Club News
We’re getting into the home stretch of the squash season and Edmonton Squash Club players have been having great success on the tournament trail. We’d all like to congratulate Molli Hay on her victory in the Girls U15 division at the Alberta Junior Closed championships and Mohamed Elserafy on his runner-up performance in the Boys U9. At the Alberta mixed doubles championships, the team of Doug Kirillo and Heather Sanregret won the C division against Greg Wagner and Kymberly McDonald in the finals. And in the Alberta Closed last weekend, Mustafa Wida navigated the field to win the Men’s level 2. Congratulations to all!
As many of you know, most of the level 1 interclub games are on Thursday night, and this week we have an All-ESC grudge match when Cairo Yellaah meets the Mizuki Crew. Game time is 7:30 PM – come on out to watch the action!
Upcoming Events and Club Business
- Lightly used squash shoes, racquets and eye guards needed!!!
We want your old squash shoes, used (but not broken) squash racquets, and eye guards that you don’t need anymore. We have a large number of prospective members that show up at the ESC who don’t have the appropriate footwear or equipment to play. This is a large obstacle in getting future members signed up. If we had a stock of used squash equipment we could get these potential members onto the court and hopefully joining the club! If you have any equipment to donate please contact the front desk. - Morning Drop-In
I have had a number of people expressing interest for a Drop-In on Monday mornings around 10 AM-11:30 AM. If we could get 6-8 regular players who can consistently show up around that time, then I would be more than happy to organize this. If this seems like something of interest to you, please let me know. - Save the Date – ESC Club Championships – May 6th – 8th, 2016
We will be having our inaugural ESC club championships the first weekend in May. It’s going to be a great time, and we will be sending out more information about this soon. - ESC Summer League – we will be offering two evenings of summer league (Tuesday’s & Thursdays) starting in May. Sign up for the night that works best for you! You can register on Jegysoft or contact Jeff.
New Equipment at the ESC
We have an exciting new piece of equipment at the club to augment our collection of training tools – a brand new Squash Cannon ball machine from DSM Enterprises in Calgary.
A ball machine is an incredible tool for repetition and consistency. Incorporated into a lesson it allows for closer observation by a coach for immediate feedback, or if you just want to spend a full court time working on your forehand volley-drop cutoffs your can do that on your own without the need of a feeder. Having trouble returning high serves on the backhand side? You can do 60 in a row in 5 minutes no problem. It’s also a perfect complement to the PlaySight video system as you can watch your arm and body position in slow motion to compare your form to the pros.
Here’s a video of Ibrahim breaking the machine in.
Prior to using the ball machine, each member will require an orientation lesson with Ibrahim or Jeff. Don’t forget that your club registration fee included a free lesson, so now is a great time to cash that in. We are still discussing how to provide access to the machine safely, and we will be updating the membership with more details as soon as we’ve figured out the logistics and fees.
Squash news
PSA Tournament Results
There have been a number of big Squash tournaments these past few weeks. Mohammed El Shorbagy won the Columbia Squash Open in a picturesque Cartagena town square, and then followed it up with another big win at the Windy City Open at the beautiful University Club of Chicago. The men are now in London, England for the Canary Wharf Classic, which has already produced a plethora of astonishing rallies making the rounds on SquashTV.
On the Women’s side, Raneem El Welily won in Chicago against Nour El Sherbini who had an incredibly impressive run in her own right, dispatching Nicol David and then Laura Massaro in 3 games each in her run to the finals. The next 15k women’s tournament will be in Calgary this coming weekend in the Calgary CFO Consulting Services Women’s Squash Week at the Calgary Winter Club.
On the secondary tour, Andrew Schnell won his first ever PSA tournament at the Mount Royal University Open, and then quickly followed it up with another victory at the Samson Seattle Open. You can watch the final here.
Other recent PSA tournaments in Canada included the 35k Montreal Open (winner: Ali Farag) and the Guilfoyle Financial PSA Classic in Toronto (winner: Martin Knight).
Quick Links
- While Victoria Lust was here for her exhibition match against Nour El Sherbini, we had an interesting conversation about how she felt playing on the new 17 inch tin on the women’s tour. She said she loved it, maybe because she is a dynamic, athletic player who likes playing deceptive topspin shots to the front. This is what some of the other players on tour have to say: http://squashmad.com/breaking-news/girls-like-lower-tin/. Not everyone feels that this has been a positive addition to the women’s game though – http://dailysquashreport.com/3_3_16_short.htm
- There’s a new squash podcast on the digital airwaves from US Squash. Have a listen and let us know what you think.
http://www.ussquash.com/us-squash-launches-outside-the-glass-squash-podcast/ - Think you’re too old for squash? Here are two examples to prove you wrong: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/644351/Britain-oldest-competitive-squash-player-gym-fitness-health
http://leamingtonobserver.co.uk/news/gran-takes-squash-age-83/ - Urban squash programs have been cropping up all over the world. This one has placed 21 students at Yale.
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2016/02/11/squash-haven-sees-college-admissions-success/ - Maria Toorpakai recently published a book about her story titled “A Different Kind of Daughter”
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/hiding-from-the-taliban-20160216-gmvzb4.html - Paul Coll has suddenly become the man everyone’s talking about after his eye-popping double-dive against James Wilstrop. This interview with him shortly before the match proved prescient.
Keep Swinging!
Jeff Williams
