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Deep in the innards of Newcastle's Eldon Square Shopping Centre is where Eldon Leisure Squash Club was found.
Eldon Leisure - which hosted two British National Championships back in the nineties - used to have six courts, but that area was demolished and taken over by Next, and the proceeds were used to convert a two badminton court room into a new squash centre. Four state of the art ASB glassback courts were shoehorned into the area, three in a row - with moveable walls - and a fourth at 90 degrees which provides an entrance area and a little more viewing for court one.
Here's what Duty Manager Richard Adamson had to say about the new courts:-
"It was amazing to see the courts going up, I fought hard to make sure we kept squash courts during the renovations, we could have lost them entirely".
"I really wasn't sure how they were going to get the new squash courts into the area though, as it doesn't have a lot of access! The courts came 'flat-packed', but the pieces were pretty big - they were brought in by crane at night, the main road outside had to be closed while they were doing it, and they had to cut a big chunk out of the main doorway to get the pieces in".
The work was completed and the courts re-opened in September 2010, and despite Adamson's reservations about going from six to four, usage has remained high.
"We used to be really busy at peak times," he said, "some times we could have done with 20 courts, but what's happened is that our peak hours have been extended, people are booking earlier and later courts so the squash centre is busy for longer."
Eldon Squash remained a popular and lively club, with many city workers using it as a lunchtime or after-work workout, busy weekly club sessions, three men's teams and a ladies team in the Northumbria county leagues, and an internal box league. Our new facility had a 'friendly club' atmosphere that many leisure centre facilities lacked.
In 2020 the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe and Eldon Leisure Centre, like all other sports facilities, was forced to temporarily shut its doors to the public due to government lockdowns. However, when other facilities began to tentatively reopen and indoor sports and exercise were allowed to resume, Eldon remained closed for the foreseeable future. 2021 rolled around which saw more clubs open and restrictions relax but Eldon was still shut, and despite the efforts of the staff, members and an online petition it was announced in late 2021 that the centre would be permanently closed, citing irreversible financial impacts caused by the pandemic.
While we are devasted by the closure of the centre and our fantastic squash club, we are determined to keep Eldon Squash going. We still have 3 teams in the Northumbria county leagues, kindly hosted by other clubs, and have recently restarted our weekly friday club night at Newcastle University Sports Centre over the spring/summer.
