Concordia Squash Players,
                                    Following the AGM on Wednesday 20th June 2012, one or two issues were raised. Hence this e-mail.
 
Part of the club's constitution (dating back to 1977) was to encourage team squash. 
Consideration is being given to entering a new Concordia team into the Northumbria League. 
The team would be put into the lowest County league and is aimed at bringing in Concordia players of any standard.
If there are any members out there interested in committing to the 2012/2013 team squash season, please let me know ASAP.
I believe that a core of at least 8 or 9 players would be required to field a 5 man team for the season (work commitments and injuries always take their toll)
Prior to this idea being taken further I will need to hold a meeting with those interested to give an overview of what team squash entails, if after that there are sufficient people interested then we'll give it a go. I'm looking for a captain as well !
 
Also ;  T-shirts with the Concordia Squash Club Logo. 
As part of a Handicap competition several years ago, we offered T-shirts. (free T-shirt but £5.00 entry fee which covered the cost of the shirt) 
There were some left over but all have now been sold, at cost by the way. 
Many of you may have seen or are still wearing those grey Concordia shirts. They have lasted well. 
 
If there is sufficient interest the club will place another order. I believe the minimum order is 25 but I may be wrong. 
In order to keep costs down (work on approx' £7.00 a shirt at worst) we may be confined to one colour. Can't please all of the people all of the time so the majority rule would have to apply.   
Can you let me know about the T-shirt idea one way or the other.  If yes, what colour and what size? Medium, large, extra large and extra extra large are the options. Bear in mind the sizes were not generous and most of our club members wouldn't look bad in an extra large. Medium is out of the question for most of us.  Sorry.
By the way, this is not about profit, more about encouraging membership. The price of the shirt will be 'at cost'. 
Enjoy your squash.
Ian Mc          

Concordia Squash Players,
                                     The A and B competition semi finals took place last night (Thursday) 
Dan Cussack put in an excellent performance to beat Graeme Sneddon 3-1 
Steve Goldie beat Andy Lawrence 3-0 however that score line doesn't tell the whole story. Two of the games went to 10
and both players had game ball several times. Steve just managed to see the games out to go through to the B final. 
In the A competition Richard McAllister beat Mark Livingstone 3-0 and Tony Hedley beat Ian Morton 3-0.
Both finals are tonight (Friday 27th) kick off at 6.40pm.
Please come along and support the event.
Ian Mc  

Concordia Squash Players,
                                     The draw for the B competition had to be slightly re-drafted last night after a number of withdrawals.
Six matches were played with the 6 winners going through plus the two highest scoring losers. 
Those eight were then re-drawn for a second round, also played last night.
This was the second round draw and result. 
Graeme Sneddon bt Dave Armstrong   2-1
Dan Cussack bt Roland Smith   2-1
Andy Lawrence bt Peter Edney 2-1
Steve Goldie bt Martin Davison 2-0
All four matches were fiercely fought with much effort, particularly since all 4 players had already played a tough 1st round match.
The semi finals are played tonight. (Thursday) G. Sneddon plays D. Cussack and A. Lawrence plays S. Goldie.
 
In the A competition, Tony Hedley was given a bye (another result of withdrawals) Richard McAllister bt Dave Buckle, Ian Morton bt Robin Ritchie
and Mark Livingstone bt Keith Gray. The A competition semi finals are also being played tonight. 
Please come along and support the event.  6.40pm start. The bar is open.
Ian Mc 

Concordia Squash Players,
                                    Dave Buckle stayed to the end to watch the final match of the A competition when Ian Morton won to put Bruno Gaultier into 
the B competition. Dave also kindly did the draw for that B competition. This is how the names came out of the hat.
 
Rob Owen                     v                             Dave Armstrong
Steve Goldie                  v                             Dave Cummings
Roland Smith                 v                             Bruno Gaultier
BYE                              v                             Daniel Cussack
Peter Edney                   v                             Graeme Sneddon
Andy Pattison                v                             Martin Davison
Dan Pattison                 v                             Chris Brock (withdrew due to work commitments)
Neil Taylor                    v                             Andy Lawrence. 
The winners of these games played tonight (Wednesday) will play each other on the same night to decide the semi finalists to play Thursday.
These B comp' games are best of 3 not 5.
 
The A competition went with the form book and the matches tonight are as follows;
Tony Hedley                  v                         BYE
Robin Ritchie                 v                         Ian Morton
Keith Gray                    v                          Mark Livingstone
Dave Buckle                 v                          Richard McAllister
 
Cheers
Ian Mc       

Concordia Squash Players,
                                    After the preliminary round this is how the first round of the A competition looks.
 
Tony Hedley                      v                    Dave Armstrong
Chris Thompson                 v                    Dan Cussack
Graeme Sneddon               v                     Robin Ritchie
Bruno Gaultier                   v                     Ian Morton
Keith Gray                        v                     Peter Edney
Mark Livingstone               v                     Nick Fecitt
Richard McAllister             v                      Steve Goldie
 
Prompt 6.40pm start on Tuesday please. 
The prelim' losers from tonight go to the B competition draw, those games start 6.40pm Wednesday. Just for clarity they are as follows;
Roland Smith, Andy Lawrence, Chris Brock, Dave Cummings, Steve Lavery, Andy Pattison, Neil Taylor. 
They will be joined by the A competition first round losers. 
Cheers
Ian Mc                     

Concordia Squash Players,
                                    The draw was carried out at the Brockwell Seam Tuesday night, drawn independently by Phil George and Ashley Thompson, overseen 
by scrutineer Bobby Ball. Thank you to them for their assistance. This is how the draw came out.
Preliminary round to be held on Monday 23rd April.  
1. Roland Smith        v         Ian Morton
2. Andy Lawrence     v         Robin Ritchie
3. Bruno Gaultier      v         Chris Brock
4. Graeme Sneddon  v         Dave Cummings
5. Steve Lavery        v         Dave Armstrong
6. Mark Livingstone  v         Andy Pattison
7. Nick Fecitt           v         Martin Davison
8. Neil Taylor          v         Chris Thompson.
The winners go into the main competition on Tuesday 24th April. The losers go into the B competion on Wednesday 25th. 
The losers of the A competition (Tuesday) will also go into the B competition.
Those successful in the B competiton will have to play a second game on that Wednesday night to sort out who goes through 
to the semi's on Thursday. For this reason B competition games will be best of 3 and not best of 5. 
Hope this all makes sense. 
Ian Mc 

Concordia Squash Players,
                                     I have 24 entries for the draw. I will have to have a preliminary round on Monday night.  This will be 16 names out of the hat. The 8 winners will join the first round of the A competition on Tuesday while the losers will join those in the first round of the B competition on Wednesday.The B competition will have 16 players to battle it out for only 4 places to go through to the semi's on Thursday. The winners of the 'B' 1st round will have to play again on the Wednesday night, with this in mind, B competition games will be best of 3 and not best of 5.  I will do the draw over the Easter weekend, not sure where yet since Concordia is shut much of the time. Rest assured it will be carried out independently with others present in the interest of integrity.I will keep you posted.  Those in the draw, in no particular order;Peter Edney, Andy Pattison, Neil Taylor, Steve Lavery, Nick Fecitt, Mark Livingstone, Keith Gray, Dan Cussack, Robin Ritchie, Don Pattison, Martin DavisonIan Morton, Tony Hedley, Graeme Sneddon, Dave Armstrong, Richard McAllister, Dave Cummings, Andy Lawrence, Chris Thompson, Roland Smith,Dave Buckle, Bruno Gaultier, Steve Goldie, Chris Brock. Ian Mc   

The Summer leagues start May 1st. If you want to play in the Summer leagues let me know before the end of April.
Cheers
Roland

First prize was won by Steve Davidson Ticket number  1253. 
Steve, an ardent Carlisle supporter,  was especially pleased to be  presented with the shirt by Geoff, our jolly barman, and  an ardent Newcastle  fan.

The 2nd prize of a bottle of kenzo perfume was won by  Dan Main, ticket number 1295

The 3rd prize of a Parker pen set was won by Lachlan  Daalman, ticket number 1260
 
The 4th prize of a Gary Hogg Comedy CD and book was won by  Chris, ticket number 1001.

The 5th prize of a bottle of white wine was won by C. Lynn  ticket number 1282

The final prize of a bottle of red wine was won by Derek  Railston ticket number 1265

Matthew Smith would like to thank everyone who has contributed  with sponsorship money, raffle tickets and all the books and cds and other items for the car boot sales. It is greatly appreciated. He managed to raise over £3000 altogether for Childreach International. 

Many thanks.

https://sites.google.com/site/childreachfundraising/ 

As a result there are some dates for you to make a note  of.

The Handicap competition
will run during the latter part of  January 2012. The first round, consisting of the three man round robin format  used previously will be on Monday 23rd January AND Tuesday 24th January 2012,  6.40pm start. This should offer a little flexibility for those who find it  difficult to commit to one particular night. 
 
The winner from each group will go through to the knock out  stages to be held the following Mondays (30th January and 6th February 2012) 
 
The final is likely to be Friday 10th February 2012 however this  will depend largely on the number of  entries.

The handicap system will be broadly based on league position  however I may use some discretion as some players are well out of  position.

Entry is free. Cash prizes for the winner and runner-up. 
 
There will be a notice behind the courts at Concordia to post  your entries or you can e-mail Ian McAllister. Entries for the handicap must be  received by December 23rd. 

The end of season Closed Competition
will be held during the week  commencing Monday 23rd April 2012, subsequent rounds to take place each night  during that week.

 Again, depending upon the number of entries, the final will be on  Thursday or Friday of that week ( 26th or 27th  April)


There will be the 'A' competition with the first round losers  going into the 'B' competition to commence the following night thus all players  are guaranteed at least 2 games. 

Entry is free and there will be prizes for the A and B  competition winners and runners-up. Look out for the notices and e-mail nearer  the time for entries.
 
The new website link
in use for posting your league results has  thrown up one or two issues which needed  clarifying.

Hopefully these issues will resolve themselves with the following  guidelines.

Injured players must let Roland our league secretary and recent  arbitrator, (with the wisdom of Solomon he is qualified) know that they are in  fact injured and will not be able to play all their league games that session.  No players will score points from this injured player whether they played their  game or not. Harsh but the fairest way.

Claims are only to be made in the most extreme circumstances;  i.e. a last minute cancelation with no time left to rearrange their  match.

If at the end of the league session players are level on points  then points scored 'against' will be used. If this is also equal (unlikely but  possible) then the winner of their individual match will be used. If that was  also a draw then the player having played most games wins, failing that, we  might employ a coin of the realm.          
  
Roland is looking at ways of introducing a bonus points system  into the computer programme to encourage players to arrange and play all their  games. 
 
A quick note about Concordia men's first team's progress this  season. 

After a good start in Division 1 with the first four matches won,  one or two injuries have crept in and a weakened team has faltered losing their  last two fixtures against Westoe and Alnwick. 

You can see the first team playing their home games on Thursday  evenings, 7.20pm start, their next home game being on Thursday 17th November  against Northern.

Your support would be very much appreciated.    
 
Cheers

Ian Mc

November leagues now online.

The September winter leagues are now published. Click the link on the home page to see them and enter your results.