Xmas Social

We rolled back the years last night and made a return to our spiritual home at the Tor-na-Coille Hotel for our annual Xmas Dinner. It was good to see as many as 26 of us - including 8 former Club Captains - showing up - the largest gathering of the Squash Club since the 25th Anniversary Dinner at Banchory Lodge in 2004.

Here's the table at the start of the evening:

I then passed my camera down the table and the following pictures were the result:

A selfie of Jo and I

Mary & Dan

Theresa & Keith

Frances & Jack

Annette & Dick

Mary Sutherland, Archie Cook & Angela Gray

Gordon, Eileen & Les

Archie & Angela again with Jackie

Rob Sutherland, Anna Meaden & Lynda Moir

Janice Fulford, Ian Dring & Gordon Moir

Anna Meaden & Lynda Moir

John Meaden, Julie Dring & Hugh Riches

Steve & Janice Fulford & Ian Dring

The meal was delightful, but the dining room was very hot, so we moved through to the Residents' Lounge for coffee and mince pies. Here's a few views:

Great fun - and a bit of nostalgia for most of us.

Findrack Finances update

Another electricity bill received - this time just for 2 months:

After paying this, we'll have £361 left in the kitty, which I hope will take us through to about March (the winter bills last year amounted to £332) - we can review matters again then. Thanks to the 8 who contributed the additional £30 per head - Messrs Gray, Grigor, Page, Salter, Simcox, Thomson, Whyman & Young.

Fame again for Gary!

From http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/

Yes - young Garry Coutts seems to feature quite a lot in the P & J. This time it was the Farming Supplement - front page:

and the inside page spread:

I'm pretty sure that Gary doesn't dress like that every day - but he does look cute, doesn't he?

Finance update

From http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/

I've received 4 payments of £30 to date - from Richard, Bill, Neil and, despite his likely absence for most of the Banchory winter, Ken Page.

If all the other regulars pay that should give us enough funds to pay the electricity for the winter season.

Hope everyone managed to complete the Council's online survey OK - https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BanchoryCommunityAndSports

Cheers,

Finances/Survey reminder/Commonwealth Games

From http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/

The responses to whether to continue with Findrack have been largely positive. Apart from myself, there was only Ken Page, who is unlikely to be here much over the winter and feels it's time for him to call it a day.

Keith Gray suggested reviewing it again at Christmas, but I think we could manage the whole winter with just another £30 per head.

As I see it, there would be 7 contributing - Keith G, Harry, Richard, Malcolm, Bill, Neil & Keith T. This would bring in £210, which, allied to the current funds in hand of £211 should cover us until spring. If nobody disagrees, could you all please make the usual transfers to me?

Could I take this chance of reminding everyone to complete the Council survey asap please? It only takes a few short minutes. The link is  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BanchoryCommunityAndSports

Lastly, for those that will be around next summer, squash is included in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games - singles, doubles and mixed. Check out the schedule here - http://d1dshl3w05ienl.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/Squash_TicketingGuide.pdf. Tickets are available online now.

Online poll - please complete

From http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/

This weekend's Deeside Piper had front page and inside articles urging everyone to vote for what facilities they want in the Hill of Banchory Sports Centre:

In typical Piper fashion, they forgot to provide the link to the survey, but you can find it here at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BanchoryCommunityAndSports

We need as many people as possible to complete this. Perhaps the next generation will have proper sports facilities - including squash - if the Council listen to the results of the survey.

Vote for building in multi-purpose squash courts at the design stage - they can be used for racquetball, aerobics etc as well.

Findrack finances & future

From http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/

I have paid the latest electricity bill, covering the quarter to 9th July, 2013:

I finally managed to collect from 9 "members" a total of £450, so, after paying the above bill, this leaves funds in hand of £211. This should cover the next quarter's electricity (to end of September) but there won't be much left over after that.

If the remaining subscribers wish to play over the winter, another cash call will be required. (I, personally, will not be able to contribute any more as I am scheduled to have my long-awaited knee replacement operation).

Those that paid their £50 this year were:

Gray, Keith

Grigor, Malcolm

Page, Ken

Salter, Harry

Simcox, Richard

Stewart, Ian

Thomson, Keith

Whyman, Bill

Young, Neil

With me out of the equation, that would leave an apparent maximum of just 8 of you paying the bills. Electricity costs are now approaching £600 per year. To keep it going for another full year, a cash call of roughly £75 per head would be required.

Alternatively, £50 per head (if all 8 paid) would probably keep it going over this winter and it could then be reviewed again at the end of March.

We had 15 subscribers when the Spring 2010 cash call was made, but numbers have dwindled since then. Overall, however, since we first started playing at Findrack 4 years ago, there have only been 4 cash calls, totalling £230 per head (including a repair bill) so it's not been bad value.

We need to decide now whether to continue or not - please vote now.

Cash call update

From http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/

Thanks to Keith, Malcolm, Bill and Ken for their contributions/subs of £50 per head, but there were a few more who had earlier indicated a willingness to continue to contribute to the upkeep of Findrack and I'd be grateful if transfers could now be made to my account. If you have changed your mind and no longer want to pay, could you please let me know?

Thanks,

Ian

Cash call

From http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/

We've now had the bill for electricity for the quarter to March and it's come in a bit higher than expected at £181.65. I've paid this bill and this has now put our funds into the red by £119.

I understand that the electrician has been out to look at the heaters, but I haven't had any feedback yet. We had 10 people who were willing to pay to repair them or install new heaters, subject to cost, but, as we don't know how much the bill for this is likely to be, then I suggest the current cash call should just be for the usual £50 per head. Please transfer to my account.

The amount collected should cover the current deficit and, hopefully, the electricity bills up to nearly the end of the year. The last cash call was in June last year and this included the cost of replacing the shower door. The previous cash call was 2 years before that in 2010.

Findrack electricity/finances

Always best viewed directly at http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/

I've received the latest electricity bill for the quarter to December and although it's higher than the same time last year, it's not much more than the previous quarter at £166.46. Fuel costs have risen dramatically over the last couple of years, but our total annual cost of electricity for the whole of 2012 was £456, which compared with £425 the previous year, so it's been a fairly modest increase that we've had to bear.

I've now paid this bill, which takes the funds in hand down to just £63, which is probably about the amount we have consumed since the latest bill was made up (to 21st December), so we now need to consider raising more cash.

If all the current users are prepared to stump up another £50 per head, this will generate sufficient cash to cover the electricity costs for another 12 months approx. (but not anything else). Please confirm - or otherwise - that you are prepared to continue to pay this. (The last cash call was back in June, 2012).

If we are to continue at Findrack, it was recently suggested that perhaps we might put an extra heater or two in. This would probably cost an additional £50 per head or so. Before approaching Andrew for permission to do this, could we please have some feedback on whether everyone would be prepared to pay for this?

Here's the latest bill, fyi: