Monmouth Squash Club, rescued from the brink of extinction, is now producing top class Welsh junior prospects, thanks to a group of likeminded enthusiasts and the Sports Council for Wales' Community Chest funding scheme.

After a decade's worth of investment totalling over £9million, the Sports Council for Wales and the National Lottery are celebrating the successes of community sports clubs that have flourished through unlocking Community Chest funding.

Monmouth Squash Club is one such example, having received six Community Chest grants amounting to £4,227, since applying for their very first Community Chest award of £750 in 2001.

Junior Coach, Stuart Kramer, 44 from Monmouth said, "The Community Chest grants have been an enormous help. From the equipment perspective, squash can be expensive. So we try to ensure that every child who comes to the club, wanting to try the sport, has access to an almost new racquet and safety goggles.

"None of our coaches take fees; they all work on a voluntary basis, so most of the Community Chest funding has been focused on coach education and first aid courses.

"We have put several juniors through coach education and they use that as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Awards and then come back and help with coaching.

He added, "We are using our current grant to broaden our junior base. We are trying to go out and about around the local schools to recruit girls from ages seven, eight, nine and upwards to create a girls' junior section."

The club has been running for many years and was originally run by Haberdasher's Monmouth School before being disbanded.

In 2001, the club was reborn with the construction of a new leisure centre at Monmouth Comprehensive School.

Stuart says the impetus for reinvigorating the club was borne from a group of likeminded volunteers wanting to play competitive league squash and revive a sport which had been in decline since the 1980s. The club now has 16 adult players coming to weekly club sessions and 24 regular junior members between the ages of 6 and 19 attending coached sessions, with the older juniors competing against adults for the first and second adult teams in the Gwent County Squash League.

George Evans, 16, represents the adult first team and has competed for Wales at Under 17 and latterly Under 19s level.

Stuart's son, Elliot, nine, is also a member of the Welsh talent squad that meets eight times a year at the Welsh Institute of Sport, Cardiff, competing at Under 11 level for the last two years.

Stuart concludes, "Anyone who comes to our squash club tends to stay because there is something there that people enjoy - it's a very friendly place."

The Sports Council for Wales has recently raised the level of grant available. Organisations keen to develop sport and physical recreation in Wales can receive up to £1000 for a qualifying project over a 12 month period.

Chair of the Sports Council for Wales, Philip Carling, said:

"Community Chest has been and continues to be a huge success and is very popular throughout Monmouthshire. Over the last ten years, it has made a big difference to small community projects right across Wales and now embraces all sorts of community groups such as the Women's Institute, not just your local football club."

"Panels based in each of the 22 local authorities in Wales hold the purse strings and have delegated authority to award grants to worthwhile projects.

"We want to hear of bright ideas and projects that will get more people in Monmouthshire more active, more often."

The scope of the scheme has also been widened. Grants have traditionally been awarded to sports clubs and sporting bodies. Now most organisations seeking to develop physical activity and sporting projects will be eligible for an award.

The Community Chest has recently been infiltrating additional areas of work such as the voluntary sector (e.g. Voluntary Youth Clubs, Women's Institute) and the workplace, as well as continuing to support projects in the health and education arenas. So while funding the local football club might get the younger members of the community moving, backing a walking group will encourage more adults to get active.

Anyone interested in joining Monmouth Squash Club should contact Stuart Kramer on 01600 772166 for more information. Junior coaching sessions take place every Tuesday at Monmouth Leisure Centre from 5-7pm and adult pay and play sessions follow from 7-9pm.