Last November (2015) at our AGM, Linda Parsley announced she would be standing down as Chairman of the Civil Service Squash Rackets Association after 21 years service.
Linda was originally elected to the vacant Chairman’s role in 1994, having already served on the Committee for some years beforehand. In those days the Men’s and Ladies’ National Squash finals were sourced from all the winners of Regional Competitions held around the Country - including Northern Ireland and Scotland. In addition both Men’s and Ladies’ Representative Teams were active – Linda again playing her part as Ladies Team Captain for a number of years.
As the climate for sport within the Civil Service gradually began to evolve in those early years of Linda’s Chairmanship – the need for real change soon appeared on the horizon. The move away from the “elite sport” approach was designed to open the door for all standards of play and the pressure to achieve this was directed to all Sports Recreation Bodies including our own!
Linda had a major role to play in driving through all the necessary changes and enthusiastically rose to that challenge. This new “era” initially saw the introduction of Mixed Team events and National Open Singles events. The popularity of the Singles Event was soon such that in order to cater for the number of players involved the National Open Age Group Event was also introduced. More recently Racketball now also runs alongside our Age Group Event. Linda’s involvement has also included a major role in organising and running many of these events.
Linda’s work however was not just confined to the “sharp” end of our sport but as importantly to overseeing the direction of the Committee structure that would underpin our Sport. Squash was one of the first SRB’s to formulate and document a Development Plan for their Sport and Squash was one of the first SRB’s to have their own website. All these successes and Linda’s part in their achievement were recognised by CSSC when in 2010 Squash was awarded the best “Sports Recreation Award”. A few years earlier in 2001 Linda had also received a “Personal Merit Award” from CSSC.
Linda would be the first person to say that our successes were a Team effort - but every Team needs a Captain - Linda has played a Captain’s role and led from the front. Although Linda intends to remain on the CSSRA Committee to assist with some of our events her wider contribution as Chairman will be sorely missed!
