GREAT SEASON FOR WYCLIFFE SQUASH

Wycliffe College are into squash in big way, head coach Mike Edwards (pictured middle far left, with his squad) has had a great year with the team. Highlights include a victory for the U15 in the Nation Schools championship, appearences at the British Closed, British Open, Avon Open, Welsh Open & the Solent Open to name a few. This together with a bunch of local and national victories - too many to mention. The squad are pictured here in their Ashaway dry tec shirts. The College is a real hot bed for junior squash and they are loking forward to more of the same in the 2008/09 season.

ASHAWAY WELSH PAIR FLYING HIGH!

Ashaway's Welsh pairing of James Phillips and Joe Morgan are enjoying a great run of form.

Welsh nationals - James and Joe were runners up in the mens doubles. In the mixed, Joe was number one seed but unfortunately had to withdraw at the semi final stage due to his partner being injured. All was not lost as this left the door open for James to win the title!

Thomas Cup - Joe and James went on to represent Wales at Thomas Cup in Holland. Wales won their group despite being unseeded, defeating Austria 3-2 , Switzerland 4-1 and Czech 3-2. Unfortunately bowing out 3-0 vs Germany in quarter finals.

The Welsh match of the tournament saw Joe and James against Austria the score was 2-2 going into their doubles match as the decider (vs a top Austrian pairing of Koch&Lahnsteiner). The first set went to Aunstria 21-9 but Joe and James rallied to win the following 2 sets 21-19 and 21-19 taking the rubber and the match tie, send Wales through to the Quarter Finals. During the tournament Joe and James were both undefeated, Joe defeated the Czeck Number 1 ranked pair and James even stepped in and won a singles match for Wales.

Joe and James both use the Kevlar 7000SQ racket strung with Powergut 65.

INDEPENDANT BADMINTON STRING COMPARISON

This week we have been getting a lot of email communication from badminton customers and players around the world about a badminton string diameter comparison recently posted on The Badminton Central web forum. Please go to the following link to see this comparison:

http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53754

We thought you would find this interesting as it points out something that Ashaway has known for a long time - Yonex' strings are much thicker than what is stated on the package (and much thicker than Ashaway's comparable strings).

The result is that Yonex' strings are perceived by players as being more durable, less prone to string movement in the racket and better at holding tension when compared to Ashaway's string with the same label gauge.

In reality, it is not a fair comparison as thinner strings (while playing with better feel and resilience) generally slide back and forth more in the frame and break more frequently (easily) on off center hits.

I hope this diameter data from an independent source will help improve your understanding of the different badminton string products in the market and their diameter/performance characteristics.

ASHAWAY STRINGS SIGN NATHALIE GRAINGER!

Ashaway Racket Strings has signed squash great Natalie Grainger to a multi-year sponsorship agreement, company officials announced today. Grainger, who won the US Nationals in March after switching to Ashaway's new SuperNick^® XL Micro, is currently ranked World Number 4 on the Women's International Squash Players Association ("WISPA") Tour.

"Having Natalie as part of our team is a great coup for Ashaway Racket Strings," said Steve Crandall, Ashaway's Vice President. "Not only is she a great player and a great coach, but as WISPA President, she is one of the true leaders in the sport and one of the most engaging people around. We expect she will be a force in our industry for many years to come."

Grainger is a former WISPA world number one ranked player and has been ranked in the top ten in the world for seven of the last ten years. She is President of the Board of WISPA, the governing body for the women's worldwide professional squash tour. Grainger is also Head Coach for the US Under 23 development program and an advisor to DC Squash Academy, an inner-city youth program that uses squash, combined with academic tutoring and mentoring, to enrich children's lives. She was formerly the US Junior Women's Team Assistant Coach, which finished a record-tying 4th at the 2005 Junior World Championships.

For her part, former South African and recently minted American citizen Natalie is also happy to be on the team of the only U.S. string maker. "Ashaway's been a leader in stringing for many many years," she said. "I've actually used Ashaway at different times for a fair bit of my career, and I've always been very impressed with their string. So I'm really happy that they've decided to sign me."

Ashaway is the Official String of USA Racquetball, the Professional Squash Association and the Women's International Squash Players Association.