This is a special annual award introduced in 2005 by the Executive Committee to respect and maintain the memory of Hazel, former President of Cumbria Squash, who died in 2003 after a tragic short illness.

The award honours her name and her work in promoting and developing Cumbria Squash over more than 30 years. She was a great ambassador for the organisation and a major contributor to its success – she was also a top county player.

The award in her name is designed to recognise people who commit and dedicate themselves to the effective operation, promotion and development of Cumbria Squash over the full scope of its activities.

Year	Awarded To	Citation	Photo
2024	Ronnie Harris	This season`s selected person is Ronnie Harris who retired in 2010 from the Executive Committee (Exec) after serving 26 years on it. He did a fantastic job generally on committee business but his main focus for 23 of those years was County League Organiser – where he was outstanding. Ronnie was then (and still is) the third longest serving volunteer on the Exec following Tom and Vince Todhunter who also was (and still is) the second longest with his 29 years of exemplary service. Ronnie and Vince retired at the same time, which made them both eligible for nomination for the Hazel Award and Vince received it in 2012 because of his longer service. The Exec planned that Ronnie should receive it in 2013 but unfortunately he became very poorly, with a Brain Haemorrhage, for a lengthy period and could not receive it . Fortunately he fully recovered from that and the intention of the Exec was to place him high on the priority list for future selection. But for many reasons that has never happened. Tom in the last few seasons decided that this totally unfair situation for Ronnie must be rectified, even at this late date, and suggested that he should get the award this season – something fully supported by the Exec. So we congratulate him and give a big thank you and appreciation for his 26 years very effective service and say we are very sorry he has had to wait so long for it.
2023	Chris Lilley (Penrith)	Chris has been a committee member of Penrith Squash Club for many years, overseeing a significant expansion of the club and improvement in facilities. In addition, he has served on the Cumbria committee for 14 years, taking the role of Treasurer, organising intercounty teams and Tuesday night leagues, and more recently taking, with great success, the role of junior organiser. He is leaving the area to spend more time with his family in Suffolk, and will be sorely missed
2022	Barbara Telfer (Windscale)	Barbara has been involved with Windscale Squash Club for over 25 years.  As a player, coach and organiser, she has particularly supported the development and improvement of the many young players who have come out of Windscale, and also supported county teams.  She is tireless in organising sessions and supporting the sport.  In addition, she works closely with local schools to get kids involved with the sport, has organised a number of charity events, as well as some of the high profile squash events in the county - including professional demonstrations and the South Africa Knights tours.
2019	Jonny Irving (Wigton)	Jonny has been involved in squash playing and administration at both his club and for the county.  County U19 champion, he has represented the county at all age groups, and has battled a serious knee injury to make a strong comeback to first division squash.  He is a Level 2 coach.  He has also been a longstanding committee member of Wigton Squash, a member of Cumbria Junior Committee and a trustee of the senior organisation.  In this time he has organised tournaments, developed strategies, managed the website and county social media presence and was an active and supportive member of the county Executive committee.  His passion and dedication shines through in everything that he does.
2018	Jake Musson (Windscale)	Jake has been an active member of Windscale for over 20 years.  In this time he has worked as a player, a coach and a supporter, and has even found time to do much appreciated maintenance and repairs to the club!  He has represented his club in the National O55 & 65 Masters and played for the county at Over60 and 65 level.  His coaching has produced a stream of county junior champions, and intercounty players.  And his other tireless efforts have done much to make Windscale the successful club it is today.
2017	David Henderson	David has been one of the longest serving volunteers in our organisation ever – there are only a handful of other people who have given a similar “sporting lifetime” of dedicated service to it. He joined the organisation on the Executive Committee in 1998/1999. Over all of those years as well as working on day to day Executive Committee business he has had specific development responsibilities – the first nine years were as Development Officer focussing on the whole scope of our organisation and the last ten years as Junior Organiser leading our junior development initiatives. David has been very effective in every job he has had – he is a great leader, professional in all he does, an effective administrator and an energetic `hands- on` worker when required. He has done his work in the quiet and friendly way that is the measure of the man – he is a real gentleman He was appointed as Junior Organiser in 2007/2008 season. The fantastic individual and team achievements at national level in that time show just how effective those processes have been.
2016	Ian Richardson (Windscale)	Ian Richardson, secretary of Windscale Squash Club, Egremont, has been selected as the 2016 winner of the Hazel Tait Award. He was chosen for his dedicated support for his club since he joined in 1985. He is a player who has continually competed in local club competitions since that time and in the club county league team for over 25 years. In addition to this, since 1994 when he joined the club executive committee, he has been involved in general club management. Also in 1994 he joined CSR Executive Committee for the 1994/1995 season to represent his club in the county scene - where he was a major contributor to county business. During this work he was a major contributor to club development generally and particularly in building restructuring and the introduction of the high quality gym – very important and successful projects. In 1996 he was appointed as club secretary, the position he has today. Windscale, in part thanks to Ian, is well known for its very effective management and operation, superb facilities, effective junior coaching and development that has resulted in national level performances in many cases, support for CSR and its second to none hospitality and friendliness to all guests.
2015	Willie Studholme (Wigton)	Cumbria Squash has chosen 80-year-old Willie Studholme of Wigton Squash Club as the winner of the Hazel Tait Award for 2014/15. Willie was selected for his dedicated and very active support for Wigton club over a period of 40 years and his dedicated and effective junior coaching work at the club over the last 15 years or so. Also, for his total commitment and support for CSR, the county organisation, over the 40 year period . Tom Armstrong, county Chairman, says that he is without question the best supporter of the organisation that he has ever known – there is no one like him for for spreading his enthusiasm about the sport across the county – which is exactly what the organisation wants. Willie loves the sport and even at 80 is still very active and on court at Wigton at every opportunity – he also plays in the Scottish Veterans tournaments and has done very well on the Over 75 circuit. This very nice person, a real gentleman, never lets anything stand in his way in his desire to play squash and only recently after a severe shoulder injury when he could not use his right hand he began to teach himself to play with his left hand.
2014	John Honeyman (Wigton)	The winner of the 2013/14 award is John Honeyman of Wigton. John has been an active player, coach and administrator - for both club and county, for over 25 years. He runs coaching sessions every week for improving young players at Wigton, and has been key in that club's continuing production of good young players throughout that time. He has been tireless in his support for the county - particularly the juniors - coaching, managing and transporting teams around the country. His dedication to his club and his sport is an inspiration, and he is a most deserving winner of the award.
2013	Peter Smith (Workington)	The 2012/2013 season's very worthy winner is Peter Smith of Workington Junior Squash Club. He was chosen for the impressive work he has done for Club and County over a period of almost 25 years. Around 1990 he had the vision, initiative and drive to set up a Junior Club in the Workington area at a time when there was a need for a junior development initiative in the area. Since then, with the exception of a few years when he worked abroad, he has given unselfish dedication, commitment, leadership and hands on effort to the club, alongside other like-minded volunteers, in a way that has made it the effective junior club that it is today.
2012	Vince Todhunter (Cockermouth Squash Club)	Vince who is the 8th recipient was chosen for an exceptional 31 consecutive years of dedicated and effective service to the organisation - 29 years on the Executive Committee up to the time of his retirement in 2010 and 2 more years since then doing important work outside of committee
2011	Valda Crawford (Wigton)	Valda was nominated on the basis of her exceptional services to Wigton Squash Club, driven by her loyalty, commitment and dedication to the club. Valda has been an active club member for over 35 years - as a top first team player for many years - as a committee member for many years - and during all of that time willingly doing any other work that was necessary to operate, maintain and develop the club. In 1985 Valda became involved in the early days of the club`s very successful junior coaching process and is still involved in it working with the youngsters every week. She has played a major role in coaching the younger juniors and encouraging them to join the club`s main stream coaching process which has developed hundreds of young people, several of whom have gone on to be high quality players.
2010	Donald Cape (Carlisle)	Donald was selected for over 20 years of dedicated and excellent work at Carlisle Club on the club committee and in coaching, mentoring and generally developing juniors at the club over that period. Also, for his 8-years of very effective work on Cumbria Squash Junior and Executive Committees.
2009	Liz Jackson (Wigton)	Liz has given outstanding commitment to Wigton Squash Club, for 25 years, as Lead Coach achieving very successful and effective junior development programmes for the club over that period that have been recognised County wide. She has also been on the committee of Cumbria Junior Squash since 1994, taking over management of it in 2000. Since 2000 the organisation has gone from strength to strength and can be considered amongst the best junior squash organisations in England. These two great achievements are made possible because of Liz’s many attributes including; total dedication and commitment to the job, excellent leadership, great attention to detail, extremely high work load and work rate
2008	Graham Robinson (Windscale)	Graham has been the driving force and inspiration in developing the club from the original 2 standard court set up to the lovely thriving club it is today, with 4 courts (including 2 championship standard glass backs), superbly equipped fitness facility, refurbished changing and shower facilities and the provision of the full range of squash and social activities for its members that we expect from a well run club. This makes it one of our top clubs.
2007	Penny Hitchin (Kendal)	For years, Penny has encouraged, steered and lead the squash club at Kendal. Under her leadership, the club has grown and thrived, and is one of the largest and most successful clubs in the county. Penny’s hard work and dedication has contributed more than anyone else’s to the success of the club. As a player she has supported the Kendal Ladies’ team for many years, and we wish her many more years to come
2006	Bill Armstrong (Brampton)	Bill is a leading light of Brampton Squash Club and a dedicated supporter of squash across the county. Brampton is one of our smaller clubs, with just one court. But Bill has managed to maintain the club, and a regular team competing every Tuesday from Dalton in the south to Workington in the West. His hard work and enthusiasm is an example to us all
2005	Ronnie Bell (Carlisle)	For the first Hazel Tait award, Cumbria Squash executive committee chose to honour Ronnie Bell, of Carlisle Squash Club, who has given more than 30 years’ service and support to Carlisle squash club and to Cumbria squash. This is a very appropriate way of saying thank you to a real personality, who is liked and respected as a player and a person wherever he goes. His dedication is exemplified in his positive response, leadership and hands-on effort in the clean up and refurbishment of Carlisle squash club in the aftermath of the disastrous flood earlier in 2005. Ronnie was a close friend to Hazel and remains so to her husband Ray.

Year	Awarded To	Citation	Photo
2024	Ronnie Harris	This season`s selected person is Ronnie Harris who retired in 2010 from the Executive Committee (Exec) after serving 26 years on it. He did a fantastic job generally on committee business but his main focus for 23 of those years was County League Organiser – where he was outstanding. Ronnie was then (and still is) the third longest serving volunteer on the Exec following Tom and Vince Todhunter who also was (and still is) the second longest with his 29 years of exemplary service. Ronnie and Vince retired at the same time, which made them both eligible for nomination for the Hazel Award and Vince received it in 2012 because of his longer service. The Exec planned that Ronnie should receive it in 2013 but unfortunately he became very poorly, with a Brain Haemorrhage, for a lengthy period and could not receive it . Fortunately he fully recovered from that and the intention of the Exec was to place him high on the priority list for future selection. But for many reasons that has never happened. Tom in the last few seasons decided that this totally unfair situation for Ronnie must be rectified, even at this late date, and suggested that he should get the award this season – something fully supported by the Exec. So we congratulate him and give a big thank you and appreciation for his 26 years very effective service and say we are very sorry he has had to wait so long for it.
2023	Chris Lilley (Penrith)	Chris has been a committee member of Penrith Squash Club for many years, overseeing a significant expansion of the club and improvement in facilities. In addition, he has served on the Cumbria committee for 14 years, taking the role of Treasurer, organising intercounty teams and Tuesday night leagues, and more recently taking, with great success, the role of junior organiser. He is leaving the area to spend more time with his family in Suffolk, and will be sorely missed
2022	Barbara Telfer (Windscale)	Barbara has been involved with Windscale Squash Club for over 25 years.  As a player, coach and organiser, she has particularly supported the development and improvement of the many young players who have come out of Windscale, and also supported county teams.  She is tireless in organising sessions and supporting the sport.  In addition, she works closely with local schools to get kids involved with the sport, has organised a number of charity events, as well as some of the high profile squash events in the county - including professional demonstrations and the South Africa Knights tours.
2019	Jonny Irving (Wigton)	Jonny has been involved in squash playing and administration at both his club and for the county.  County U19 champion, he has represented the county at all age groups, and has battled a serious knee injury to make a strong comeback to first division squash.  He is a Level 2 coach.  He has also been a longstanding committee member of Wigton Squash, a member of Cumbria Junior Committee and a trustee of the senior organisation.  In this time he has organised tournaments, developed strategies, managed the website and county social media presence and was an active and supportive member of the county Executive committee.  His passion and dedication shines through in everything that he does.
2018	Jake Musson (Windscale)	Jake has been an active member of Windscale for over 20 years.  In this time he has worked as a player, a coach and a supporter, and has even found time to do much appreciated maintenance and repairs to the club!  He has represented his club in the National O55 & 65 Masters and played for the county at Over60 and 65 level.  His coaching has produced a stream of county junior champions, and intercounty players.  And his other tireless efforts have done much to make Windscale the successful club it is today.
2017	David Henderson	David has been one of the longest serving volunteers in our organisation ever – there are only a handful of other people who have given a similar “sporting lifetime” of dedicated service to it. He joined the organisation on the Executive Committee in 1998/1999. Over all of those years as well as working on day to day Executive Committee business he has had specific development responsibilities – the first nine years were as Development Officer focussing on the whole scope of our organisation and the last ten years as Junior Organiser leading our junior development initiatives. David has been very effective in every job he has had – he is a great leader, professional in all he does, an effective administrator and an energetic `hands- on` worker when required. He has done his work in the quiet and friendly way that is the measure of the man – he is a real gentleman He was appointed as Junior Organiser in 2007/2008 season. The fantastic individual and team achievements at national level in that time show just how effective those processes have been.
2016	Ian Richardson (Windscale)	Ian Richardson, secretary of Windscale Squash Club, Egremont, has been selected as the 2016 winner of the Hazel Tait Award. He was chosen for his dedicated support for his club since he joined in 1985. He is a player who has continually competed in local club competitions since that time and in the club county league team for over 25 years. In addition to this, since 1994 when he joined the club executive committee, he has been involved in general club management. Also in 1994 he joined CSR Executive Committee for the 1994/1995 season to represent his club in the county scene - where he was a major contributor to county business. During this work he was a major contributor to club development generally and particularly in building restructuring and the introduction of the high quality gym – very important and successful projects. In 1996 he was appointed as club secretary, the position he has today. Windscale, in part thanks to Ian, is well known for its very effective management and operation, superb facilities, effective junior coaching and development that has resulted in national level performances in many cases, support for CSR and its second to none hospitality and friendliness to all guests.
2015	Willie Studholme (Wigton)	Cumbria Squash has chosen 80-year-old Willie Studholme of Wigton Squash Club as the winner of the Hazel Tait Award for 2014/15. Willie was selected for his dedicated and very active support for Wigton club over a period of 40 years and his dedicated and effective junior coaching work at the club over the last 15 years or so. Also, for his total commitment and support for CSR, the county organisation, over the 40 year period . Tom Armstrong, county Chairman, says that he is without question the best supporter of the organisation that he has ever known – there is no one like him for for spreading his enthusiasm about the sport across the county – which is exactly what the organisation wants. Willie loves the sport and even at 80 is still very active and on court at Wigton at every opportunity – he also plays in the Scottish Veterans tournaments and has done very well on the Over 75 circuit. This very nice person, a real gentleman, never lets anything stand in his way in his desire to play squash and only recently after a severe shoulder injury when he could not use his right hand he began to teach himself to play with his left hand.
2014	John Honeyman (Wigton)	The winner of the 2013/14 award is John Honeyman of Wigton. John has been an active player, coach and administrator - for both club and county, for over 25 years. He runs coaching sessions every week for improving young players at Wigton, and has been key in that club's continuing production of good young players throughout that time. He has been tireless in his support for the county - particularly the juniors - coaching, managing and transporting teams around the country. His dedication to his club and his sport is an inspiration, and he is a most deserving winner of the award.
2013	Peter Smith (Workington)	The 2012/2013 season's very worthy winner is Peter Smith of Workington Junior Squash Club. He was chosen for the impressive work he has done for Club and County over a period of almost 25 years. Around 1990 he had the vision, initiative and drive to set up a Junior Club in the Workington area at a time when there was a need for a junior development initiative in the area. Since then, with the exception of a few years when he worked abroad, he has given unselfish dedication, commitment, leadership and hands on effort to the club, alongside other like-minded volunteers, in a way that has made it the effective junior club that it is today.
2012	Vince Todhunter (Cockermouth Squash Club)	Vince who is the 8th recipient was chosen for an exceptional 31 consecutive years of dedicated and effective service to the organisation - 29 years on the Executive Committee up to the time of his retirement in 2010 and 2 more years since then doing important work outside of committee
2011	Valda Crawford (Wigton)	Valda was nominated on the basis of her exceptional services to Wigton Squash Club, driven by her loyalty, commitment and dedication to the club. Valda has been an active club member for over 35 years - as a top first team player for many years - as a committee member for many years - and during all of that time willingly doing any other work that was necessary to operate, maintain and develop the club. In 1985 Valda became involved in the early days of the club`s very successful junior coaching process and is still involved in it working with the youngsters every week. She has played a major role in coaching the younger juniors and encouraging them to join the club`s main stream coaching process which has developed hundreds of young people, several of whom have gone on to be high quality players.
2010	Donald Cape (Carlisle)	Donald was selected for over 20 years of dedicated and excellent work at Carlisle Club on the club committee and in coaching, mentoring and generally developing juniors at the club over that period. Also, for his 8-years of very effective work on Cumbria Squash Junior and Executive Committees.
2009	Liz Jackson (Wigton)	Liz has given outstanding commitment to Wigton Squash Club, for 25 years, as Lead Coach achieving very successful and effective junior development programmes for the club over that period that have been recognised County wide. She has also been on the committee of Cumbria Junior Squash since 1994, taking over management of it in 2000. Since 2000 the organisation has gone from strength to strength and can be considered amongst the best junior squash organisations in England. These two great achievements are made possible because of Liz’s many attributes including; total dedication and commitment to the job, excellent leadership, great attention to detail, extremely high work load and work rate
2008	Graham Robinson (Windscale)	Graham has been the driving force and inspiration in developing the club from the original 2 standard court set up to the lovely thriving club it is today, with 4 courts (including 2 championship standard glass backs), superbly equipped fitness facility, refurbished changing and shower facilities and the provision of the full range of squash and social activities for its members that we expect from a well run club. This makes it one of our top clubs.
2007	Penny Hitchin (Kendal)	For years, Penny has encouraged, steered and lead the squash club at Kendal. Under her leadership, the club has grown and thrived, and is one of the largest and most successful clubs in the county. Penny’s hard work and dedication has contributed more than anyone else’s to the success of the club. As a player she has supported the Kendal Ladies’ team for many years, and we wish her many more years to come
2006	Bill Armstrong (Brampton)	Bill is a leading light of Brampton Squash Club and a dedicated supporter of squash across the county. Brampton is one of our smaller clubs, with just one court. But Bill has managed to maintain the club, and a regular team competing every Tuesday from Dalton in the south to Workington in the West. His hard work and enthusiasm is an example to us all
2005	Ronnie Bell (Carlisle)	For the first Hazel Tait award, Cumbria Squash executive committee chose to honour Ronnie Bell, of Carlisle Squash Club, who has given more than 30 years’ service and support to Carlisle squash club and to Cumbria squash. This is a very appropriate way of saying thank you to a real personality, who is liked and respected as a player and a person wherever he goes. His dedication is exemplified in his positive response, leadership and hands-on effort in the clean up and refurbishment of Carlisle squash club in the aftermath of the disastrous flood earlier in 2005. Ronnie was a close friend to Hazel and remains so to her husband Ray.