History

Origins of the club and first recollections from a member

At the outset of the quest to find additional information for the web site we enlisted the services of one of the first lady members, who through her connections was aware of the earliest beginnings of Windscale Squash Club. This is Sylvia Cheethams story.

I have contacted Peter Smith, one of the founding members and received some information, which I shall pass on, as well as consulting my diaries. My recollections are of the old original court in Gosforth, the decisions regarding the building of the new courts that are used at present, the earliest Ladies team, and other bits and pieces.

My squash started in 1965/66 playing in the 'barn' that was our court, this was totally the wrong size and when we pestered SASRA, our governing body we were told we couldn't have any new facility until the Boating Club was built at Seascale. They kept their promise and Derek Ockenden, Dave Collins, and I think Trevor Purnell were the instigators of our present WSC.

As you will see from the few photos that I have been able to source, we had a thriving club, and one of the earliest exhibitions I can recall was between Jonah Barrington and Clive Francis. The first Ladies TSB (Bank) Competition was held at Whitehaven Sports Centre in 1980, and the photo and report is included.

Janet Smith, who preceded my playing days was a member of the men's teams and recalls playing Tommy Armstrong from Workington. However she had stopped by the time I returned from Zambia in 1969. I was delighted to be able to use the new facilities, and as there were not enough ladies playing competitively I joined in with the men socially, and played for the teams. More travelling took me to Kent and then South Africa, which meant that I was off the scene until 1976, although I had continued to play whilst away achieving a relatively high standard. A few more ladies were now playing at WSC, although it was 1978 before Tony Winzor started coaching them to make up a team.

County competitions were in their infancy in the form of a County Ladder, where the ladies challenged each other and ranked themselves according to who won. County league games counted towards this, and one evening I beat County number 2 Doreen Lockwood of Clawthorpes, which put me at the top of the Ladder for a couple of weeks. Having reached Zambian number 1 in my time there, and furthered my development since, when I played in the 1980 TSB Competition I was pretty much an unknown quantity and managed to win, only dropping two games in the entire competition, those being in the final. As this was contested by players from throughout Copeland and Allerdale, this was all the best of the ladies playing at that time.

Having recently moved house I keep coming across old newspaper cuttings and photos which I can pass on should they be any use to you in setting up your web site. All the best with it, please let me know when it's operational.

Sylvia