Squash Ball Success

On May 12, 2012 we hosted the annual "Squash Ball" at the Belvedere Golf club in Charlottetown. Master of Ceremonies, Steve Bruce, kept the crowd entertained with a great opening speech, slideshows, and an entertaining game of "Squash PEI Family Feud". Steve's wonderful presentation was made possible with the help of his beautiful assistant, Kady Brown.

This year's award recipients were as follows:

Female Athlete of the Year - Ryann Jinks

Male Athlete of the Year - Mike Buchanan

Junior Female Athlete of the Year - Ryann Jinks

Junior Male Athlete of the Year - Nicholas Trainor

"Geezer of the Year" - Gordon Lawlor

Most Improved Adult - Darren Chaisson

Most Improved Junior - Benoit Sampson

Heart & Soul Adult - Mitchell Chaisson

Heart & Soul Junior - Quincy Beck

As well as recognizing the competitive accomplishments of our athletes, we celebrated the generosity of our volunteers. So many people give up their time to ensure that our tournaments and programs run smoothly. A great big "thank you!" to this year's executive committee including Cam Beck, Emily Brown, John Power, Ken Sampson, and past president, Lester Jinks. Thank you to Mitch Chaisson, John Power, and Lester Jinks who helped to run our junior programs. Another huge task that our association handles are tournaments. We at Squash PEI have been so lucky to have, Kelly MacWilliams, as our tournament chair for the last 2 seasons. Kelly has done an amazing job helping us to host 9 tournaments last season and 7 tournaments this season. For all of Kelly's hard work and committment, we awarded her with the "Volunteer of the Year" award- THANK YOU KELLY!

That's a wrap folks! Check out pictures from the ball in the right hand panel and check back to the website often for updates and events over the summer!

Shara Cody

President

Junior and Adult Fun Tournament

The Junior beginner event will start at 10.00 am on Saturday 12 th May 2012. Open to beginners and Novice juniors of all ages. Be at the SPA fitness centre to register at 10 am. Racquets and goggles provided. We will gaurantee you 2 or 3 matches and a ton of fun. Should finish just after noon.

The adult event will start in the afternoon. All players welcome!

Final Monday Night Boasts!

Congratulations to the Sweet Drops for winning the final session of The Spa Monday Night House League. Squash is certainly alive and well at the Spa on Monday nights as a record number of players participated in the Squash PEI sponsored league. Special thanks to coordinator John Power for all his time and effort in setting up the leagues and having them run smoothly and on time and the socials after each session, trust me, no small feat! Thanks to all the players who participated and took the time and effort to help out with the officiating. Although the leagues are over we are still looking to book  time from 6:00 to 8:00 every Monday as a drop in and play time, hopefully people are still interested in getting out for a hit as the weather gets nicer. Thanks to all the great sports in the league that have been targeted in this blog at times, you know that it is always in good fun, well except for CBC Bruce and Juice, I meant every word!! Until next year, get to the T, the walls are your friends and have a great summer!

Congrats to winning team - Sweet Drops - Lester Jinks, Ryan Jinks, Connor Jinks, Jarmo Puiras, Jeremy Stiles, Jane Hicks, Harvey Chandler, Emma Jinks, Seanna Evans-Renaud and Liam Jinks.

Congrats to players who accumulated most points at their respective level, remember that you are moving up in the next league:

1. Lester (Drops)
2. Ken Sampson (Drives)
3. Jordan Sampson (Drives)
4. Jarmo (Drops)
5. Robert Sharkie (Nicks)
6. Andrew Brown (Drives)
7 Brodie Carter (Drives)
8. Lyall Huggan (Lobs)
9. Angus MacInnis (Volleys)
10. Joyce Robertson (Boasts)
11. Ashley Fitzpatrick (Lobs)

Great Showing for PEI at Atlantics

The Atlantic Squash Championships and the Atlantic Junior Jester were hosted in Moncton this past weekend. The tournament drew 117 players from the region as well as the top female player in Canada and number 37 in the world, Samantha Cornett. The draws were tight and many amazing matches were played at all levels. 

Our Island players had an impressive showing with Benoit Sampson winning the Boys Under 15 category, Jordan Sampson winning the the Boys under 19 defeating Connor Jinks in an exciting final match. Both Jordan and Connor won a trip to the Junior Jesters tournament in Alberta in November for coming first and second respectively. Ryann Jinks placed first in the Girls Under 19 category beating Emily Terry of Nova Scotia in an impressive 5 game set final. Both Ryann and Emily have also won the trip to Alberta to represent the Atlantic region in the Jesters tournament next November.

Josh Perry won the men's C division and will be moving to Men's B next season- congrats Josh! The men's B draw is always a tight race, but Connor Jinks played some formidable squash to make it to the final. Martin Dumas of Nova Scotia defeated Connor in the final and Martin has been promoted to A. Connor will no doubt be a force to reckon with next season at the B level.

Lester Jinks took the Championship in the Masters division while his eldest daughter, Ryann Jinks, took the Atlantic title for the women's A division. Runner up in women's A was another impressive island junior, Quincy Beck. Congratulations girls and thank you for your hard work and dedication.

The men's A final brought forth a battle of the sexes with top island player, Mike Buchanan, and top Canadian female, Samantha Cornett. These two amazing players had the crowd in awe with their performance in the final. Mike Buchanan took the Atlantic title once again coming out on top over Sam in 3 games. Congratulations to Mike not only on this win, but on an amazing showing this entire season!

To wrap up this season, we will be hosting the Squash Ball on May 12th at the Belvedere Golf Club along with a handicap team tournament. More details will be available in the next couple of weeks but if you have items you would like to donate for the auction at the Squash Ball, please email us at squashpei@gmail.com

Thank you all for your support this past season,

Shara Cody

President

Squash: Back the Bid 2020

SQUASH & THE OLYMPIC GAMES
If you are not one of the millions who, very understandably, think that squash is already in the Olympic
Games then you may know that our sport is currently in the bid process to gain a coveted place.
So what makes me think that we have a really good chance to win through this time? Rugby 7s and Golf
beat us in the 2016 Rio race but there are specific factors that are different now, as we move towards the decision in Buenos Aires in September 2013.
Squash is a great sport, deserving of a place, but like all products it has to be marketed and promoted.
Having made two bids we have listened to what the IOC has said and appreciate what is needed..... which is where Vero communications fit in. They are the pre-eminent bid consultants, having helped Rio 2016 towards winning the Olympic Games hosting rights; Rugby 7s with their 2016 success; Qatar to secure the FIFA World Cup amongst others. Now they are on board with us. With Vero’s help the squash pitch has become strategized and co-ordinated. We will really make our case now.
Most importantly we can demonstrate that the sport has upped its game in terms of media and presentation.
Partners PSA have led the way by developing greatly improved standards and consistency in filming with
their initiative to cover events themselves. We now have uniformity of the highest order in broadcasting that
has taken the sport to a new level which is crucial to the bid. WSA have now taken up the mantle too.
Coupled with this has been a general upgrading in event staging so that spectators as well as TV audiences can be part of a spectacular sports presentation.
On a general level squash can point to a raft of reason why squash would be an asset to the Olympic
Games. These include:
- Squash is played in 185 countries on around 50,000 courts
- All five continental regions have produced both male and female world champions
- Squash is popular in countries which are not traditionally dominant at the Olympic Games – e.g.
Egypt and Malaysia
- Glass courts enable squash to showcase a host city like no other sport – e.g. the Egyptian Pyramids,
Hong Kong Harbour etc
- Squash is already played in every major multi-sport games Including the Commonwealth, Pan
American, Asian and World Games
- Competing in the Olympic Games would be the most important opportunity for a player – and
winning gold the ultimate prize in the sport
- Squash was recently voted the “world’s healthiest sport” by Forbes Magazine
- It is the only racket sport where players share same space – ensuring unique flow/competitiveness
- Squash utilises latest broadcast technology
- Electronic referee decision-making, video review and big-screen presentation of decisions
- All-glass show courts and experimental glass floors add new dimensions.

Our tag-line is Squash, Sport at its Best, which aptly summarises what we stand for. If you want to find out more about the bid go to www.squash2020.com.

Andrew Shelley
Chief Executive, WSF