Club News | April ‘26
Hello and welcome to our April Round-up newsletter. Another busy month has passed us by and we hope all our members are well and continue to enjoy the club.
Our monthly quiz was another success and team ‘Stan’s Clan’ were the proud winners this month. Well done!
Following our shout out for volunteers, we have had a terrific response and the following have kindly offered their services: Nic and Karen Pearce, Marilyn Hall, Harry Leverett, Hugh Lohan, Carl Marshall and Judy Bremar. However, other volunteers would be most welcome to assist with the various activities of the club so that the overall load is spread as thinly as possible. If any members would like to add their name to the volunteer list, please drop us an email at admin@lbsc.org.uk.
We are delighted to advise that our own Guy Mines was awarded a certificate of commendation at the Littlehampton Town Sports Awards for his volunteer work at LBSC.
Easter opening
In accordance with usual practice, the Club will be open over the Easter weekend. Any club sessions will not take place but if members wish to make their own arrangements they can book the courts through the ebooking system and use their WhatsApp groups to make the arrangements. Members will need to use their own equipment.
Recent Committee Activities
AGM
Just a gentle reminder that the Annual General Meeting will take place on Thursday 21 May. Any nominations and proposals to be voted on need to be with the secretary by Thursday 30th April.
Review of evening club sessions
Having successfully managed the challenging financial situation that we inherited, the Management Committee is now moving to look at other issues. As we are sure you will appreciate, many factors were already in place when we took office and there was little opportunity to introduce changes mid-season. We are now moving our attention to squash and badminton.
In relation to badminton, we are looking to see how the club sessions are working to every members’ benefit to see how we can encourage more activity particularly in the evenings where there does seem to be a disparity in standards which has resulted in some unforeseen outcomes. We will be consulting with you before any fundamental changes are being proposed.
We are looking to arrange coaching courses for those members who wish to improve their standard and details of these courses will be published shortly.
In addition we will be asking members to indicate if they wish to play in league matches to represent the Club and we will be organising some practice evenings and days to assess which leagues would be appropriate.
We will be looking to increase the number of teams that represent the Club, and will be looking to hold two combi home matches on the same evening which will free up more courts.
We will also look to change how teams are selected and passing more responsibility onto appointed captains to relieve the burden placed on committee members. More details will be published in due course.
Total number of approximate volunteer hours spent in running the club this year: 535 hours
John has been continuing to speak to club coaches to arrange more coaching sessions for badminton players. He’s been helping to cover the bar with other volunteers along with his usual duty of opening and closing the club every Saturday. He’s also been at the Club most Sunday mornings assisting with the Masters County matches.
Steve has completed IOSH training and is now the Club Health and Safety Officer. He has just submitted the second round application for Grant Aid funding from Littlehampton Town Council, which will help to pay for a mural to be painted on the outside wall of the Club. This will coincide with an Open Day, provisionally on July 11th.
Sam has continued to keep the website updated with details and with the latest news, and has ongoing work with creating some design templates and guidelines.
Steve is also running in the London Marathon and we are hoping he will be fit for Bar Duty on Monday. Congratulations Steve.
Links to our social media and website: If you haven’t already had a look at these please follow the links below and give us a follow if you haven’t already on social media! Share posts to raise our online presence.
May 2026 Events
Here’s what’s on next month. Don’t forget, you can come down to the club to watch any of the league matches. The bar will be open for all the below events so why don’t you come down and cheer on your club!
Badminton
We are coming to the end of the season and so there is only one match to mention which is a Fusion league match on 6 May starting at 8pm.
Also we are looking to host a tournament in September over a whole weekend which will feature some of the best players in the country. We will provide further details as and when they are confirmed. We are also looking to host an exhibition evening featuring some Masters England players and players who represent England. Please keep an eye out for this.
For those of you that fancy playing a less competitive tournament, we will be hosting a ‘just for fun’ Battledore Tournament in August. Interested members turn up on the evening of the event and are entered into random doubles matches whereby players are individually given points depending on if they win or lose. Games continue until a final play-off is played with the top scoring players to find our battledore champion! More information with cost and dates will be cascaded in due course.
Squash
The 1st team has completed all matches for the season. They achieved a very creditable third place in their division.
The Development team have one more match, on Friday 1st May, away to Arun.
The Business League team have completed all their league matches. We didn’t cover ourselves with glory, but we had a whole load of fun playing squash and meeting other teams. We have the semi-finals of the plate competition to arrange and will then hope to attend the finals night for a celebration of another great season.
Squash England are launching ‘Play Squash’, a national database of where to play squash. This will provide free advertising for the Club, additional revenue in the form of guests visiting and hopefully new members.
We run a Ladies who play squash session on Mondays 5.30-6.30pm. This session is designed for ladies who would like to get some aerobic exercise and are just starting out on their squash adventure or have played squash in the past and would like to renew their acquaintance with the sport. This is open to members and non-members of all ages and abilities, so you can bring along friends and work colleagues. You can trial the session for four weeks at no charge. Racquets and balls provided, just ensure you have non marking trainers. Just turn up or ring Nick Cochrane for further information 07853 145204.
Shuffleboard
This was a tremendous success last month and we are eagerly looking forward to the next event in June. (There is no shuffleboard in May as this is now a bimonthly event). The next evening will be held on 20 June 2026 starting at 1845. Participants are requested to arrive at 1830. Posters will be put up in due course.
Unfortunately we had a difficult situation at the last evening when some people turned up without notice and paid for tickets on the evening and were mistaken for some members who had indicated that they would be attending but had not paid. This resulted in three members not being able to play because all of the spaces had been allocated despite having paid in advance.
In order to prevent this happening in the future we have had to introduce some changes. There is an absolute maximum of 45 players. In future, bookings will not be confirmed unless paid for approximately one week in advance and we are provided with the names of the expected players.
We are sure that you will agree that this is the fairest way to proceed in order to avoid disappointment. It also helps us organise and ensure there is enough food provided for the amount of people attending the event.
Our next quiz night is on the 29th May! Email let us know if you wish to join us.
