At first glance, Aberdeen Squash & Racketball Club may look like a normal squash club – but the moment you join, you’ll see that this is not your standard club – it’s a social hub – and it’s absolutely thriving; with an annual turn-over of half a million pounds!
Andy Whipp takes a look at the latest PSA Club
Aberdeen is ‘just’ a squash club with a bar and a small gym. There is no tennis or padel to boost its revenue streams. Simply squash.
“How do they do it?” I hear you ask.
I’ve had a few chats with lively Club Manager Josh Monro.
Josh is supported by his trusty volunteer committee, and together they steer Aberdeen Squash Club to ensure the club remains solvent and that their funds are invested appropriately.
This is a great story of near closure to thriving business, all within 5 years.
Josh began working at the club as part of the bar staff in 2022. At the time the club was struggling to ‘make ends meet’ after the impact of Covid, as most clubs were.
Josh is ambitious and a visionary. His pro-active nature was quickly rewarded, and he was made Club Manager, to help steer the club through these tough times and transition into the next phase of more members and more income.
Josh was not a squash player. Of course, like all locals, he knew of Aberdeenshire’s rich squash history as the birthplace of legend Peter Nicol; and he even knew that the 1999 British Open was held in Aberdeen, the only time the prestigious event had been held ‘north of the border’ – but Josh himself, had never been tempted to pick up a racket.
At the start of his tenure, he didn’t want to be heavily involved with squash and was assuming his enthusiasm would be used to grow the bar and social side of the club.
He knew the bar was a good facility but desperately in need of some new energy to revive it. Within a few months, new beers were added, a new coat of paint, new chairs, a calendar of events, and before long, it was feeling like a social hotspot once again – a gathering place for guaranteed chat and banter.
Now; what he didn’t realise was that the clubs die-hard squash members weren’t going to allow him not to play squash – it’s just not acceptable to be a member of Aberdeen Squash Club and not play squash! So, Josh was soon lured / forced onto court, playing with a few of the regular bar folk.
As we all know, squash is addictive – a sport where you’re ‘hooked’ after your first try. Josh was no different. He quickly found himself dreaming about his next match and he wanted to play all the time – but… apart from his handful of bar mates, he didn’t know who else to play.
There was no coach. Very few box-leagues, especially not for beginners (and matches weren’t being played anyway). No easy way to find out who he should be playing with. If you didn’t know; you didn’t know – and it was not clear how to figure out what you don’t know.
Basically, there was no support network in place to learn this new sport and to become fully integrated into the squash club. A bit of research backed up his fears; that many of the “lesser standard” players, were not renewing their club membership after the first year.
This needed to change, and Josh knew, as Club Manager, he was the man to do it. He set about creating a “pathway into squash” for new members. This was a 4-part plan.
Step 1 – New members are auto-enrolled into the box leagues
This instantly gave new members, whatever their level, an information network and a sense of belonging. This simple system immediately introduced them to 5 or 6 members of a similar standard. Connections = Community
Step 2 – Set up a club WhatsApp group and Instagram account
All members would receive monthly communications detailing all the events and latest club news.
This may seem obvious, but if there’s nobody to take charge and put the effort in, it breaks down.
Not only were these media channels of communication used to “big up” Aberdeen Squash Club, but Josh was keen to make his members aware of all squash events in the Grampian Area, and even nationally.
If there was a graded tournament, or a Masters event anywhere in Scotland, Josh made sure his members knew about it. He encouraged competition and fun to be had through squash – knowing that even if it wasn’t at his club, it still created community, and an even deeper love of the sport.
The club WhatsApp soon became a go-to for all members. If somebody had a court booked that they couldn’t use, or needed an opponent, they were encouraged to use the chat, and it soon became more than only a place to read about event information – it became a social matrix.
Step 3 – Events
Whether hosting internal competitions, graded events, exhibitions or contacting Scottish Squash asking to host national tournaments (Masters and open-age) – Aberdeen was happy to do it all!
Step 4 – Coaches required!
Josh knew the club needed organised coaching sessions available, both group and individual; junior and senior; male and female.
Junior sessions were introduced with squash enthusiast, Danny Selway.
Aberdeen Squash Club paid for some keen parents to do their Level 1 and 2 Scottish Squash Coaching qualifications, so they could support and enhance Danny’s offering.
Once this was growing nicely, adult sessions were next on the agenda. Enter Joe Ewen.
Joe has had a phenomenal impact at Aberdeen. He runs up to 15 hours of coaching for the club, and offers private one-to-one lessons on top of this. He’s the connection for every member. New members are encouraged to have a session with him so he can offer words of wisdom in every area relating to their squash; from technique to teams and box leagues.
Joe has made such an impact, he won the ‘24/25 Scottish Coach Of The Year’, and has been nominated again for his work last season. Can he make it two years in a row by claiming the ‘25/26 Coach Of The Year’?!
Today we can see the progress – Aberdeen has grown from 4 internal box leagues, with matches rarely completed, to 23 leagues and all matches are completed each month.
They have 100 junior members. The 18-30 age group is the fastest growing sector – compare this to when Josh started 4 ½ years ago and the most prolific age group was 60-85!
Aberdeen offers 7 quality, well-maintained courts, great Wi-Fi, a new gym, a recently refurbished bar area and SQUASHTV plays 24/7! Even the car park has been re-surfaced and there’s new signage around the club – nothing has been over-looked.
The turnover is £500k; memberships are still growing 13% year-on-year; and bar takings are up 23% this year.
Aberdeen hosted the 2026 Masters Home Internationals. On 26th September 2026 there’s an awesome exhibition taking place between Joel Makin and squash God, Mohamed ElShorbagy, which sold out with 24 hours of the tickets going on sale. And to top off 2026, in December James Willstrop is making the trip to this “heart of the north” to run a coaching clinic.
Never content to settle, Josh is already planning his next project – running an annual PSA tournament, each year growing bigger and bigger – and who knows, maybe the Scottish Open could be back on the PSA calendar, attracting the top players in the world back to Aberdeen to battle it out for precious world ranking points – or imagine if the British Open found it’s way back to Scotland again after all these years…?! Nothing’s off limits.
Josh and Aberdeen are a match made in heaven, and they’re not content to stop where they are; their trajectory is only going to continue upwards and onwards!
If your Club would like to partner with PSA as a PSA Club,
get in touch with Andy Whipp for more details
