Inchmarlo vote

From http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/

Well, the planning officers were over-ruled again - the Marr area committee voted in favour of the proposals at Inchmarlo and it'll now go to the full council for ratification. Two of our three local Banchory councillors voted against the proposals - Karen Clark (Lib Dem) and Linda Clark (SNP) - sitting side by side in the photo below - but Jill Webster (Con) voted to approve the project.

Inchmarlo

From http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/

Today's an important day for Deeside tourism - and potentially for squash too. The local Marr area committee are meeting to decide on whether to recommend approval to the main council next month of the plans that have been lodged in respect of Inchmarlo Golf Club for a hotel, houses and leisure project.

The council officers have recommended refusal - but then again, their recommendation for acceptance of the development plans at the Tor-na-Coille was thankfully overturned by the councillors. It'll be interesting to see how this one gets along - there are issues with transport infrastructure etc.

The development represents what is probably the last, lingering hope of new squash courts in Banchory in our lifetimes. Whilst the current plans do not contain specific proposals for squash courts, the nature of the leisure development will facilitate their provision. Richard Simcox has had discussions with Colin Wilson on this matter and Richard feels confident that courts will be included should the proposed development get approved.

For those that missed the front and inside pages of yesterday's P & J, here's the articles (click on to enlarge):

Shona Marshall

From http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/

Shona was a stalwart of the club for a number of years, but she then moved out to farm near Alford and took up shooting - very succcessfully too - a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games - check http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1958786 - and a column in the P & J.

This old photo of her was shown at our 25th anniversary dinner at Banchory Lodge back in 2004:



Well done, Shona!

Findrack

From http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/

The bodge team of Stewart and Salter tried to put the shower door back on last night after squash. The operation was half successful - the door is on again but we didn't fit it properly - it's not attached to the side, so it needs to be used with care for the time being.

Stewart, Salter and Corbett are playing doubles again tomorrow (Monday) and we're looking for at least one more to join us. We plan to start at 4:00 pm - please let us know if you can make it.

1988 Pentathlon

From http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/

Here's the photo from the 1988 Pentathlon, referred to in earlier e-mails from myself and Bill Whyman:

If you view this from the blog (address above) as opposed to the shorter e-mail version, you can click on the photo and enlarge it - and perhaps help identify some of the faces.

P & J re Inchmarlo

From http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/

For those that didn't see yesterday's P & J, there were front and inside pages on the planning application for Inchmarlo - no mention of squash courts, however:

Latest news

From http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/

The latest electricity invoice has just been received from Findrack:

No surprises - much as expected, and similar to the same time last year. I know hardly anyone has played in this period, but the cost is only 46p per day, which is a very small price to pay to have open access to the facility.

I'll pay this bill and this will leave £792 in the kitty to cover costs for season 2010-11. This should just about be enough to meet our electricity costs, but, if there are any other costs - repairs etc - there may have to be a separate cash call.

This will be the 3rd season I've been acting as treasurer for the as yet non-existent DSRC. I had originally hoped that, by now, we would have a proper club up and running and there would have been some progress on new courts, but, as everyone knows, plans have been thwarted. I am happy to continue in my unofficial role for the time being, but it would be appropriate for me to again display the revenue and expenditure to date:

1. Subs - 2008/09 - £790
2. Subs - 2009/10 - £870
3. Subs - 2010/11 - £650 (to date) *
4. Additional one-of collection for Andrew's excess fuel costs - £420
5. Total revenue collected to date = £2,730

Expenditure so far has been:

1. Electricity - 2008/09 - £629
2. Electricity - 2009/10 - £403
3. Plumber - 2009/10 - £362
4. One-of contribution for Andrew's prior excess costs - £500
5. Electricity - 2010/11 - £44
6. Total expenditure to date = £1,938

* Subs collected to date for the 2010/11 season have come from:

• Ken Black
• Keith Gray
• Malcolm Grigor
• Gordon Moir
• Hugh Riches
• Harry Salter
• Ian Stewart
• Rob Sutherland
• Dick Taylor
• Keith Thomson
• Bill Whyman
• Dave Williamson
• Neil Young

Additionally, Richard Simcox will be contributing, but he has been travelling so much recently and I haven't managed to catch up with him yet. I am hopeful too that both Jas Bhagrath, who has now recovered from his hip replacement, and Dan Corbett, who has returned to live in Banchory, will be joining us for regular doubles squash and will make the appropriate contributions in due course.

Lastly, I still have not been up to fix the new parts for the shower door, but I'll get round to it eventually!