Our Constitution

Hook Community Squash Club Constitution

The Club shall be called the Hook Community Squash Club, hereafter to be referred to as "the Club".

Objects

To foster and promote the sport of squash in the community of Hook, Hampshire and the local area, providing opportunities for recreation and competition.

Membership

The following are eligible for membership:

Membership of the Club shall be open to any person living, or working, in the vicinity of Hook, and paying the relevant subscription/joining fee as determined by the Annual General Meeting of the Club Members.

There shall be five classes of membership available. These are:

Full Member;
Family Member (a family is up to 2 adults sharing the same address, and any of their children or grandchildren under the age of 18);
Student Member (any person currently in full time education);
Day Member (eligible to play between 0700 and 1700, Monday to Friday); and
Honorary Life Member

Honorary Life Members

Any two Full or adult Family Members may propose and second any candidate for Honorary Life membership.

Any such proposal must be considered by the Committee of the Club. The Committee will only consider Honorary Life Membership in cases where there has been significant service to the Club by the candidate. The Committee must be unanimous in supporting any such proposal, before it is put to a General Meeting. The Committee must publish its reasons for supporting the candidate.

An Honorary Life Member must be elected by not less than 80% of those present at a General Meeting.

Voting members

Only Full, adult Family, and Honorary Life Members are eligible to vote at meetings of the Club. Each Full member, each adult member of a Family Member, and each Honorary Member shall be a Voting Member.

Expulsion of members

Members of the Club whose conduct is inappropriate or who decline to abide by any of the Rules or Bylaws may be expelled or suspended by a resolution passed at a meeting of the Committee where their entrance fee and subscriptions may be forfeited. Members shall have the right to appeal in person to the Committee with regard to any decision affecting them, provided that notice of such appeal be submitted to the Secretary, in writing, within seven days of notification of the decision.

Officers

The Officers of the Club, who shall all be executive officers, shall be as follows:

Chairman
Treasurer
Membership Secretary

Plus such other officers as may be agreed at an Annual General Meeting of the Club, or as may be co-opted by the elected Officers. The continuation of any co-opted officer shall be voted on, at the next Annual General Meeting following their co-option.

Election of Officers

Officers shall be elected at the Annual General Meeting of the Club, from, and by, the Members of the Club.
Officers are elected for a period of one year, but may be re-elected to the same office or another office the following year.

Committee

The affairs of the Club shall be controlled by a Committee which comprises the Executive Officers of the Club. The Committee shall meet at agreed intervals and not less than three times per year.

The duties of the Committee shall be:

To control the affairs of the Club on behalf of the Members.
To keep accurate accounts of the finances of the Club through the Treasurer. The Club shall maintain a bank current account and the following Officers shall be authorised to sign Club cheques: two from the Chairman, Treasurer, and Membership Secretary
To co-opt additional members of the Committee as the Committee feels this is necessary.
To make decisions on the basis of a simple majority vote. In the case of equal votes, the Chairman shall be entitled to an additional casting vote.

General Meetings

The Annual General Meeting of the Club shall be held not later than the end of November each year. Fourteen clear days written notice shall be given to Members of the Annual General Meeting by email. Members must advise the Chairman in writing of any business to be moved at the Annual General Meeting at least seven days before a meeting. The Chairman shall give notice of the agenda for the meeting to Members not less than fourteen days before the meeting.

The business of the Annual General Meeting shall be to:

Confirm the minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting and any General Meetings held since the last Annual General Meeting.
Receive the accounts for the year from the Treasurer.
Receive the annual report of the Chairman.
Elect the Officers of the Club.
Review Club subscription rates, and agree them for the forthcoming year.
Transact such other business received in writing by the Chairman from Members seven days prior to the meeting and included on the agenda, and any other business raised at the meeting.

Special General Meetings may be convened by the Committee, or on receipt by the Chairman of a request in writing from not less than three Voting Members of the Club. At least fourteen days notice of the meeting shall be given.

Nomination of candidates for election as Officers shall be made in writing to the Chairman at least seven days in advance of the Annual General Meeting date. Nominations can only be made by Voting Members and must be seconded by another Voting Member.

Nomination of a candidate for election as an Honorary member shall be made in writing to the Chairman at least seven days in advance of a General Meeting date, in a written proposal which includes the nominator’s justification for the proposal. Nominations can only be made by Voting Members and must be seconded by another Voting Member.

At all General Meetings, the chair will be taken by the Chairman or, in their absence, by a deputy appointed by the Club or by Voting Members attending the meeting.

Decisions made at a General Meeting shall be by a simple majority of votes from those Voting Members attending the meeting. In the event of equal votes, the Chairman shall be entitled to an additional casting vote.

A quorum for a General Meeting shall be three Voting Members including at least two Officers from the Chairman, Treasurer, and Membership Secretary.

Each Voting Member of the Club shall be entitled to one vote at General Meetings.

Alterations to the Constitution

Any proposed alterations to the Club Constitution may only be considered at an Annual or Special General Meeting, convened with the required written notice of the proposal. Any alteration or amendment must be proposed by a Voting Member of the Club and seconded by another Voting Member. Such alterations shall be passed if supported by not less than two-thirds of those Voting Members present at the meeting, assuming that a quorum has been achieved.

Dissolution

If at any General Meeting of the Club, a resolution be passed calling for the dissolution of the Club, the Chairman shall immediately convene a Special General Meeting of the Club to be held not less than one month thereafter to discuss and vote on the resolution.

A quorum for a Special General Meeting called to discuss the dissolution of the Club shall be two-thirds of the Voting Members, including at least three of the Executive Officers of the Club.

If at that Special General Meeting, the resolution is carried by at least three-quarters of the Voting Members present at the meeting, the Committee shall thereupon, or at such date as shall have been specified in the resolution, proceed to realise the assets of the Club and discharge all debts and liabilities of the Club.

After discharging all debts and liabilities of the Club, the remaining assets shall not be paid or distributed amongst any Members of the Club, but shall be given or transferred to the Hook Community Centre, or to some other voluntary organisation having objects similar to those of the Club.

Latest AGM Minutes

Monday 25th November 2024, 9.15PM – 9.55PM, Hook Community Centre, Ravenscroft

Committee Attendees: Mike Pitt, Daniel Bruce, Nigel Kirkland, Jason Denhart, Bex McLean, Tony Hart, Tom Dally, Diane Smith

Member Attendees: Hugo, Anthony, Gary Hales, Salv de Piano, David Rogers, Tom McLean, Richard Timbrell

Apologies: Paul Newman, Helen Highett

Agenda:

Chairman’s review
Membership
Treasurer’s Report
Club Activities
Election of Officers
AOB

1.Chairman’s Review

I am very pleased that Hook Community Squash Club continues to thrive at a time when other squash clubs have been struggling. Our core values of providing an inclusive space for squash players who live or work in Hook and the surrounding areas, of all abilities, at a reasonable cost puts us in a good place for the future.

Our 2 new committee members in the key roles of Membership Secretary and Treasurer, Tony Hart and Nigel Kirkland, have settled in well to their roles and doing great jobs. Meanwhile, we have also appointed a new welfare and safeguarding committee member, Bex McLean, and we will soon be publishing our approach in this area.

Our overall membership is strong and finances continue to be healthy (see reports below). We replaced the bottled water with a mains fed water supply, hopefully more environmentally friendly and more reliable than the bottled water solution we had before. We are hoping to fully replaster the front walls in both courts in 2025 - Paul Newman has been doing a great job of patching them periodically, but it feels like we need a full refresh now, and we may take the opportunity to do some other refreshers at the same time, in order to maintain a good standard for all players.

Jason Denhart is now stepping down as Team Captain, having successfully run the teams for over a year – he has completed a full handover to Tom Dally and Jon Hardy to carry the baton forward!

Meanwhile, there have continued to be some impressive things happening at the club this year, and just a few highlights from me are the following:

We ran our first ever Quiz Night, which was sold out and raised over £200 for Sport Relief, as well as being a great night out – many thanks to Daniel for being the driving force behind this, and to all those involved in making it happen and be the success it was.
We have launched a brand new range of T-Shirts and Hoodies (ordering details to follow, in time for Christmas) – with many thanks to Tom Dally for persevering to get this over the line. And Kevin Ashley has very kindly agreed to sponsor shirts for team players.
We have introduced a welfare and safeguarding officer, Bex McLean – this role is a pre-requisite for putting on some junior training sessions supported by England Squash, which we hope to launch in 2025 with Gary Hales.
We have continued with our novice sessions, which we think are helping encourage new and returning players into the game.
Membership is on an all time high again, with more members joining all the time, more from Tony later
Our internal leagues are continuing strongly, with lots of players, covering all standards from relative beginner to advanced
Our squash teams both competed well in the Winter league 2023/24, with our 2nd team getting promoted and 1st team just missing out. In the Summer 2024 season, our 2nd team topped the table in their division and should be promoted in Summer 2025, while the 1st team had a good run to finish mid table in their first season after promotion. Meanwhile, this Winter season (2024/25), our 1st team is in the top spot, while our 2nd team is fighting hard after promotion last time.
The Junior coaching run by Gary is continuing to engage a large number of juniors, some of which are graduating to the leagues with good success
We have run a handicap tournament and tonight’s session again – some free play, the 2 finals and a wonderful exhibition match, with some food and drink for all.
Finally, there has to be a big round of thanks
- To Gary Hales, the squash coach, who runs our leagues, the handicap tournament, junior coaching - basically supporting everything we do, thank you!
- To our members, who keep on playing squash and engaging with the club – we do this for you.
- And of course, to everybody on the committee – Tony, Nigel, Jason, Tom, Daniel, Diane, Helen, Paul, Bex, – you all give up some of your time to make sure we have a thriving squash community in our little village, and none of this happens without you volunteering your time, effort, experience and skills to make this a welcoming, happy, inclusive club for all – thank you all so much.

2. Membership

Tony Hart reported: We currently have 152 members, up 3 on our membership figures from last year. This is comprised of 77 individual, 31 family groups (counted as 2 members), 1 day member, 2 student memberships, 6 committee members and 4 life members. Membership has been pretty steady throughout the year with only minor fluctuations in overall numbers.

We are actively keen to recruit new members and reckon we would need approximately 200 members before pressure on court availability became noticeable. To that end, if you know anyone who is keen to get back into squash, or try it out for the first time, please do point them in our direction or bring them down to a club night. Provided they have a pair of clean and non-marking shoes they’re good to go. A racket is great, but in a pinch we can loan rackets to brand-new players.

Alongside the regular Newsletter we also have a couple of club WhatsApp groups that I’d like to highlight:

Main Club WhatsApp Group: https://bit.ly/join_squashchat

Novices Group: https://bit.ly/join_novicesquashchat

3. Treasurer’s Report

Nigel Kirkland reported as follows:

The finances of the club continue to be relatively strong. Our financial years always cover the 12 months September to Aug and the matters to report from this last period include:

Members’ subscriptions receipts are the highest on record. This reflects the continuing high membership numbers incorporating a good mix of individual and family members.
The club pays a monthly rent and services cost for the courts and access to showers etc – this is also the highest on record. Those costs increase every April and this year the increase was 6% - we don’t know what next year’s increase will be. Our membership subscription rates have not been increased in 2023/2024.
The club has to pay for any maintenance of the courts and particular investments. This year we spent almost £1,900 replacing the court heaters and installing a new drinking water supply. This contrasts with the previous year when no equivalent costs were incurred.
We endeavour to ensure that the quality of facilities remain high and compare well with other squash clubs, which they do. We encourage all members to report any issues that require attention.
The Committee agreed a couple of specific policy matters:
1. Team Costs – we have 2 teams currently playing in the Berkshire county leagues. The raw costs exceed the income as the income level is designed to cover the team food costs whereas all other costs are covered by the general membership income. We agreed that the subsidy will be set at a not-to-exceed level within any financial year. Having such teams help bring and retain members.
2. Financial Reserves – the reserves are intended to cover periodic major repairs & investments, potential projects and ongoing liabilities. Both short-term and long term investments include capital projects for the floors and walls of the courts.

4. Club activities

It’s been a really good year of squash for both our teams across the winter and summer

leagues and one in which we’ve grown the squad and seen a bank of newer players get

involved. We’re mid way through the winter season 24/25 with uniquely both our teams

playing in the same league, division 4, off the back of our 2nd team being promoted in the

winter league 23/24. The 1s are currently in second place and doing fantastically. Our 2s are

having…let’s put it this way…a “developmental” season so far coming up against some

stronger opponents! Either way, they’re hustling and enjoying the squash all the same.

Our Hook 1s had solid seasons in both the winter 23/24 and summer 24 leagues, often

playing against Camberley and Caversham PV who are very strong opponents. We finished

3rd of 6 in the summer leagues and 4th of 8 in the winter leagues.

The Hook 2s have had a couple of blinding runs in the previous leagues earning promotions

in both the winter 23/24 and summer 24 leagues, having come 2nd out of 8 in winter and

being crowned winners of the league in summer 2024! This is a fantastic achievement, even

more so when considering we’ve only been running two teams now for around 18 months.

Well done to everyone involved, we can look back on a year of hard fought competition,

many ups, a few downs but with some pride in how our club teams have performed. Well

done and thank you to everyone!

Full tables and results for the winter 23/24 and summer 24 leagues are in the results section.

Update on Team Captains

I (Jason Denhart) step down as Team Captain as of the end of November 2024 as I’m off to

the colder climes of Finland in January. I’ve really enjoyed this role partnering with our

amazing team. We have a great spirit amongst the team members and I’m proud of all our

achievements.

I am delighted to handover the baton to Jon Hardy and Tom Dally who are not only

significantly better squash players than me, but both hugely engaged in the club, the team

and the squash committee. The teams are in great hands with you two; thank you both for

stepping in and wishing you all the luck in the role!

Squad update

This year we have run 21 different players across the teams breaking our club record. The

2nds rotated 18 different players through the seasons.

It’s encouraging to see that even through the tricky depths of summer holidays that we’ve

been able to run full teams each time, testament to the strength and commitment of our

squad. Everyone counts and even if you can only get involved once or twice per season,

those are the margins that make the difference and mean we field full teams.

This being said, we are always looking out for new players - we need an average

squad of c.20 engaged players to field two strong teams of 5 every other week. With

injuries, holidays, illnesses and other life events, sometimes we’re a bit squeezed for

numbers.

If you’re interested, please get in touch with Tom Dally (thomasmdally@gmail.com) or

Jon Hardy (jonhardy10@hotmail.com)

Welcome to our newer players this year

We’re happy to have welcomed Dave Fairhead, Rich Timbrell and Nathan Brown to the team

squad over the summer. Great additions and good to have you all on board!

Farewell to some regulars

Over the year, we sadly lost a few players due to moves, injuries and other commitments. I

wanted to extend a big thanks to Dave Weaver, Mike Jobson, Nathan Sayer and Brett

Charlton for their contributions to the teams over the years! If you ever find yourself missing

it, you’re welcome back any time. Roger, I’m not adding you into this section yet, hope to

welcome you back soon!!

Massive thanks to all the players

Dave Weaver, Daniel Bruce, Tom Dally, Mike Dyer, Tom McLean, Jon Hardy, Richard

Kibble, John Ball, Ashley Fowler, Adam Kidd, Mike Pitt, Nathan Sayer, Brett Charlton, Tom

Bates, Roger Copeman, Tony Hart, Will Buchan, Nigel Kirkland, Kevin Ashley , Andrew

Freshwater, Mike Jobson, Jason Denhart, Harry Wigglesworth, Nathan Brown, Dave

Fairhead, Rich Timbrell

Full results and stats

Hook 1s

Hook 2s

The summer in stats

Hook 1: 12 players
Hook 2: 17 players
Hook 1: 60% of matches won with 55% of games taken
Hook 2: 65% of matches won with 68% of games taken
Hook 1: Adam Kidd won both of his two matches and also won his match for the 2s = 100% win rate!
Hook 2: 7 players won 100% of their matches (Mike D = 3 / Rich K = 2 / Jason D = 3 /
Tom Mc = 2 / Daniel B = 2 / Adam K = 1 / Nathan B = 1)

Awards

MVP: Mike Dyer. 8 matches played, 6 wins.
Honorary mention to Adam Kidd - 3 matches 100% win rate.
The most committed: John Ball - 9 matches, 5 wins
Rocky Balboa: John Ball
The gifmeister: Joint 1st place: Tom McLean / John Ball. Mike P snipping at both your heels, watch out next season!
The most injured: take your pick!! Get better soon gents!
The wouldn’t say boo to a goose, but Shaun isn’t a goose: Kevin Ashley
One hit wonders: Andrew Freshwater / Nathan Brown / Tom Bates / Richard Timbrell / Mike Jobson

Special mention to Kevin Ashley, our new club shirt sponsor

This year, Kevin Ashley, one of our squash team and internal league regulars kindly offered

to sponsor and buy our club team shirts, for the first time allowing the team to look like a

serious outfit, and not some thrift shop charlatans gathering on a Thursday night!

From Gary Hales

Junior Coaching

I would like to thank the club for its support of my organising Junior Squash Group Coaching Sessions over the last 12 months.

I organise 4 x 1-hour junior group coaching sessions (after-school on Mondays and Fridays).

A total of 26 juniors (aged 11 – 17-year-olds) attend on Fridays.

During September and October 2024, the Monday sessions stopped due to lack of numbers attending but after organising a couple of free taster sessions and increasing publicity (including e.g., the Hook Junior School Newsletter) I now have 8 juniors (aged 7 – 10) signed up to attend the Monday sessions which restart on Monday 25th November 2024.

I offer Free “Taster Sessions” to any new attendees.

Internal Squash Leagues

The past 12 months has seen the number of members playing in the internal leagues range from 38 to 46. There have been 8 league periods spread over the last 12 months. Attendee numbers have been 40, 42, 45, 42, 46, 38, 41 & 42 respectively, for the period November 2023 to November 2024.

The Internal leagues are the main stay of most squash clubs. Most courts are booked out for the playing of league matches. It is a great way to meet other members and to play players of different standards and styles.

2023 Handicap Tournament

The Club Committee once again asked me to organise the Annual Handicap Squash Tournament with the assistance of Karen Taylor. There was a total of 42 entrants. The Finals were scheduled for Monday 20th November but the Community Centre unexpectedly had to close that day and rearranged for Monday 27th November. Unfortunately, most of the finalists could not make this rearranged date and so their finals were played on Tuesday 21st November. In the Main Final Jon Hardy (-1) beat Roger Copeman (+1) 3-2 (15/13, 17/15, 12/15, 13/15, 15/9). In the Plate Final Caroline Sutton (-2) beat Jason Denhart (+1) 3-2 (6/15, 6/15, 15/14, 15/12, 15/11).

As Finals Night was moved to November 27th it was decided to have 3rd/4th place matches for both tournaments played that evening between the losing semi-finalists. In the Main Tournament Mike Dyer (0) beat Daniel Bruce (0) 3-2 (15/14, 15/11, 14/15, 14/15, 15/7). In the Plate Tournament David Rogers (-3) beat Martin Paine (+3) 3-2 (15/9, 5/15, 15/11, 14/15, 15/9). I played against Nathan O’Hare of Aldermaston Squash Club in an “exhibition match” as part of the evening’s entertainment. Nathan won the match 2-1.

Individual Coaching & Racket Restringing

I would like to thank the club for allowing me to advertise and deliver individual squash & racketball lessons at the club and to provide a racket restringing service for the club members.

5. Election of Officers

The core committee roles of chairman, membership secretary and treasurer are required as a minimum. None of those are stepping down this year, so no elections are necessary for them.

Jason Denhart will be stepping down as Team Captain and leaving the committee due to relocation to Finland – we thank him for all of his work leading the teams while he has been the Captain. Tom Dally and Jon Hardy have agreed to co-captain the teams and have received a handover from Jason.

Since the last AGM, Jake Bagnato decided to step down from the committee, and we added a new role of Welfare and Safeguarding Officer, which Bex McLean has taken on.

Officers post-AGM:

Chairman Mike Pitt

Treasurer Nigel Kirkland

Membership Tony Hart

PR Paul Newman

Team Captain Tom Dally (shared with Jon Hardy, not on committee)

Welfare & Safeguarding Bex McLean

Committee Member Daniel Bruce

Committee Member Helen Highett

Committee Member Diane Smith

7.AOB

Tony asked - Could someone be regular new member host at beginning of club night. Mike Repsonded Jake Bagnato may be willing to help, Diane also offered to help.

Tom M asked if we should have wall mounted honours board - record of competition winners – committee to look into this.

Jason queried if L3 players should also add results to Squashlevels, Gary was thinking of removing, but may add – will send survey, but feeling in the room is that its a good idea.