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Chairman’s Notes – July 1st 2007
Hope you are all enjoying playing squash instead of sunbathing. At least the bad weather has one advantage for Squash Clubs.
You will all see that the entry forms for all the Main and Regionals will soon be up on the site. Entry fees are the same for Regionals and we have two new venues, The Nightingale Hotel Complex at South Marston (Swindon) for the West after last year’s fiasco and Coventry and North Warwickshire for the Midlands, to give a little more centralisation to competitors. Grantham Squash Club (the former venue) is an extremely pleasant and convivial venue and we hope to run a non-competitive event there as it is so accessible (just off A1 with 2 very nice Hotels). However, a lot of West based players asked for a more central club due to distance. Also, none of you will have to miss anything important as you all now know the dates well in advance (so don’t let your wives, partners, friends etc etc near the skiing or holiday brochures until they have checked with you!)
As some of you eagle-eyed oldies will be pleased to know, we are holding a Lance Kinder Trophy every Regional (that is, unless PK or JW enter). So there is now another facility for O70’s to play competitive squash. We are also going to start from 2pm Friday and the older competitors will be expected to be able to play earlier (as the youngsters are still working). This means they can start and finish driving in daylight, before it gets dark so they don’t get lost!
Inter County
Chris and Alison at England Squash have been very busy on Masters and now the ICC is being updated and as some of you might have been told by your County Secretaries, there are now O50 and O60 Weekends. This means John Smith can beat his own record of having played in Senior + O35 + O45 + O55 in the same season (at the age of 57). Rest assured he is already putting in extra training according to Ken Johnson.
We are still
awaiting profiles from a lot of players from this years Home Internationals. Can
you please send them to the Webmaster
asap – don’t be shy. Phil Ayton isn’t. Although I
am informed the world will freeze over before The ‘Don’ Froggatt sends one in!
You can all have your say on here. So far Wrighty hasn’t had to expunge anything, though it’s bound to happen sooner rather than later
So far very little entered on here. Again, don’t be shy. If you can aid your fellow Masters through something you have experienced please do so. If you want to remain anonymous and it’s relative, we’ll still print it.
There are facilities to advertise your business on the website, on the front page and in the rear at £25. Rob Smith is now i/c of this. Please take advantage of this and boost your own businesses as well as the coffers towards the site costs
i) All 5 Regionals and Birmingham Open will be given normal points
ii) Open or Closed will count as double. Please remember to qualify for the Home Internationals you have to play in one Regional or Birmingham Open and in one of the Open/Closed
Points Scheme for England Squash Masters 07/08 (Men & Women)
Aims:
• To encourage participation in Masters events
• To provide updated Points Ranking Lists and aid Tournament organizers to seed players
• To provide automatic selection for Home Internationals teams
Round Games Won 0 1 2 3
Last 32 15 30 45 60
Last 16 15 30 45 60
QF 20 40 60 80
SF 25 50 75 100
Final 30 60 90 120 – therefore maximum 420 points if 32 enter
Plate-each Round 5 10 15 20
Round Robin-each round
( 3 Players 30 55 80 110
( 4 Players 25 50 75 100
( 5 Players 20 45 70 90 – therefore maximum 360
Transfer of Points between age groups
Points gained by players in age group younger than their own will be included in older age
group rankings
Points gained by players who move to older age group during the season will have all their
points included in new age group rankings
Players given a bye will receive points for a 3/0 win for that round
Walkover. The player who is still in competition receives points for all three games but the
walked over player does not receive any points at all i.e. zero.
For National selection a player must enter the Open or Closed and at least one Regional event i.e minimum of 2 events
The Top 4 Points Scorers will gain automatic National selection for their respective age
The remaining 2 players to be selected are at the discretion of the 2 individual age group
Selectors. However, the player involved must have played in at least the Open or Closed and at least one Regional or Birmingham Open.
Comments
1) There has been quite a bit of discussion as to whether to limit players to choose their best four events points to count for International selection. We have done an in depth investigation into the last two years choice of players for the International Teams and in not one single case would the team have changed should the rationale of having three or four events points been adopted. All this can possibly do is to actually lower the entries to the Regionals as players will feel confident that nobody can overtake them. As one of our aims is to increase participation in Masters events this possible idea would seem to be counter productive.
2) As you will all have probably realised (!) I have copied part of the updated points systems from our Celtic counterparts who have been running Age Groups longer than we have. It gives incentive to players in many different ways as well as entering plate events. I personally think the Monrad system , whilst perfect in an ideal world, is logistically impossible to implement due to draw sizes, lack of available court space and most importantly, complete lack of court time to proceed on a Friday afternoon to Sunday lunchtime basis. I have worked out all angles on timings and court bookings and it is just impossible. Plus, a lot of English players are not that interested on court again if they are beaten. Some are but the vast majority aren’t. However giving extra points for Plate matches will hopefully encourage participation.
3) The Round Robin events are obviously when there is a limited draw and this points structure seems to work.
4) There is now a Discussion Forum. This new points structure is obviously quite different to last years and will take a bit of working out. No doubt you will inform me when I get your points wrong – don’t worry, we can easily correct. Plus if any of you want to voice your opinions, please do so on the Forum.
5) Please note the Points System now applies to Women’s Squash as well.
Martin Pearse
Masters Chairman
July 2007