For the Viennese Squash Rackets Federation, the Wiener Squash Rackets Verband, WSRV we are visiting all squash courts in Vienna. It’s called the WSRV – Squash World Tour – Vienna Edition. We are playing matches there and rating the clubs in 5 categories: booking, reachability, facilities, court, price.
With only three more squash venues in Vienna to go, we want to finish hard! We will play 3 matches within one week starting at the Country & Sports Club Wien Nord in Floridsdorf. Arriving at the address, #teamorange was already there, not sure if Google Maps had fooled us. But behind an unappealing metal door, the huge sports club revealed.
Entering the venue, the squash court is on the right hand side. We turned on the lights as we were instructed by the friendly bar keeper and the flaws of the court where immediately exposed – we will address them later. But for now you need to know that it was incredibly slippery and that the side walls were totally slick.
In our warm up game we had great fun sliding around the court. Unfortunately we brought our Eye Rackets shoes instead of our ice skates… I wondered: Does my-squash.com sell those for courts like these as well?
#teamyellow going down
The floor was my biggest issue. I had no grip at all! I couldn’t make even one controlled shot. I was permanently sliding. My #teamyellow shoes were terribly dirty after the first few points, covered with dust. #teamorange on the other hand adapted well. He moved much better than me and managed to kinda control the rallies. He took the first game 11-7.
The slick side walls made it almost impossible for me to play a decent boast. If a boast made it to the front wall, it was rather much too high or in the middle of the court. Easily #teamorange advanced to a comfortable 2-0-lead taking game 2 11-4.
I knew that I recently turned a match around after being down 0-2 (notably the game results were exactly the same as in Alt Erlaa). But this time it was different. I was just a passenger on the ice ring. Game 3 went in the same direction: 6-1 for #teamorange was too big of a lead. Garbage behind the court in combination with the poor lighting make the ball disappear when it hits the back wall on the backhand side. Nevertheless I managed to get to 6-5. At 10-8 Joel took his chance and made his second match point to claim his second win on the WSRV Squash World Tour Vienna Edition – on the probably worst court I ever played on!
I still lead 7-2 on the Vienna Edition in total and I’m looking forward to play at my home club C19 this Thursday!
Our rating
Booking: Booking via Eversports is possible weekdays from 8am-3pm. On all other dates the court is reserved for members only. Guests can make a reservation via phone a day before they want to play – if no member is using the court they can play. Confusing? For us too! 2,5/5 Stars
Reachability: Final stop of the U6 Floridsdorf. Then two stops with a bus 28A or 29A. Adding 7 minutes walk. 2/5 stars.
Facilities: The venue is nice and spacious. There is a Restaurant, even a small library. The locker room is clean, as well as the shower. A plant in the shower creates a slight rainforest feeling. 3,5/5 stars.
Court: The huge holes in the wooden side walls and the rusty nails the walls have been fixed with make a bad first impression. The vastly damaged front wall, the slippery floor, the cobwebby ceiling do not improve that impression. The slick side walls make it hard to play boasts. The lighting also could be better – one halogen lamp is missing. On the pro side there is a glass back wall and a small nick (#teamorange awarded 5/5 for the nick). The floor structure seems to be okay as well. 2,5/5 stars .
Price: 20 Euro for one hour of squash is too much for that court. 2,5/5 stars.
RESULT
2,5 stars for Country & Sports Club Wien Nord!
Website: www.bsvshell.at, booking-link (Eversports) , Phone number for booking: +43 1 258 16 54