There’s clearly something in the water in Leamington Spa. Within the space of one early-summer week, the town’s 151-year-old squash club landed three major titles — and its members are hungry for more.
On 14 June, Leamington Lawn Tennis & Squash Club etched its name on both the men’s and women’s trophies at the 2025 National Club Championships in Nottingham, and in doing so sealed their places at the European Club Championships in Graz, Austria, in September.
The following weekend, Leamington Royals were crowned inaugural champions of the Optasia Squash Super League with a thrilling 3-2 victory over Chichester Centurions, sealed by England international Declan James’s victory over Curtis Malik. It was a triumphant end to Leamington’s first ever year competing in a national squash league.
So, what’s going on? “We’re only able to enter these competitions because we have a really strong base as a club,” Leamington head squash coach Jason Pike explains to Squash Player. “We’re in an incredibly good place at the moment. The club is vibrant and members are buzzing.”
And get this: there is a two-month waiting list to become a squash member at Leamington. To put it mildly, this is rather unusual at a traditional English squash club.
Leamington’s recent success is home-grown. Head coach Pike and the club’s top junior, Sam Cross, were part of the men’s National Club Championships team, while the winning women’s team was made up entirely of long-term club members.
Owain Taylor, who played in both the Super League and National Club Championships finals, has played for Leamington in the Warwickshire League for six years, as did Declan James during his recent return from injury.
Pike, with the support of the club’s committee and management, has been instrumental in laying the foundations for recent glories.
“There is a lot of work involved, but saying that, it’s not rocket science!” he laughs. “Clubs do well when they’ve got a young, enthusiastic coach working hard to increase numbers and drive things forward.”
Pike, now 39, arrived at Leamington 13 years ago and quickly built up relationships with local schools. Through the hard yards of taking rackets, balls and portable walls into assembly halls and showcasing the sport to local children, he’s built up a variety of thriving schools participation initiatives which feed into junior programmes at the club.
In one nearby school, a coach from Leamington delivers two hours of squash at school with every pupil in Year 3-6 over a four-week period. The keenest players are selected to come into the club for a mini tournament. “All 16 may not join, of course, but there’s a good chance of getting two or three, and if you repeat the process, it soon builds up over time,” Pike says.
At another school, Jason’s assistant coach Luke Halliwell delivers a six-week programme to all Year 6 children, split into two groups. Pied Piper style, he literally meets the first group at the school gates, walks with them to the club, delivers an hour-long session, walks them back, picks up the second group and repeats.
At the same school, Leamington offered to give Year 3 and 4 children squash coaching once they had earned their swimming award. “We got the more sporty kids first as they finished swimming quicker,” explains Pike. “Eventually, we saw them all. So at that school, every single Year 3, 4 and 6 pupils has squash coaching every year.”
As part of ‘activities afternoon’ each Friday at a different school, a different class visits the squash club every four weeks, meaning every pupils has experienced squash over the year. “Through this, we pick up three or four new kids per term at our junior sessions,” explains Pike. “Over time, the numbers grow. That’s all it takes.”
There are now over 100 kids playing squash on a weekly basis at Leamington. There are after-school sessions every day, Saturday morning groups, and free junior matchplay every Sunday afternoon for an hour and a half, open to anyone who has attended a coaching session during the preceding week.
One of the committee members is in charge of the club’s junior noticeboard. Each week, a different young player’s achievement is highlighted. Juniors all wear sponsored kit.
There are a host of other initiatives to keep the participation pot bubbling: lunchtime mix-in racketball, beginners’ classes, box leagues, ladies’ nights, team training, kids’ rackets camps during the school holidays… You have to be on the ball to get a booking on one of the six courts. “It’s heaving!” smiles Pike.
As well as setting an example for other clubs to follow, Pike has a brainwave that he feels could help rejuvenate junior participation more generally: “My view on how the situation in this country could be improved would be to put all the top U19 players through a Level 1 coaching course free of charge and add them to a database,” he states.
“They’ve done years of training in order to be so highly ranked, but not all of them will become pros, so squash could lose them to other sports or industries. There are so many clubs desperate for a coach to keep them vibrant and viable. That’s my solution to sustaining and improving participation levels in this country.
“It might even encourage junior players, if they know that they’re going to be put through a coaching course free of charge, to reach that U19 level.
“I believe the majority of U19 players in the country could go on to do what I do. They just need that little bit of encouragement and training at the start. England Squash could send one or two of those players to a club like ours who’s doing really well, give them six weeks’ experience of working under a coach, then they could go off and do their own thing at their own club.”
Establishing a vibrant and sustainable junior and social scene has been the nucleus of Leamington’s success, creating a zest for the sport and the demand to bring in elite players.
Leamington recruited world no.11 Victor Crouin and world no.6 Satomi Watanabe for their Super League team, and the club members immediately took to their big signings.
“We borrowed some school benches for the kids to sit on right behind the glass and they were high-fiving the players and cheering them on. We had French and Japanese flags waving. It was such a huge success,” Pike says.
“It’s been so inspiring for everyone at the club. We were worried we wouldn’t sell enough tickets, but they’d all gone within 10 minutes! It’s been hugely successful and I’d encourage other clubs to get involved next season.”
Long-time club member and team sponsor Dan Bradbury added: “Leamington is an epic club with an amazing social scene. We’ve got 32 box leagues with six players in each so we’re 200 strong in club play. We’ve got a really good group of women players and it’s a really active club at all levels.”
