Willstrops words

Positive times for squash

Tuesday 10th January by Malcolm Willstrop

So much good came out of the World Series at the Queen's club. First and foremost, how wonderful to see the incomparable Amr Shabana at his best, when many wondered whether we would see him at his best again. Not only did he come through the best of three matches, which would obviously be to his liking, but he survived a massive five set final to record the first win of his illustrious career on English soil: he will be glad to see the back of that statistic!  

The men and women showed the game off to great effect in both the semi finals and the final and hopefully, with the presenting and commentating skills of Tony Wrighton, Joey Barrington, assisted by Vanessa Atkinson and  Lee Beachill, Sky Sports, who televised the semi finals and final live, will be sufficiently impressed to want more. Perhaps the Olympic movement may now be aware of what they are missing in London later this year. The interview with the man to whom the game owes so much, the legendary Jonah Barrington, was a bonus and thanks to another to whom we all owe so much, Ziad al Turki, whose vision and unqualified support were responsible for what we all witnessed at Queen's and on Sky Sports.I hope he felt well rewarded.

IOC say No!

Sunday 14th August by Malcolm Willstrop

It may be a year until the London Olympics, but even without the obvious discomfort caused by squash's absence, the hype is going to be hard to endure, reminiscent of supermarkets advertising Christmas in August or before for that matter.  

I have said it many times and I will repeat it: the question I am most asked by those not involved is squash is, 'Why isn't squash in the Olympics?' As I watched beach volleyball being tried out in London, attractive proposition though that may be in some respects, it was easy to see what triggers off such a question.  It is hard to explain, since the whole sporting world, except for soccer no doubt, knows that it is one of the most physically demanding sports in the world. The game is universal-I'm not aware of beach volleyball in Pontefract or tennis for that matter, since there is nowhere to play, and serves children well, criteria which many Olympic sports do not meet: golf and children don't ring a bell. Since in the end medals are what it is all about, it is a tragedy for Great Britain that its most successful sport is not included. It is hard to imagine that Nick Matthew, Jenny Duncalf, James Willstrop, Alison Waters, Peter Barker, Madeline Perry and Laura Massaro would come away empty handed.   I don't know what influence the British Olympic committee have, but for the life of me I cannot believe that the Chinese would not have managed to gain inclusion in Beijing for a sport in which they excelled. I find it hard to view future attempts by squash to gain admittance with any optimism: Sydney and London both failed in countries where world class players abounded and what the squash world must do, however difficult that may be, is to get on with it. The World tour is healthy and the quality of play is better than it has ever been. The glass court provides spectacular venues all over the world, so as a sport we have much to be proud of and little to apologise for. It won't be easy with the Olympics in London, but we must get on with it.

Squash - friendship forever!

Wednesday 3rd August by Malcolm Willstrop

One of the most valuable assets that squash, being a sociable game, has, is its ability to sustain friendships.

Recently I have had several reminders of that fact. James, on his way to Canberra for the Australian Open,has stopped off in Sydney to stay with Mike Rawlins, a former pupil at Gresham's School, where I taught for ten years. He is a keen squash player, but he was a dynamic rugby player in an outstanding Gresham's team,which included England international Nick Youngs, father of Ben, the current England scrum half.         

Richard Le Lievre, brother of John,spent his sixth form years at Gresham's from where he became the British under 18 champion. Recently and completely out of the blue he wrote to me to tell me how much those times meant to him and how he had profited from them.      

Then, equally suddenly, I received an e mail from former world no.2, Australian, Dean Williams, supreme entertainer with the racket and verbally. He, too, spent time training at Gresham's and as I recall left a lot fitter than when he arrived in doubtful physical condition. He stayed with me again in Sheffield for the British Open at Abbeydale Park in the formative days of professional squash as we now know it.  James and I went to Lancing College a few weeks back to coach their players at the request of former pupil, James Barrington, the prime mover behind the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open. This relationship is the fruits of a contentious match played between Lancing and Gresham's many moons ago, in which James Barrington and Richard Lelievre were the respective number ones. The story is retold every time both parties meet with subjective, not artistic licence. 

Four instances, all very recent, which indicate that we belong to a special game.

A Seaside tonic blows away the cobwebs

By James Willstop 

The Cleethorpes invitational tournament, now in its 14th year, took place over the weekend at the Cleepthorpes Cricket Club and is the perfect warm up for the season.

 
It’s perhaps an unlikely and certainly a less far-flung location than usual, but Mike Hallam and his team of sponsors and members do a great job every year in welcoming the players.

 
On Friday night in the bottom half of the draw Hull’s Lawrence De La Saux took the scalp of Daryl Selby, the national champion from Essesx, in the five games, while Adrian Grant came back from 2-0 down to bear
Chris Simpson.

 
The top half of the draw saw Saurav Ghosal deal quickly with Shaun Le Roux and I took four competitive games to beat Eddie Charlton. I played my training partner Ghosal on Saturday morning and won in three tight games – and all of a sudden after a long hiatus from competitive match play itseemed like we had never been away.

 
Meanwhile, Grant beat De La Saux in another tight four-game match.

 
In the final on Saturday evening,, I won in four games , but as Grant said afterwards, the good thing for us both was to have had three tough matches over the weekend.

 
There were some expectedly scrappy periods in them, no dount, and hopefully a few cobwebs will have been cleared before the Australian Open begins in three weeks in Canberra.

 
Next Friday Pontefract is staging an evening for Sadie Rose Clifford, a two year old with cancer who is in need of funding for various treatements. The event takes place in conjunction with the opening of the upstairs squash courts and it promises to be a fantastic evening, in which we hope to riase a fair amount of money for Sadie, a desperately unfortunate but inspiring girl.

 
The bill has something for everyone, we hope; there will be four short matches between Sam Todd and Will King, who are two young stars, myself and Saurav Ghosal, Lee Beachill and Simon Parke and Vanessa Atkinson and Jenny Duncalf.

 
With five of the eight having been in the world top 10 and two former number ones, we all hope to entertain and put on a good evening for Sadie. James Fender and Andy Proctor have kindly agreed to play and sing in the bar afterwards. For more information please visit www.sadierosecliffordappeal.co.uk