This year has once again been a successful year with regards to the domestic leagues & tournaments which were well organised by Martin Lawrence. These were generally well attended. There were a few problems with the B League due to lack of players who had been drafted in as reserves for the A league teams, therefore this years format will see some minor changes to which should alleviate the problem.

AKS won the first division and Toyota 2 won the B. The league was followed by the A league cup which was won by Safety Solutions.

The Gibraltar Open tournament was again a resounding success where we had a new and unexpected winner. The tournament was once again the pinnacle of our season. The men's Open winner was Tom Pashley who beat our regular coach and past winner Ben Ford in the final. We hope they all return next year.

Once again 32 people entered the ‘Closed’ tournament which matched last year’s entry. Unfortunately there was no women's tournament this year. Steve Shacaluga retained the title in a repeat of last year’s final beating Adam Newnham. It must be noted that Christian Navas was unable to play this year’s event and due to an ongoing injury Adam Newnham the beaten finalist and one of our top ranked players, has since had a hip operation and will be out for some time.

We were also able to run a junior tournament of 12 players in which Gareth Gomez beat Alejandro Vasquez in the final.

We again entered players and teams in the Andalucian circuit events and hosted one of the circuit tournaments. Steve Shacaluga achieved a top 10 place after 3 events but was unable to maintain this due to our own domestic and European commitments. Those newcomers that have also joined us on the Andalucían circuit this year have found it extremely rewarding in terms of squash as well as on the social side of it.

With regards to the Club’s travels for the European Tournaments, these again have gone as expected and it is a pity that we will be participating in the Challenge Cup at the end of this month for the last time as it is being phased out and a new European Team Championship format will be introduced as from May, which will integrate both current competitions.

In the European Team Championship May 2010 (France) our team of Anthony Brindle, Steve Shacaluga, Christian Navas, Nick DeHaro and Mark Tewkesbury finished in 25th place out of an entry of 28 of all the top nations in Europe and in the Team Challenge Cup (Sep 09) held in Krakow, Poland we achieved a creditable 3rd spot. We hope we can do better next week in Warsaw where we are participating with 2 teams.

We have seen some highs and lows with regards to the squash playing membership with a gradual decline over the past five years. Thankfully the same old faces are still around holding the fort and Gym membership has been on the increase.

The removal of court fees for the forthcoming year will hopefully encourage more members to play on a regular basis.

I’d like to mention Xavier from Manilva a regular visitor to our club who has since become a member and who you’ve probably seen around on club night and will also be joining the domestic Leagues. He has shown continued enthusiasm and has improved tremendously over the past few months. We wish to promote this practice from as many people as possible in the area and the club would like to encourage the regulars to play these newcomers.

Votes of thanks go to all the players at the club – but particularly to Martin Lawrence for his hard work in getting the leagues and tournaments running.

Thanks must also go out to the sponsors as without them we would find it hard to maintain the number of competitions we organise throughout the year.

Lastly I would like to thank the whole committee who has worked tirelessly during the past 12 months to try and get things sorted out to be able to move forward in the right direction despite the difficulties and setbacks we have faced over the past couple of years.