There is a similar set-up with many other clubs in Cornwall, on the following page there is a map of all the courts in Cornwall, many are clubs and many have thriving junior sections as well. As you can see from the map that there are a great number of courts in Cornwall and many are open to the public and so in most places the general public can play and so generally the provision is good in Cornwall.
National Level- England Squash itself is funded by Sport England National Lottery grants and by subscriptions paid from members. England squash is currently engaged in a number of development schemes to increase the number and standard of people playing squash. The development side of England Squash has a clear structure to it, it consists of one National Development Manager, five appointed Regional development officers and then there are County development officers for every county in England.
There are two main schemes running at the moment for juniors, one being the Junior Club Accreditation scheme that aims to recognise and support clubs and sport centres that are proactive in junior development. The scheme presents bronze, silver and gold awards to clubs when England Squash criteria has been met and verified. The programme is sponsored by Unsquashable who provides equipment and prizes for the juniors. So far it has been a success and the number of children playing has greatly increased since the schemes introduction. The second scheme is the ‘Top Squash Programme’ this involves the linking of clubs with schools to encourage children from schools to take up squash.
Going up to the next level, there is also a County Association Support Scheme, which runs to ensure county activity increases and informs and updates counties on appropriate policies and procedures. A set of criteria was set out in recent meetings that can now be worked towards in every individual county to improve standards.
In the past there has been very little funding for players at a higher level with only the elite who represent their countries being given aid. However now 18 selected players, of over 18 years of age, receive aid through the World Performance Plan that is now being extended to include juniors (15 to 19 year olds) as well. There has always been equality of funding between males and females as well.
In theory the pathway for a junior is from school/club squad to county squads to regional and then finally to National, however I will now discuss the reality of this while looking at the ‘ladder to the top’ below.
There is one point that must be raised after looking at this ‘pathway’ and that is there is one major problem with getting the juniors to progress to the top and that is that there is a huge gap where possibly a lot of juniors will give up in the development system, at regional level there are no teams or schemes running anymore. In previous years there were regional championships, which were held at Manchester over a weekend where teams would play and talent would be recognised, however two years ago the weekend was stopped and has no plans to be restarted. This is the one major flaw in the system at the moment; there is a huge gap between club level and national level.
The PSA is the Professional Squash Association for men, which runs tournaments all over the world, and the equivalent WISPA (Women’s international Squash professional Association) similarly runs tournaments and provides information to female members about the world of squash. The WSF (World Squash Federation) helps supports current players and potentially elite players for the future.
Another area that England squash must deal with to fulfil their major aim in increasing participation is the disabled. There is an English Deaf Squash Association and England Squash are connected to the fight for Sight Organisation, through coaching courses and training days deaf children can play and progress to whatever level. Unfortunately after some investigation into the local area I have found that Truro Squash Club is not currently trying to increase disabled participation in anyway, there are no schemes running which is another negative point about the provision in Truro and I am sure this is the case with many other clubs in Cornwall as well.
After the initial boom of squash in the 70’s the number of people playing squash has been on a decline, squash suffers because it is not a TV friendly sport, but recently after a new BskyB deal the number of squash tournaments on the TV has greatly increased and with development schemes like ones running in Cornwall and with similar ones running all over the country undoubtedly participation will increase.
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