College squash courts. The MSU ran the bar and I would like to thank Greg Walters for assisting in this regard and also to thank Angelos Christodoulou for providing a superb meal each week at what I think is a very affordable and reasonable price. As I mentioned earlier Angelos is always only too happy to assist us where he can and has got this catering down to a fine art, and I firmly believe this tournament would not be the same were it not for his input and contribution. It was therefore only fitting that Angelos be awarded the Bert Rice Memorial Award for service to Masters Squash. Congratulations Angelos. We had 68 players attend the prize giving dinner in the cricket pavilion at Hilton College, which Midlands Squash subsidised – a jovial spirit prevailed amongst all the players and already it seems there is going to be a greater demand for entries next year. Preference will be given to those members that have paid their Masters subscription for 2012. All this would not have been possible were it not for the huge effort Cathy Jackson put in to ensuring everyone had fun and enjoyed themselves. It really was a showcase for Masters Squash so well done Cathy.

REPS MEETING - 2012

This will be held on Monday the 20th February 2012 at 18h00 at the MSU offices at the Collegians Squash complex. League entry forms for 2012 will be sent out next year on the 09th January 2012 and will be required to be returned to the MSU office by Friday the 10th February 2012. The deadline for player clearance certificates is the 31st January 2012.

MARKING CLINIC

In 2012 two players from every league team entered into the 2012 winter league must attend a marking clinic in order for your club to gain entry of such teams into the 2013 season. Craig Sadler in conjunction with Squash SA is in the process of organising a marking clinic for Monday the 27th February 2012. More details will follow shortly. Craig Sadler is to be congratulated on receiving his national colours for marking and refereeing and being invited to attend the World Squash Marking and Refereeing Conference in Germany in August this year. 

SCHOOLS

At schools level 2011 saw Epworth School winning the girls section of the SA Top Schools tournament for the 18th time out of 27 appearances – a remarkable achievement. Of the 6 KZN Schools boy’s teams selected to play in the Schools Inter - Provincial tournaments, 16 boys were from Pmb, whilst of the 6 KZN Schools girls teams all but one was from Pmb.  Our congratulations are extended to Daniel Smith, Jonno Esteves, Julie Lee, Cayleigh Conradie and Nadia Ramchandra on obtaining SA Schools rankings in their relevant age groups and a special mention of Julie Lee who was selected to represent South Africa at the World Junior Squash Championships in the USA in July.

Incidentally Midlands Squash paid out nearly R20000-00 in junior player assistance, sponsorship of Imbali within our league, not to mention another R14000-00 received from the Department of Sport and Recreation for development programmes at Imbali and Protea Squash Clubs this year. 

Imbali Squash Club have found a new home at the Alex High School squash courts and at the beginning of 2012 the courts walls will be cleaned, the floors lightly sanded and all the light tubes and fittings repaired. We are hoping that Summer League will use these courts and Bongani Khumalo is to be congratulated for his vision, dedication to the upliftment and continued coaching of previous disadvantaged pupils and for securing this facility. Midlands Squash continues to support the development and promotion of squash wherever we are able to.

GENERAL

I am pleased to report that Richard Knowles has agreed to sponsor the Midlands Champs again next year. We are currently looking for a sponsor for the winter league and are in the process of approaching some potential sponsors but should you or your company be interested then please contact the MSU office on 033-3422204.  The Masters Singles IPT will be held in East London next year, the Masters Doubles IPT in Eastern Gauteng and Jarvis/Kaplan Cup in Pretoria. All the dates will be ratified at the Reps meeting before being distributed to everyone.

Finally I would like to thank all the squash players from the Midlands Squash fraternity for your continued support and participation in our tournaments etc. It is you the players that makes this all worthwhile and contributes to make the game of squash that we all so love so great. May I take this opportunity to wish you all a blessed Christmas with family and friends and a Happy New Year.

I look forward to seeing you all next year at the start of the season with Summer League starting on Thursday the 19th January 2012.

Yours in Squash

Mike Short
Chairman - Midlands Squash Union

01 JUNE 2011

Hi Everyone

The purposes of this newsletter is to briefly update you about what is happening in Midlands Squash.

Your entire Midlands Squash committee continue to work exceptionally hard and Midlands Squash is going from strength to strength which all bodes well for future years.

In a continued effort to improve our communication with individual squash players, should you not already be on the MSU database please kindly phone Rennisha the MSU secretary on

033-3422204 or send an email to info@midlandssquash.co.za with your name, contact numbers and squash club and we will gladly include you in all future squash correspondence.

REALISE ACADEMIES MIDLANDS CLOSED CHAMPIONSHIPS

This tournament was played at the beginning of May. Our sincere thanks once again to Richard Knowles of Realise Academies for his generous sponsorship.  The entries for this year's tournament increased from 48 players in 2010 to 80 players this year which is fantastic. Good squash was played and enjoyed by everyone in all the sections but what was most pleasing was the sporting manner in which games were played, especially amongst the youth of Midlands and the good spirit that existed amongst the players throughout the tournament. Andrew Pratt and Tracey Schwegmann are to be commended on putting together an exceptional tournament and for the amazing reports they submitted each day in keeping everyone updated with the matches etc. We would also like to extend our congratulations to Justin Gouweloos and to Maxine Windelberg, the men's and ladies champion respectively as well as to all the other section and plate winners. We had our biggest spectator turnout yet for the finals and a most enjoyable cocktail party was held after the prizegiving. Next year we will definitely play all the runner up and plate finals at one venue on the Wednesday night as this will increase the camaraderie amongst the players and sections. We are currently having a trophy made for the new Men's C section as we don't have one and next year we may even see a Men's D section, seeing as all the Men's C section players had so much fun.

DAVE SHORT MASTERS INTERPROVINCIAL TOURNAMENT

This tournament takes place this weekend starting on Friday night the 3rd June 2011 at Maritzburg Golf Club from 7pm.  Entries have increased by 25% from 34 teams in 2010 to 42 teams this year.

What is encouraging is that we have an additional 4 ladies teams participating from Midlands, South Coast, Easterns and Northerns. We also welcome back Northern Freestate and Northerns have the biggest entry with 8 teams, one more than they had last year. In total 12 provinces are participating. All the entries fees have been paid and the shirts and programmes have been finalised and already placed into goodies bags and we now await the arrival of all the teams. The Ladies A section will be played at Lynwood and the Men's A section will be at Collegians with top players Mike Tootill from Gauteng and Craig Raune from Northerns set to meet each other on Saturday afternoon on the match court at Collegians.  Midlands has two more teams than last year which teams are attached for your information.  Even with a  25% reduction in the entry fee from last year, indications are that it seems very likely that we will still make a considerable bigger profit than we did last year and my thanks to Gail, Dave, Rob, Andrew and Rennisha for their contribution and hard work in ensuring the success of this tournament.

MASTERS SINGLES INTERPROVINCIAL

This tournament will take place in Port Elizabeth from 2 - 8 September 2011, including traveling time. The teams have been finalised and we have one more men's side than last year. In total we are sending 4 men's teams and 2 ladies teams. The accommodation has been booked at the Holiday Inn Garden Court on the beach front and most players have booked their flights. Well done Gail - brilliant organisation as usual. 

MEDI CLINIC WINTER LEAGUE

The MSU winter league is well under way and the new format of emailing, faxing, posting or dropping off the scorecards in the postboxes is working well. The latest logs are emailed out about every three weeks by Rennisha or can be found on our website at www.midlandssquash.co.za  As at the 30th April there was only two clubs outstanding for their league fees and only four handbook advertisers who had not paid for their adverts in the handbook. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their co-operation and prompt payments. 

DURBAN LEAGUE

Both our Midland's Men's and Ladies teams continue to do well in the Durban 1st leagues. Our ladies remain unbeaten and our men are lying second on the log to Lahee Park. We agreed to allow Justin Gouweloos to play for Lahee Park to level the playing fields, as Midlands had won the Durban League for the last couple of years, and because we felt it would give Alan better exposure also playing at number 1 in the league, which ultimately would benefit our entire Midlands Jarvis side. Lets hope they continue to do well and bring back some more silverware at the end of the season.

MASTERS SUBSCRIPTIONS

Thank you to everyone who paid their Midlands Masters subscriptions for 2011. At the end of April the MSU paid over to SA Masters Squash our player levy of R50 per player. Todate we have 59 Midlands Masters members, 7 being Honorary Life Members and 52 being paid up members. Membership is still open to anyone 35 years and older who would like to join the Midlands Masters. All members who have paid their 2011 subscription will receive free entry into the Midlands Masters Spring League in Hilton should they elect to play and all the current members will be contacted closer to the time by Cathy Jackson in connection with playing in this tournament.

FACEBOOK

Yes Midlands Squash is now on Facebook and moving forward with the times. We have decided to use this medium as a further means of communicating with you and promoting up and coming tournaments and events. Go to www.facebook.com  and enter the words 'Midlands Squash Union" where it says "search" and once the home page comes up click on 'Join this Group". As simple as that. Well done to Rennisha for setting this all up.

TROPHIES

You will all be pleased to know that we have managed to find all the final league results dating back to 2006 and I can now happily report that the trophies are all currently being engraved from 2006 to 2010 with all the various league team winners, as well as the winners on the trophies for the various sections of the Midlands Championships from 2006, including this years winners. Also all the AGM minutes from 2006, thanks to Vikash Sharanund who still had them on file, has have allowed us to get all our past records up to date and filed. Midlands Squash was established in 1997 when we broke away from KZN Squash and the honors board listing the names of all the past chairman and men's and ladies champions since our inception has just be erected this week in the MSU foyer outside the MSU office next to the trophy cabinets. My thanks to Bugsy and Andrew for their assistance in rectify this important aspect of the MSU and our history.

JARVIS/KAPLAN CUP TEAMS

I am pleased to announce that the teams to represent Midlands Squash at the Jarvis/Kaplan Cup senior men's and ladies interprovincial tournament to be played for the first time ever in East London from the 10th to the 16th July have been chosen. They are as follows:

Men - Justin Gouweloos (c), Alan McGuigan, Mick Gouweloos, Mark Gouweloos and Jon Hilliar.

Ladies - Maxine Windelberg (c), Tarryn Harboth, Kerryn Potgieter, Emily Minnie, Shannon Van der Merwe and Nadia Ramchandra

Team Manager - Craig Buxton-Forman aka Bugsy

Our congratulations to all of you. May we wish them all a successful tournament and trust they play good squash to the best of their ability and always at all times remember they are ambassadors of Midlands Squash. Thank you to Des Royappen and Sally White for their time and effort in coaching the two squads.

MSU/COLLEGIANS SQUASH COMPLEX OFFICIAL OPENING

The official opening of the MSU office and the Collegians Squash/Spectator complex will take place in the MSU downstairs foyer on Monday the 20th June 2011. Invites will be sent out to club representatives, sponsors and relevant squash administrators but due to limited space regretfully we can not include everyone or partners. I think this will be a fantastic opportunity to showcase what a wonderful facility the Midlands Squash fraternity have in the form of our office and spectator gallery and of course the museum for squash as run by Ian Dixon. Should you be invited please can I kindly ask that you respond promptly for catering purposes.   

Our further correspondence will follow but should you have any queries please kindly direct them to Rennisha at the MSU office.

Yours is Squash

Mike

Chairman - Midlands Squash

P.S - For anyone that may be interested please find attached entry forms for the NSA Open, SA Nationals and Goldfield tournament plus the latest Balls to the Wall Article - Perfect Practice by Alan Stapleton from PE Squash. Also attached is a letter pertaining to the appointment of the new squash manager for Kzn Squash, namely Penny Cobbledick and below a brief report on the squash darby between Hiton Village and Gillitts Squash Clubs.