On 23 September 2024, it was club night at Adderbury Squash Club in Banbury, Oxfordshire and there was a thunderstorm raging outside. The members didn’t know it yet, but the evening marked the start of an odyssey.
The club (formerly known as Banbury West End) has two squash courts and six tennis courts which are spread across a three-tiered piece of land in a picturesque village setting.
The tennis courts on the lower level have always been susceptible to flooding but were deliberately made as hard courts so water could drain off without undue damage.
The four astro tennis courts and squash building (built in 1933) are slightly higher up and had historically avoided flooding apart from 2007, after which new flooring was installed in the squash courts and they were re-opened.
However, that was to change on that club night on a September evening last year, when intense rain saw water pushed up through the squash court floorboards. Players abandoned the building as the conditions were getting dangerous.
But as they began the clear-up the following day, the local river, the Sor Brook, burst its banks. The water went straight into the squash courts and lifted the floors up. “We’d never seen flooding like it,” said Adderbury’s Facilities Manager, Peter Vance.
Club members brought in some industrial dryers and started the clean-up process in earnest. But just when they had started to get the club back on its feet, 24 November came around.
“It rained like there was no tomorrow,” says Vance. “The water levels of 23 September were huge, then this one doubled it. It was wild!
“There was no way we could put wooden floorboards back in. We knew it would just happen again soon enough and we wouldn’t be a squash club any more. We knew we wouldn’t get insurance again. Something had to change. This was our last chance.”
That was when Vance began researching alternatives to traditional squash court flooring that would offer some relief from the expensive cyclical disaster.
He and other club members considered a special engineered wood as well as the ASB glass floors that appear on the PSA Squash Tour, but that was beyond the club’s budget.
They then had some samples sent through from China of a floor surface that had featured in an ASB temporary outdoor court. They were SES Elite interlocking sports floor tiles, each 250mm x 250mm, the same as those used for the basketball court surface at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Over a few beers, the club members had a fun evening bouncing balls against the sample tiles, putting them in a sink full of water, and bouncing and scraping their feet on them while wearing their squash shoes. The feedback was positive.
It was a gamble, but they decided to go for it. The light grey tiles consist of 10mm of biscuit underneath with rubber on top which is pre-marked with the squash court floor lines, laid on top of 50mm of scree.
Since it was installed by Dynamik last month, the surface has been a revelation.
“The bounce and grip are incredible,” says Vance. “You can change direction so quickly. It’s kinder on your knee joints as well because there’s a little bit of extra cushioning.
“If any other clubs have concerns I’d invite them to come down and play on ours. I’d 100% recommend it. The experience is ever so slightly different, but almost as soon as you start playing on it, it’s brilliant.”
There’s an unexpected benefit too. “The acoustics are so much better,” says Vance. “The holes in the tiles means the sound is absorbed rather than echoing around the court. You can actually talk on the courts. It’s great for our coaches.”
If, but more likely when, the club is flooded again, the floor can be lifted fairly easily, jet-washed clean, and clicked back into position.
“I wouldn’t quite call us flood-proof now, but we’re flood-resistant,” says Peter. “If we hadn’t put this floor down we wouldn’t have been able to field a team in the Oxfordshire League this coming winter. We couldn’t guarantee to fulfil our fixtures.”
The club has 50 active members and new players are joining now the courts have opened up again following the flood late last year.
The club is looking to buy in some light coloured balls as the traditional black ball is slightly more difficult to pick up against the new floor’s light grey. Despite this minor issue, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and members are delighted simply to be able to play again without fear for the club’s long term future.
