Our History and Constitution

Our History

In the early 1980s a small group of local people who were making regular trips into Truro in order to play a game of squash decided, perhaps rashly, that it would be much more convenient if there was a court nearer to hand.  This idea gathered momentum and eventually led to a public meeting in Gerrans Memorial Hall on 9th December 1983, the purpose of which was to measure support for the formation of a local club with its own court.

By the time of this meeting outline planning permission had already been obtained for a court behind Gerrans Memorial Hall.  For this, and throughout the construction of the present building, we were hugely indebted to Peter Rookley, a Truro chartered architect and also the local Squash Racquets Association representative, who gave us an awful lot of his time, and experience, free of charge.

The proposed site at the rear of the Memorial Hall was never ideal, and while negotiations were still going on with the Memorial Hall committee another possibility presented itself: plans to build a new telephone exchange to the east of the car park in Gerrans had been abandoned, and the Enys Estate, who owned the land, thought that it might be suitable for a squash court instead.  The planners didn't agree, but did say that it might be a possibility on the land to the south of the car park, at that time the site of Frank Menear's piggeries, and after a certain amount of lobbying outline planning permission was granted on 11th July 1984.  Serious negotiations with the Enys Estate then began and the purchase of the land was completed on 25th January 1985.

The committee then paused to take stock, as the enormity of the task ahead began to sink in.  An EGM was held 27th February 1985 when two questions were considered:  what was the project going to cost and how were we going to raise the money?  (At that time we had 38 single members, 29 couples and 21 juniors.)  Figures from local builders indicated that the project would cost something in the region of £30,000, but it was hoped that that could be reduced significantly by self-help and offers of labour/materials from members, which were already forthcoming.  On the basis of the various fund raising options discussed (loans from members and others, sponsorship, grants, donations and subscriptions), bolstered by the absurdly (by today's standards) small bank balance then of £679.40, it was decided to press on.

Our brazenness knew no bounds, with the EGM fixing new rates of subscription of £40, £60 and £10 (which actually turned out to be too much of a good thing for some members so the rates were reduced to £10, £15 and £5 at the AGM later in the year), but the mood was optimistic and Peter Rookley even expressed the view that we would be playing squash within twelve months!  (It was actually twenty nine months.)

That spring, work started on site clearance even though at that stage we did not have the funds needed to make significant progress with the building work.  Right from the word go local support was amazing.  Fetes, raffles (with extraordinarily generous prizes donated by local businesses), concerts, coffee mornings, barbecues, cheese and wine parties, clothing sales and a sponsored walk, as well as several interest free loans, all raised money, which kept the construction ticking over, but the turning point came in February 1986 with the award of a Sports Council grant of £3,000 and an interest free loan of £2,000.  We also received the third of three grants of £1,000 from Carrick District Council shortly afterwards.

It was at 9.15am on Monday 8th June 1987 that the first match was played, between F.C. (Nick) Nichols and W.P (Jerry) Gill (combined age 138).  The scores are not recorded.

Our fame soon (well, fairly soon) spread – on 29th September 1988 the West Briton published the following photograph and article:

Soon after the court was up and running arrangements were made with Gerrans School for a weekly session of squash for the top class (which has continued to this day, including, since 1993, a finals day in the summer term with the presentation of a trophy to the winner), and also with the Roseland School in Tregony for occasional use, though distance soon made it unattractive, and, intermittently, with Veryan and St Mawes Schools.  Shortly afterwards ladders and leagues were created and over Christmas 1987 the first men's knockout competition was held.  It was won by Peter Mothersole, defeating Nigel Nichols in what was recorded as a fiercely contested final.

Nigel Nichols looks on as his father, and chairman, Nick presents the inaugural knockout trophy to Pete Mothersole

The following Christmas a women's competition was added, the final of which was between Jenny Collins and Caroline Hampton.  Then in 1994 we added boys' and girls' competitions, followed by a veterans' competition in 1997.   That was to be the peak of our activity: two years later there was insufficient interest to hold a women's or girls' competition and after a brief flirtation with a handicapping system in 2001 the competitions sadly fizzled out altogether. This was all down to a dwindling membership – a problem that has been with us ever since.

In 2011 we were approached by a company on behalf of Vodafone and O2, to see if they could erect a mobile phone mast on our land.  Because of objections from a small number of parents of children at Gerrans School we ended negotiations.  However, we were approached again in 2015 and this time there were no objections (apart from one from a neighbour concerned about the possible appearance of the mast) and so we went ahead. A lease of the strip of land to the east of the court building in favour of Cornerstone was completed in June 2017.

On 26th July 2017 we became registered as a Community Amateur Sports Club.

In February 2018 the appearance of the site was enhanced considerably with the laying of the tarmac drive.