As you are all aware for various reasons Squash SA (SSA) has been temporarily suspended by SASCOC. A Special General Meeting which will be overseen by SASCOC has been convened on the 24^th September to elect a President and an executive (comprising 8 people).

 

This letter is being sent by an ex chairman of SSA - Simon Malone - and current squash administrators in various roles - Lloyde Hanson, Garth van Rensburg, Chris Holden, Michael Melvill, John van Heeswijk, John Raubenheimer, Ian Graham & Peter Bridges -  to the squash players, administrators and regions outlining the position as it stands and recommending a way forward.

 

HISTORIC SITUATION

 

The original SRA – now SSA – enjoyed long standing and sound relationships with Government and World Squash during its existence. Successive Ministers of Sport and Senior Dept. of Sport officials – Piet Koornhof, Dawie de Villiers, Steve Tshwete, Mthobi Tyamzashe and recently the President of SASCOC, Gideon Sam - have attended SSA functions and have enjoyed cordial relations with the sport.

 

The British SRA and the World Squash Federation have always considered SSA as a solid, supportive and constructive member of the international squash community.

 

It is TOTALLY unacceptable that the administrators of the sport can embark on a public spat about office bearers caused by some sloppy administration and exacerbated by some personality clashes.

 

These actions place SSA in a category with some of the appallingly run sports bodies embroiled in continued and unnecessary controversy in SA. Squash has and should avoid public controversy. It is small enough and mature enough to do so, and the administrators as elected by you – the squash player – should ensure this.

 

CURRENT SITUATION

 

SSA has been suspended and is currently being run by SASCOC. SSA has no Executive Committee. The provinces/regions are required to nominate a new Executive for the Special General Meeting on 24 September.

 

Barry Hendricks, the previous President, together with a number of others, who would, if elected, make up the new Executive, are being nominated by a number of regions .

 

These nominees include :

 

-         Zuko Kubukeli (Previous Chairman WP and currently no. 8 in SA)  

-         Siyoli Waters (currently in the top 5 on the SA Women's Rankings, Squash Olympic ambassador),

-         Craig van der Wath (A legend!)

-         Edward Jantjies (Chairperson of SA Country Districts Squash)  

-         Helene Schlebusch (North West Province Squash administrator).

-         Angie Clifton-Parkes (Another legend!)

This amounts to a mix of experience and gender as required by the constitution and national sport priorities in SA.

 

Barry Hendricks, who may not be known to  all of you, is arguably the most suitable potential President SSA could have. He played squash for Eastern Province Squash Federation and was Chairman of that Association.

 

He is currently Chairman of Central Gauteng Squash (to retire in about a year) where he has revitalised that organization in terms of planning, management, finance and development (800 disadvantaged players and 10 coaches, National Lottery funding money and more).

 

Most importantly Barry has spent a considerable part of his career in national sport and semi-government organizations, such as the National Sports Council and SA Sports Commission, and brings to squash an intimate knowledge of the workings of Government and sports administration - which is evidenced by the increase in lottery money awarded to SSA (R7.2m).

 

A number of spurious allegations  with respect to Barry (and others) are being circulated apparently in an effort to discredit his campaign.  Each allegation together with our rebuttal follows:

 

1. Barry wants to change the SSA constitution so he can draw R30 000pm

 

Minutes of the SSA executive meeting 3-12-2011 – where Barry raised the possibility of being compensated for approx R1000 of  ‘out-of-pocket’ expenses - follow verbatim:

 

9.3.1     

Mr Hendricks informed the meeting  that he would like the GOVAS structure to look at the payment of honoraria. He was attending a number of meetings on behalf of Squash South Africa e.g. travel to Midlands for their AGM.

    Ms Prosser replied that Constitution explicitly disallowed remuneration (honoraria are considered remuneration) for EXCO     members. Travel and other expenses are currently reimbursed for expenses incurred beyond the Gauteng region.

 

 Mr van der Wath asked if Mr Hendricks was intending to request a change to the Constitution.

    9. 3.1.1 

Mr Hendricks would submit a formal request in writing so that it may be placed on the agenda for the Annual General Meeting in June. This would need to be approved by EXCO in advance and the correct notice given to provinces in accordance with the constitution’s requirements for changes.

 

2. Barry took a 20% commission on the  R1.7m  Central Gauteng lottery allocation.

 

We have received verification from Central Gauteng (which can be confirmed upon request) demonstrating this is untrue.

 

3.  Barry awarded contracts to his cronies.

 

As President of Squash SA,  within his mandate, Barry had opened up a discussion with Jacque Haremse (ex-CEO of Rowing SA) as to the SSA CEO position . There was a clear understanding such a relationship required contracts requiring SSA executive ratification. Obviously this has gone no further.

 

4. Barry wanted his cronies on the committee.

 

We are entirely supportive of the notion of squash being more inclusive.  

 

This notion is not predicated only by a sense of fair play.  Inclusiveness is the only way we will provide commercial benefits to our game (especially in the eyes of sponsors and government.)

 

This does not – however - amount to an accusation of cronyism. Such an accusation is entirely without basis.

 

 

We have no hesitation in recommending Barry as a nominee for President and urge you to support his nomination. The remaining nominees – Zuko, Siyoli, Craig, Edward, Helene, Angie et al are all lovers of squash and share the vision of putting squash back on the map both at an African and an International level.

 

 

Simon Malone

Lloyde Hanson

Chris Holden

Garth van Rensburg

Michael Melvill

John van Heeswijk

Peter Bridges

Ian Graham

John Raubenheimer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does anyone on squashball know who these squash players are?

 

Alan Stapleton and his partner Steve Smith clinched the prestigious St Francis Bay Doubles  invitational o50 title

 

 

 

 

Rank outsiders Van Rensburg and Graham examine Stapes' form before meeting him in the final.

 

Fives Reasons for Olympic Gold

The modern incarnation of a medieval ball game is looking for a place on the ultimate stage

 

LONDON—In the shadow of West London's urban sprawl, two school kids hit a soft, bright blue rubber ball against a wall. They are playing a court game known as one-wall handball, a derivation of fives, one of the world's oldest sports that can trace its lineage back to medieval times.

For most people in Britain, fives is seen as the preserve of elite private schools and universities. Like polo or lacrosse, it's played by a small social elite, with a blue-blood appeal limited to alumni from the handful of institutions which have courts—places like Oxford, Cambridge or Eton College, the famous boarding school where British royals are educated.

But thanks to a version of the game that started life in some of the roughest neighborhoods of New York, this ancient sport of hitting a ball against a wall with your hand is being introduced to a new generation of children in Britain's inner-city schools.

Such is the success of one-wall handball that in just five years of it first being played in the U.K. more than 3,000 children now play the game and dozens of adult competitions have been launched. Meanwhile, the England national team was crowned European one-wall handball champion at the sport's European championships in Valencia, Spain, last September.

It's still early days for one-wall handball here, of course. But with eight state-run schools already playing regularly and interest spreading from London to outposts as far afield as north Yorkshire and the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland, there is a feeling among the sport's organizers that interest could snowball and even imitate its success in New York, where more than a 100,000 people play the game, according to the U.S Handball Association.

"It is a really good inner-city sport," says Peter Cohen, fives development manager at the Westway sports centre in London.

"It works well with schools that don't have a lot of space for onsite sports facilities such as football, cricket and rugby. It also benefits from its cost and simplicity: you don't have to be a coordinated athlete, don't have to own expensive equipment and you can play the game almost anywhere."

The game is the simplest variation of a slew of court games that have evolved across the world from the natural sporting instinct of hitting a ball against a wall. In France, a variation of the game is called jeu de Paume; the Spanish play pelota; in Italy it's known as pallapugno, while the Dutch play kaatsen and the Belgians call it llargues.

In Britain the oldest court-based predecessor one-wall handball is fives. It is played in three formats—Eton, Rugby and Winchester—which vary according to the physical shape of the court. In the case of Winchester and Eton fives, the left-hand wall features a buttress halfway up, which is based on buttresses found on the exterior of the Eton College chapel. The game is not dissimilar to squash, the main difference being that players hit the ball with their hands.

Organizers of one-wall handball say the next step is Olympic recognition.

This weekend the major governing bodies for handball, including the World Handball Council and the Confederation Internationale de Jeu de Balle—the organization for wall games in South America and Europe—will meet in Valencia to discuss a joint agreement to promote handball globally, with the aim of competing in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.

For Dick Warner, the Deputy President of the Rugby Fives Association, this development is crucial to the growth and survival of fives in Britain.

"There are a limited number of people who can go to private schools and pick up fives," says Mr. Warner. "If you really want to get large numbers playing fives and create a legacy sport for the Olympics, you need to have the facilities within every school that wants to play it."

The brainchild behind one-wall handball in the U.K. is James Toop, a 29-year-old modern languages teacher who played Eton and Rugby fives at Oxford University.

Frustrated by the lack of sporting facilitates in the London inner city school in which he taught, he introduced the game after seeing the success handball enjoyed in New York.

"When I originally started the game it was solely with the view that it was a great inner city sport for urban schools in urban estates and communities," says Mr. Toop.

"Since then the game has grown so much we have had a lot of demand from independent schools and existing fives players. Sport is such a leveller, irrespective of class and ethnicity, and it is a great way of bringing different parts of society together.

"Ultimately, if it keeps growing it will become an Olympic sport. My dream is that we will be able to go round every estate in London and put up walls where children can play. If we bring enough attention to handball hopefully those that champion fives will start building fives courts in schools again."

It is a view echoed by Howie Eisenberg, 71, who grew up playing handball in the 1950s in New York's Brighton Beach and became one of the game's greatest players with five U.S. titles.

"It is a game of power," says Mr. Eisenberg from his home in California. "In that sense it is similar to tennis in that the player requires the physical attributes of strength, quick reflexes, speed and stamina. All of those are integral to the game.

"But the really great thing about one-wall is that not only is it the simplest form of the game it is the cheapest as well."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Squashing the Ivies

By PAUL WACHTER

NEW YORK TIMES

 

One day in 1996, Trinity College’s new president, Evan Dobelle, called the men’s squash coach into his office. Dobelle was an unconventional hire. He didn’t complete his bachelor’s degree until he was 39, working in politics — mayor of Pittsfield, Mass., aide to President Carter, treasurer of the Democratic National Committee — then running first one, then another community college. But Trinity was a troubled institution, and the trustees weren’t looking for another tweedy scholar. Enrollment was down even as the liberal-arts school was accepting 65 percent of all applicants — a striking contrast to its rivals Amherst and Williams, which typically admit fewer than 20 percent of their applicant pools. The biggest problem was Trinity’s immediate surroundings, the crime-­ridden, blighted neighborhood of Frog Hollow in Hartford. So Dobelle started an ambitious $225 million public-private urban-renewal project to improve the area — including the construction of three schools and a performing-arts center — without pushing its residents out. Then he turned to the college’s sports programs, wondering if there might not be a quicker way to improve Trinity’s brand.

The obstacle there was that Trinity is a Division III school, and in Dobelle’s view, winning a basketball championship, say, against an obscure college in the Midwest wouldn’t make much of a splash. Trinity had a squash team, however, and even if the sport wasn’t played everywhere, at least the school competed against Harvard, Yale and Princeton, elite universities known throughout the world. Beating them in anything would be big news. It was still easier said than done, though: no school outside the Ivy League had won the Potter Cup, given to the men’s national champion in college squash, since the U.S. Naval Academy’s surprise victory in 1967.

Dobelle asked his squash coach, Paul Assaiante, what it would take to compete with the Ivies.

Dobelle didn’t know it at the time, but Assaiante’s path to Trinity was as improbable as his own. A working-class kid from the Bronx, Assaiante competed in gymnastics at Springfield College in Massachusetts and coached the sport at the U.S. Military Academy. During his downtime there he took up tennis, became an accomplished player and applied as a lark when Army’s tennis-coaching job opened up. When other candidates turned down the job after finding out they would have to lead cadets on mandatory early-morning runs, Assaiante got the position in 1977 — and the added duty of coaching the squash team. He learned the sport quickly, moving on to coach it at Williams and then private clubs before landing the Trinity job in 1994.

So when Dobelle posed his question, Assaiante had been around squash long enough to know how to change the preppy American face of the sport. Recruit foreign players, he said, without skipping a beat.

It has been 15 years since that short conversation, at which Dobelle gave Assaiante the go-ahead to canvass the globe for players. Dobelle is now the president of Westfield State University in Massachusetts, but Assaiante is leading Trinity’s squash team into the national-championship tournament later this week at Harvard as a favorite to win its 13th consecutive title. And if, after this article goes to press, Trinity gets past Princeton and Brown, there will be another streak on the line, too — The Streak. Over the last dozen years, Trinity has not lost a single match to another school. At 239 matches and counting, as of this writing, it’s the longest winning streak, by far, in the history of college sports.

Trinity opened its 2010-11 season at Williams in December. As the first snowflakes of winter fell on the campus in Williamstown, Mass., the home team was being pummeled inside the squash center. Down two games to none in a best-of-five match, Will Morris, Williams’s top player, slumped against a water fountain and conceded to a teammate, “I’m tired,” as his opponent, Trinity’s Parth Sharma, casually practiced a few shots on court, barely sweating.

Morris matriculated from St. Paul’s, the New Hampshire boarding school that built the country’s first squash court in 1884. His teammates were from Exeter, Choate and other top prep schools; 20 years ago Williams’s roster would have been the envy of any school in the country. Today, against Trinity, it didn’t stand a chance. Trinity started only one American, Travis Judson, a senior, in its nine-man lineup. Sharma was from Jaipur, India — he attended a squash academy in Chennai before Trinity — and behind him was a fellow countryman as well as players from Sweden, South Africa, Malaysia, Colombia, El Salvador and Jamaica.

What Assaiante understood in 1996 and what remains the case is that the United States isn’t very good at squash. (The highest-ranked male American pro is No. 40: Julian Illingworth, a Yale graduate.) In part, that’s because until the last 15 years or so, Americans played a different version of the game, one that employed a harder ball and smaller court. Also, in many other parts of the world, more people are able to play; squash isn’t an upper-class sport. “I grew up in a middle-class, maybe working-class, family,” says Martin Heath, the Scottish coach at the University of Rochester, who was once ranked No. 4 in the world. “In Europe, you didn’t need to belong to a country club to play the game.”

At the beginning of Sharma and Morris’s match, each player was conservative. Occasionally, each sent drop shots to the front corners — not so much in order to win the point outright, however, as to tire his opponent. Squash is like sex, Assaiante likes to say: the object is to make it last as long as possible, wear the other person out. As in tennis, a point ends when the ball bounces twice or is struck out of bounds. But a squash court is small, a 672-square-foot box, and a good player who’s not terribly out of position should be able to reach any ball.

Morris wasn’t used to playing the game at Sharma’s tempo. “He forces the pace, and you can’t slow it down,” Morris said after the match. As the errors mounted for Morris, Sharma opened up his bag of trick shots. Lining up to hit a backhand into the front-right corner, he instead played it to the left with a deft flick of the wrist that wrong-footed Morris. “My favorite part of the game is the deception,” Sharma told me later. “I like finding new ways to trick my opponent.”

When Sharma finished off Morris, he completed a 9-0 romp for Trinity over the No. 11 team in the country. Only Trinity’s No. 5 player, Christopher Binnie from Jamaica, surrendered a game.

Trinity’s first international recruit was Marcus Cowie, from Norwich, England. Just out of high school and already ranked among the world’s top 100 squash professionals — he deferred prize money that would have put him afoul of N.C.A.A. regulations — Cowie first attracted the interest of Harvard’s coach, Bill Doyle. But the admissions department turned him down, and Doyle, a Trinity alumnus, put him in touch with Assaiante. “Trinity made a tremendous pitch,” says Cowie, who hadn’t heard of the college until Assaiante called. He met with Dobelle and was courted by Luke Terry, a Trinity graduate who served at Credit Suisse’s London offices. Assaiante took him to a Red Sox game.

When he arrived on campus in the fall of 1996, Cowie was instantly the best college player in the country; he went on to win the individual intercollegiate championships as a freshman and sophomore. In 1999, Trinity beat Harvard for the first time, in front of 2,000 spectators at home. “It was so crowded that when I broke a string, I couldn’t push the door open to get another racket,” Cowie recalls. “It was match ball, and I won that last point with broken strings.” Later that year, Trinity beat Harvard again to win its first national championship, ending Harvard’s own run of eight consecutive titles. Seven international players were on that Trinity squad.

Other schools have had international recruits, but never in such numbers, and there have been chirps about Trinity’s mercenary approach inside genteel squash circles. In 2004, The Harvard Crimson wrote — erroneously — that the “Evil Empire of College Squash” was handing out athletic scholarships, something schools in the Ivy League and the New England Small College Athletic Conference (which Trinity belongs to) are not allowed to do. “The feeling was that if you beat Harvard, you had to be cheating,” Assaiante says.

Trinity does enjoy one significant recruiting advantage: lower admission standards. “The kids that play squash for Trinity could not get into Williams (and Harvard, Yale and Princeton),” Zafi Levy, Williams’s coach, told me by e-mail. (Levy, who is from Israel, played for Assaiante at Trinity and then transferred to Williams.) In some cases, that’s certainly true: Randy Lim, a senior from Malaysia, didn’t get into Princeton, for example. What’s more, Trinity’s admissions office, with support from the president, is able to give more slots to squash players than its competitors do. As the Yale coach David Talbott puts it, “At Yale, where sports aren’t the emphasis, the president isn’t going to put that much focus on any sport.”

Still, if Trinity focuses more on squash than other sports, that’s well within the rules set down by the N.E.S.C.A.C., which permits Trinity to devote 71 spots annually to athletes who would not be likely to gain admittance. Schools are free to divvy the slots among the sports as they like. (The Ivy League’s numbers are not as transparent.) “What I say to the critics is that we’ve never tried to pretend we’re Harvard or Princeton,” Assaiante says, adding that he’s proud of his team’s academic record. During his tenure, only one player has failed to graduate, and that student returned to his home overseas for financial, not academic, reasons.

But by now, the Ivies, too, have filled their ranks with international players. Assaiante’s scouting advantages — he coaches the U.S. national team and is also tipped off by the vast web of Trinity squash alumni now scattered around the world — have been mitigated by the rise of the Internet, which makes it easy for anyone to track junior results in Lahore and Cairo.

“When we played Trinity in the national championship last year, they had nine international players in their top nine, and we had seven,” Talbott says. Nearly all students will still choose an Ivy League university over Trinity when they can get in. “Of the top eight squash teams, five are in the Ivy League,” Bob Callahan, Princeton’s coach, says. “That’s what’s unique about the sport. You can access the best education in the country and still play at the highest level.”

Meanwhile, schools with less lofty admissions standards, including the University of Rochester (ranked No. 4) and Franklin & Marshall (No. 8), are catching up to Trinity by following its model.

Trinity’s home match against Yale in mid-January was the most anticipated of this season. Last year, Trinity beat Yale 6-3 to win its 12th national title. And it was a contest that briefly captured the nation’s attention, thanks to some histrionics involving the teams’ No. 1 players. After the final point, Baset Ashfaq Chaudhry, a Trinity senior from Pakistan, who stands 6-foot-5, ran to his Yale counterpart, Kenneth Chan, who’s a foot shorter, leaned over him and let out a primal scream. The footage was broadcast on SportsCenter and went viral online, but ESPN didn’t show the moment earlier in the match when Chan made a similar unsporting gesture. Ashfaq apologized and later withdrew from the singles championship, but Trinity’s phone lines were deluged with angry calls, and the incident did little to diminish Trinity’s image as the bully of college squash.

Chan was playing at No. 2 this year, as was Sharma, who lost a challenge match to a teammate and countryman, Vikram Malhotra, who was now No. 1 for Trinity. But the biggest shake-up wrought by challenge matches was the arrival, for the first time in several years, of two Americans in Trinity’s top nine, both graduates of the Brunswick School in Greenwich, Conn.: Judson was at No. 8, and a freshman, Matthew Mackin, was No. 9. Behind them were another dozen or so Americans, affectionately called the “bomb squadders” by Assaiante, who doesn’t divide his team into varsity and junior-varsity squads. Instead, he inserts lower players into the lineup against weaker teams.

It’s a philosophy that endears Assaiante to parents of all nationalities. “I kept thinking there has to be something fake about this guy, but I never found it,” says the author Tom Wolfe, whose son played for Trinity and who gave a party to celebrate Assaiante’s recently published memoir, “Run to the Roar.”

When Sharma and Chan took the court, Trinity led the match 2-1; Andres Vargas, from Colombia, and Antonio Diaz, from Mexico, eked out close victories for Trinity, while Mackin lost to Yale’s Robby Berner, another Brunswick alumnus. Berner liked his team’s chances. “We were close last year, and they graduated a lot of players,” he said.

Sharma and Chan split the first two games. The third game, and the match, tilted on an epic rally with Sharma leading 6-5. Three times Chan dove to the floor, barely able to flick the ball toward the front wall. Finally, Chan couldn’t pull himself up in time, and Sharma whacked the ball to the open court. Sharma closed out that game and pulled away in the fourth.

On another court, Johan Detter, a Swede, avenged a junior-circuit loss to Yale’s Neil Martin, from Ireland, and Binnie recorded Trinity’s fifth win, clinching the match. Trinity would end up prevailing 7-2, with Judson accounting for the second loss. Yale’s Berner told me that it augurs well for American squash that two homegrown players have cracked Trinity’s lineup — but he didn’t mention that they were responsible for Trinity’s two losses.

All streaks come to an end. “The mathematical odds are so acutely against any continuation ad infinitum of such a historic feat,” James Jones Jr., Trinity’s current president, says. In December, the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team broke the U.C.L.A.men’s basketball record of 88 consecutive victories, but then, just two games later, fell to Stanford. In his comments immediately after the game, Connecticut’s coach, Geno Auriemma, smiled, praised the Stanford women and said he would probably appreciate his team’s run all the more now that it had ended.

“Losing is a disease,” the New York Knights’ clubhouse psychologist says in the baseball movie “The Natural.” But winning also carries its own heavy burden. As a Trinity freshman, Gustav Detter, Johan’s older brother, took the court against Princeton in February 2006 with the match tied at 4. He was facing a senior, Yasser el-Halaby, widely considered to be the best player in the history of college squash. Coming back from a two-game deficit, Detter pulled off a miraculous upset. He fell to the court and raised his arms in ecstasy. Two years ago, however, when Detter was a senior and pulled out the match in a similar situation, he felt only relief. “I played that match with a completely different feeling, a fear of losing and letting the team down,” he told me.

Of course, Assaiante is attuned to this feeling, this burden. “The streak motivates them, it spurs them on, and it paralyzes them,” he says of his players. He says he is prepared for the day his team loses, that he has rehearsed many times the speech he’ll give. He pictures the match ending 5-4, with the Trinity player who loses the deciding match walking off the court, head down.

“First of all, I’ll ask the five players that lost to raise their hands,” Assaiante says. “I’ll say: ‘All of you lost a point today. You lost the same number of points as the last man on the court. So Johnny, you have nothing to hang your head about.’ ”

He’ll invite the team to dinner, where he’ll assure his players that “nothing has changed,” certainly not how he feels about them or how they feel about one another.

But first, before the team leaves the courts, Assaiante wants to do something else. “I’m going to dance,” he says. “And then I’ll yell, ‘Yippee!’ ”

Paul Wachter, a founder of the news aggregator Web site againstdumb.com, last wrote about women’s roller derby for the magazine.

 

 

All Africa Squash Championships

Parkview Centre, Johannesburg

 

 

Results: Men :Finals: 1- Steve Coppinger (RSA) bt 2- Clinton Leeuw (RSA) 11-7 11-6 11-8 : Semi-Finals: 1-Steve Coppinger (RSA) bt 3-Rodney Durbach(RSA) 11-6 11-0 11-7; 2-Clinton Leeuw (RSA) bt 5/8-Thoboki Mohohlo (RSA) 11-9 11-7 11-6; Plate: Enos Mwale (Zam) bt Ishmael Mubure (Zim) 9-11 11-6 11-9 11-7; 2^nd Round Plate : Mwinga Lenewe (Zam) bt Mana Chilambe (Zam) 11-5 10-12 15-17 11-6 11-5

Consolation Plate 1: Malvern Mubure (Zim) bt Niciolas Mourga (MAur) 4-11 13-11 11-0 11-5 ; Consolation Plate 2 : Alex Holmes (Zim) bt Ahmed Hassan (Zim) 5-11 11-2 11-6

 

 

Women:Final: 1-Tenille van der Merwe (RSA) bt 2-Milnay Louw (RSA) 11-3 11-7 11-3; 3^rd position: 3-Cheyna Tucker (RSA) bt 5-Longi Dasbak (Nigeria) 11-3 11-8 11-5; 5^th Position : Vanessa Florens(Maur) bt Isabell Schnoor (Nam) 9-11 11-4 11-4 12-10; 7^th Position: Tara Phillips (Zim) bt Sharon Chifwembe (Zam) 11-7 11-7 11-1.Semi-finals: 1-Tenille van der Merwe (RSA) bt 5-Longi Dasbak (Nig) 11-2 11-5 11-5; 2-Milnay Louw(RSA) bt 3- Cheyna Tucker (RSA) 11-3 14-12 11-6.Plate: Michele Williams (Zim) bt Sheri Curle (Zim) 11-6 11-4 11-6.

 

South Africans Steve Coppinger and Tenille van der Merwe captured the premier titles at the All African Squash Championships, which were completed at the Parkview Squash Centre Johannesburg at the weekend.

 

In the men’s final Coppinger accounted for team mate Clinton Leeuw in straight games while van der Merwe outplayed fellow South Africa Milnay Louw also in straight games. South Africans Rodney Durbach and Thobokhi Mohohlo, who had provided the upset by defeating fourth seeded Kelvin Ndhlovu of Zambia in the quarterfinals, took bronze medal while South African Cheyna Tucker collected another bronze for South Africa by defeating Longi Dasbak of Nigeria  11-3 11-8 11-3.

 

Sponsored by the Lottery  South Arica swept the boards at the All Africa Championships by taking gold and bronze in the team event. Zambia pocketed gold while Namibia surprised by sharing he bronze medal.

 

 

CAUTIONARY NOTE TO SQUASHIES

 

 

'The judicial committee found that the Springboks' conditioning coach, Neels Liebel, instructed the entire team to ingest a product called Anabolic Nitro Nitric Oxide Extreme Energy Surge, manufactured by supplement company USN, directly before the Test against Ireland and again at half-time.'

 

Rugby players cleared

 

Squash SA - President -Barry Hendricks

Official opening

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Africa Senior Squash Championships Details:

Where: JOHANNESBURG

When: 24-28 January 2011

Team Composition: 2 Men, 1 Lady 
(More than one team allowed per country)

Events:
1. Team Championship
2. Individual Championship
(Individuals can enter Individual event even if country does not enter a team)

Sections: A & B

Entry Fee:
- $900 per team (2 men, 1 lady, 1 coach, 1 manager - We do not intend to send coach and manager). Covers 6 nights accommodation

Entry Fee For Extras:
- If team staying for 7 nights instead of 6, fee is $1,025 per team
- If team has more than 3 people, cost per extra person is $175 for the 6 nights option, or $205 for the 7 nights option.

Covered in Entry Fee:
- Accommodation at University of Witwatersrand
- Three meals per day
- Transport to venue, mornings, and back to University, evenings.

<==

Thanks

Kim
KSRA Communications

  Front Page | Home News | Business | Features | Sports | Classified Ads | Entertainment  | Links   Monday, December 27, 2010

 

Zambia unveils All-Africa squash squad
By Sports Reporter

THE Zambia Squash Association (ZSA) has named a 12-member provisional squad to represent the country at the All-Africa Senior Challenge tournament set for January 24-28 in South Africa.
ZSA general secretary Sylvester Chisenga said in an interview yesterday that the All-Africa Senior Challenge squad comprises eight male and four female players namely; Ray Simbule, Mwenya Lengwe, Enos Mwale, Manda Chilambwe, Kafwimbi Nkole, Ngosa Musonda, Njobvu and Ken Mwape.
The female players are Sharon Chimfwembe, Mexildah Nonde, Norah Nkhoma and Mary Ngoma from Chililabombwe.
He said the players are scheduled to go into residential camp tomorrow under coach, Collins Musonda.
Chisenga said the men’s team would later be trimmed to six, while the two who would be left out from the provisional squad would be entered in the individual category.
“The team will go into residential camp on Tuesday and we are looking at Lusaka Hotel or Long Acres Lodge. The players will be camp for 14 days and we are hoping to be in South Africa five days before the tournament so that we have enough time to settle,” he said.
Meanwhile, South Africa-based player, Kelvin Njobvu defeated compatriot Richard Twali 3-0 at Lusaka Club on Friday to scoop the Top 16 squash tournament.
Njobvu, in superlative form, earlier dispatched Mwinga Lengwe 3-1 in the semi-finals to set a date with Twali in the final. Twali defeated Ken Mwape 3-2 in the other fixture to sail through to the final.

 

ZAMBIA squash national team coach Collin Musonda says he optimistic his players will finish in the medal brackets at the All-Africa Squash Challenge to be held in South Africa from January 24-28.

 

Musonda said in an interview in Lusaka that he was confident of his team taking second position, one step better than they performed at the last games.

 

“We are confident of coming out second this time around; gold will be difficult to take because we’ve never beaten Egypt who are number one in Africa.  We will otherwise beat South Africa this time,” Musonda said.

 

Musonda said he would pick the final team this Wednesday, a day before the team leaves for South Africa to compete in the tournament that starts next weekend.

 

Zambia, which is ranked third behind South Africa on the continent, is expected to field two teams at the games of which the men’s side will comprise two South African based and one local player.

 

The women’s team will have just one player.

 

The All-Africa Challenge Squash tournament should have been held this August with all the other sporting disciplines in Mozambique.

 

However, a lack of squash courts in Mozambique for the All-Africa Games prompted South Africa to stage the squash segment of the games starting on the 24th of this month.

 

Meanwhile, Zambia Squash Association general secretary Sylvester Chisenga has appealed to the government and corporate entities to help the association raise the K30million shortfall on their total budget for the tournament.

 

Smashing start to squash season

By: STAFF REPORTER

 

THE 2011 squash calendar will get underway with the most prestigious continental event for the sport, the All-Africa Squash Championships (AASC).

The championships are scheduled for January 24 to 28 in Johannesburg.
Namibia will be represented by a crop of top local talents in Marco Becker, Norbert Dorgeloh, Tyc Kakehongo, Isabell Schnoor and Adri Lambert. These players spent most of their festive season sweating it out at gyms and squash courts preparing to take on the best squash players in Africa. The Namibian team laid a foundation to prepare themselves by hosting international friendly events locally over the past two years.
The rise in fortunes for Namibian squash is all due to the financial and technical support from Trustco Group International(TGI), which has seen the sport transform into a well-organised code and resulting in new opportunities opening up for squash enthusiasts locally and internationally.
TGI will cover all the costs for the Namibian team which include accommodation, meals, transport and playing gear for the AASC. The TGI sponsorship will also make it possible for Namibian youngsters to compete at the All-Africa Under-19 Squash Championships in April this year.
Participants for the AASC include Egypt, Kenya, Namibia, Mauritius, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Egypt will undoubtedly be the favourites to take top honours as they are the current world champs and defending AASC champs. The Egyptians boast an abundance of talent to choose from with the likes of Amr Shabana (world no.1 2004-2008); Karim Darwish (world no.1 2009); Ramy Ashour (world no.1 2010) and rising star 19-year-old Mohammed El Shorbagy (current world no.9) amongst the men.
Egypt currently have the most players in the top 20 men’s world rankings. The ladies’ team of Omneya Abdel Kawi, Ramin El Welely and Nour El Sherbini are also reigning world champs.
Host nation South Africa have the likes of Clinton Leeuw, Rodney Durbach and Milnay Louw, who are all past winners of the Namibian Open, to call on.
These players were also in the team that caused a major upset at the recent World Squash Championships in Denmark by beating superpower Pakistan and ending 8th overall at the event.
Well-travelled and experienced Zambian talents Lazarus Chilufya, Robbie Lingashi and Sharon Chimfwembwe (all former Namibian Open winners as well) will spearhead their team and look to cement their status as a force to be reckoned with on the continent.
Other teams who will be out to stamp their authority as a top squash-playing nation are former AASC runners-up Zimbabwe as well as World Championships and Commonwealth Games participants Kenya.
Namibia’s Marco Becker said he considered it “a privilege to fly the sun of the Namib and to represent Namibia during the All-Africa games.”
He added that it was much more than playing squash.  
“The countries and athletes come together in a union to understand and befriend their neighbours of this vast continent.”  
Becker also said that in preparation for the All-Africa games and for the upcoming South African squash season, he had been building his strength and endurance.
“The two weeks prior to the AA games, my training has become squash specific. That is, spending time on court, match practice as well as explosive gym work,” said Becker.
Positive about Namibian squash, Becker said: “The junior scene is feeding off the changes that have occurred and seem to readily take advice from the knowledgeable senior players.  
“This has created a very competitive junior base in Namibia. Namibia regularly sends the young players to compete in South Africa, which only leads to better squash. The future of Namibian squash looks bright!” Namibia best chance at victory may come against Mauritius, Zimbabwe and the second Zambian side.
The team is eager and excited to do well at the tournament.

Australia Reclaim World Team Title in New Zealand

After last winning the title in 2004 - and finishing in 10th place two years later - Australia re-established their authority in women's world squash by beating England in today's final of the Women's World Team Championship in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

The second seeds' 2/1 win over favourites England extends Australia's record to nine titles in the 17 World Squash Federation championships since 1979.

Sarah Fitz-Gerald, the five times world champion who came out of retirement to play this event, gave the Aussies a perfect start with an 11-4, 11-4, 11-4 demolition of Sarah Kippax in the opening match at the International Pacific College.

However, England's world number two Jenny Duncalf hauled the top seeds back into the tie with an 11-7, 11-4, 11-9 win over Australian number one Rachael Grinham to send the final into a decider between Laura Massaro, the world No9, and Kasey Brown, the Australian number two ranked two places higher.

Brown raced to a 2/0 lead, but Massaro has already proven she can fight back after pegging New Zealander Joelle King back yesterday. Once again, the 27-year-old from Preston showed her grit, taking the third. However, Brown would not be denied, reclaiming the ascendancy in the fourth to close out an 11-6, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8 victory.

Brown, who played in 2006 when the team finished 10th and again in 2008 when they finished 6th, is thrilled to have taken her side over the line.

"This is the first time I've been part of the winning team - we've had such a big history in squash, it feels amazing to be part of it."

Brown says the return of Sarah Fitz-Gerald and Rachael Grinham have played a huge part in the success. She says team manager Michelle Martin also deserves a lot of the credit.

Meanwhile, it was a disappointing final day for hosts New Zealand.

After going close to beating England in the semi-finals, the fourth seeds had to settle for fourth, following a 2/1 loss to Malaysia.

Shelley Kitchen finished the event unbeaten after an 11-5, 11-9, 11-6 win over Malaysian Sharon Wee, but Jaclyn Hawkes was predictably beaten in straight games by world number one Nicol David.

Low Wee Wern and Joelle King were left to decide the bronze medal. Just three days ago they squared off in pool play with King winning in four, but this time the Malaysian turned the tables with an 11-13, 11-2, 11-8, 11-1 victory.

The win gives Malaysia their third successive third-place finish.

Earlier, third-seeded Egypt - the defending champions - ended the Championships on a high, with a straightforward two-nil win over France in the playoff for fifth place.

Despite the defeat, sixth place still gives France their best ever finish in 13 appearances since 1987.

 

Final:
[2] AUSTRALIA bt [1] ENGLAND 2/1
Sarah Fitz-Gerald bt Sarah Kippax 11-4, 11-4, 11-4 (30m)
Rachael Grinham lost to Jenny Duncalf 5-11, 6-11, 5-11 (35m)
Kasey Brown bt Laura Massaro 11-6, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8 (77m)

3rd place play-off:
[4] MALAYSIA bt [5] NEW ZEALAND 2/1
Sharon Wee lost to Shelley Kitchen 5-11, 9-11, 6-11 (28m)
Nicol David bt Jaclyn Hawkes 11-5, 11-6, 11-5 (35m)
Low Wee Wern bt Joelle King 11-13, 11-2, 11-8, 11-1 (54m)

5th place play-off:
[3] EGYPT bt [6] FRANCE 2/0
Nour El Tayeb bt Coline Aumard 11-7, 12-14, 11-6, 11-7 (42m)
Omneya Abdel Kawy bt Camille Serme 11-2, 11-5, 12-10 (26m)

7th place play-off:
[9] USA bt [7] IRELAND 2/0
Olivia Blatchford bt Zoe Barr 5-11, 3-11, 11-4, 11-6, 11-8 (46m)
Natalie Grainger bt Aisling Blake 11-7, 10-12, 11-7, 8-11, 11-6 (46m)

9th place play-off:
[8] NETHERLANDS bt [11] SOUTH AFRICA 2/1
Orla Noom lost to Milnay Louw 11-7, 12-14, 8-11, 4-11 (35m)
Vanessa Atkinson bt Tenille Swartz 11-2, 9-11, 13-11, 7-11, 11-6
Annelize Naude bt Siyoli Waters 5-11, 10-12, 11-6, 11-3, 11-7

11th place play-off:
[10] INDIA bt [13] HONG KONG 2/0
Anaka Alankamony bt Carmen Lee 6-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-5 (38m)
Dipika Pallikal bt Liu Tsz-Ling 11-9, 4-11, 11-4, 11-3 (29m)

13th place play-off:
[12] CANADA bt [15] JAPAN 2/1
Stephanie Edmison bt Yuki Sakai 10-12, 11-3, 11-7, 11-9 (43m)
Miranda Ranieri lost to Misaki Kobayashi 8-11, 9-11, 11-7, 6-11 (27m)
Alexandra Norman bt Miwa Maekawa 11-8, 11-4, 11-8 (21m)

15th place play-off:

[14] MEXICO bt [16] AUSTRIA 2/0

Imelda Salazar Martinez

bt

Judith Gradnitzer

11-3, 11-6, 11-3 (19m)

Samantha Teran

bt

Birgit Coufal

11-5, 11-6, 11-3 (18m)For further on-site information, contact

World Team Championship

Media Manager

Gary Denvir

Egypt[EGY] - [RSA] South Africa: 3-0

South Africa[RSA] - [MEX] Mexico: 3-0

France[FRA] - [RSA] South Africa: 3-0

These pool results place us in the 9-16 draw. The first match:

South Africa[RSA] - [CAN] Canada: 2-1

South Africa[RSA] - [IND] India: 2-1

 

 

MORE

 

 

 

World Squash Day Theme: 20/10 for 2010

 

The theme for this year’s World Squash Day on Saturday 6 November is to encourage clubs and associations all over the globe to increase playing numbers.

So, on November 6th, the challenge for every club in the world is to attract:

20 new junior players, and
10 new adult members

World Squash Day is supported by the World Squash Federation (WSF), and Chief Executive Andrew Shelley says: “This is a wonderful idea to create an explosive worldwide rise in participation levels.

“Countries like Egypt are leading the way when it comes to producing wave after wave of fantastic junior players but the springboard for this is the sheer number of juniors at nearly every club in the country.

“If other nations wish to compete at the highest level then the starting point is to increase junior participation levels – as part of the main thrust to ensure that the lifeblood of our sport, the next generation, keeps expanding of course.”

As leading squash players from all over the world arrive to compete in the Commonwealth Games in India, the plan for World Squash Day 2010 is to create a platform to encourage stars of the future.

World Squash Day founder Alan Thatcher, chairman of the Kent SRA in England, added: “Squash has a massive worldwide following with some 20 million players enjoying the game in more than 120 countries.

“Participation levels are increasing in a huge number of countries but here in the UK the game has suffered because of court closures. However, it has been heartening to see that trend being reversed in many regions.

“The single most important thing that we can do for the sport is to bring on a new generation of squash players to safeguard the future of the sport.

“Therefore it is essential that clubs and squash associations all over the globe get behind World Squash Day to produce a significant increase in participation levels.”

Last year World Squash Day generated a massive global show of support for squash’s Olympic bid.

This year clubs and federations can announce their activities on the event website www.worldsquashday.com

Thatcher added: “The website has a list of ideas for clubs to get involved and organise events to showcase our fantastic sport.”

Follow WSD on Facebook: www.facebook.com/worldsquashday

- ENDS -

England’s Nick Matthew Wins Gold In Delhi

Posted on 08 October 2010. Tags: Commonwealth Games 2010

England’s world number two squash player Nick Matthew achieved “the most important thing in my career so far” when he beat fellow countryman James Willstrop in the men’s Commonwealth Games singles final at the Siri Fort Complex inDelhi to win his first gold medal in his second appearance in the event.

In the sport’s first 1-2-3 in the Games, third-seeded Englishman Peter Barker clinched the bronze medal when he beat Malaysia’s sixth seed Mohd Azlan Iskandar 11-5, 11-4, 11-2 in the third place play-off.

Matthew, the 30-year-old from Sheffield who topped the world rankings in June, then suffered an illness setback last month, struggled earlier in the tournament – but was on top form to beat fellow Yorkshireman Willstrop, ranked four in the world, 11-6, 11-7, 11-7 in 67 minutes.

Cheered on by a boisterous crowd of more than 2,000, Matthew and Willstrop produced an exhilarating display of world-class squash on the spectacular all-glass showcourt in the Indian city’s new sports complex.

“This is the most important thing in my career so far,” enthused Matthew after his triumph. “This was a massive goal. Four years ago I came fourth and saw what it was like. It’s amazing to get gold – I’ll savour it for a long time.

“I remember sitting at home watching Peter Nicol win gold in 1998 – then saw him win it again in Melbourne four years ago when I came fourth, which was quite hard to take. I’ve worked such a long time for this.

“I’m also so happy for Pete, winning bronze. I was at the same stage last time. I’m captain of the team and I’m so proud of them.

“The match was so tough – after all James is four in the world. I had to try and forget it was a Commonwealth Gamesfinal. I was a little bit lucky as James had played two tough games earlier.”

When asked what his thoughts were of Delhi, Matthew replied: “I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. It’s fantastic – I’ll remember this for the rest of my life.

“The crowd were right behind both of us today – they were fantastic. They were cheering for squash.”

Willstrop, from Leeds, was full of praise for his England team-mate: “I’m disappointed with the result – but that was some performance from Nick. He has a fantastic record. He played too well for me – I really had no answer.

“He played out of his skin, though I thought I played pretty well too. He’s playing at a standard that’s higher than anyone else. He keeps asking more questions of me.

“It might be the best he’s ever played against me – so that’s a nice thing to take from the match. He’s dismantled me the last few times. So whilst it’s disappointing, I’ve got to keep learning.

“I have no regrets – I’ve won the silver medal,” added the 27-year-old. “It was a great atmosphere today.”

Peter Barker was also delighted with his bronze medal achievement. “I played really well today. Winning this medal has to be one of the highlights of my career.

“It’s a strange feeling – normally when you lose (as in the semi-finals), you pack your bags and go home. Nick said to me yesterday ‘don’t make the same mistake I did last time’. I took his advice and got my head together and told myself it’s a massive match.

“It’ll take a little while to sink in – but not many people win a Commonwealth Games medal. My Mum and girlfriend are here. This’ll probably mean more to my Mum!

“Azlan did incredibly well to get here. He and I are good friends. We train together in London. It’s never easy, playing a friend. But I wanted to show something for my efforts,” added the world No8 from London.

When asked to comment on England’s success, the left-hander said: “We’re pretty strong in squash at the moment – we really wanted a 1/2/3 and hope this will help get us some media coverage back home. To get all the medals in the men’s event really shows the dominance of our players.

“What a lovely position for England to be in.”

England men’s coach David Campion highlighted the background to the country’s success. “This is the culmination of a lot of effort over the last 18 months by a number of people. It’s testament to all the hard work and effort that all the players have put in.

“We’re absolutely delighted to bring home all three medals in the men’s event,” added the former junior international. “And it’s a great shame that Alison (Waters) had to pull out of the women’s bronze medal match. She looked in great form yesterday and was a great prospect in the doubles too.

“The Commonwealth Games is such a big occasion for any squash player – something to cherish for life. It’s big for England Squash and the English Institute of Sport – and a lot of people there have contributed to this success.

“I am very proud to be part of it.”

Men’s final:
[1] Nick Matthew (ENG) bt [2] James Willstrop (ENG) 11-6, 11-7, 11-7 (67m)

Bronze medal play-off:
[3] Peter Barker (ENG) bt [6] Mohd Azlan Iskandar (MAS) 11-5, 11-4, 11-2 (45m)

Nick Matthew Celebrates Double Gold In Delhi

Posted on 13 October 2010. Tags: Commonwealth Games 2010

England’s Nick Matthew brought his 2010 Commonwealth Games Squash campaign to a magnificent climax in Delhi tonight when, with Adrian Grant, he won gold in the Men’s Doubles to add to the gold medal he won in last week’s singles final at the Siri Fort Sports Complex.

In the final match on the spectacular all-glass showcourt, the favourites battled for more than two hours to hold off an Australian challenge from second seeds Stewart Boswell & David Palmer – and recovered from losing the second game to win 11-9, 6-11, 11-5 in 133 minutes.

The success means that the Men’s Doubles gold medal stays in England hands for the fourth time since the sport’s maiden appearance in the Games in 1998.

“Four years ago, a legendary English squash player Peter Nicol got two golds – and I delighted to have been able to emulate him,” said the jubilant 30-year-old from Sheffield immediately afterwards.

“Winning two gold medals is an amazing feeling – and doubles is so different from singles squash. It’s all about camaraderie with your partner. You almost feel that the racket isn’t attached to your arm – you are just doing it for your partner.

“And when we got our heads back together after the second game, we were amazing.

“It’s definitely the biggest moment of my career,” added the world No2. “I didn’t get the chance to celebrate my singles success, but now I will be able to as I made a good decision not to play a major Tour event in Egypt later this week. I put aside thoughts of regaining my world number one ranking for the sake of two gold medals.”

In describing their marathon encounter – their third three-game win over the top Australian pair since March – Matthew admitted: “We always have a tough battle with them. David was chasing that elusive gold medal

“But it’s all about team work – and Adrian and I have known each other since we were nine years old – and that’s what made it work. I think it got a bit scrappy in the second, but we let our squash do the talking in the third.”

Grant, the London-born world No14 who is based in Leeds, said: “After Nick had done such a fantastic job in the singles, I had to give him the motivation to push harder in the doubles. In doubles, you’ve got to take world rankings out of it – you’ve got to understand each others’ games. We never took anybody for granted.”

The outcome provided Stewart Boswell with his third successive silver medal in the event. It also gave David Palmer, the former world number one and two-time world champion, a record-equalling sixth Commonwealth Games medal since 1998.

“It’s definitely nice – but you’ve got to put it into perspective. Tonight’s wasn’t the colour I wanted. It was a tough schedule – and, looking back, perhaps I should have pulled out of one,” said the 34-year-old from Lithgow, NSW, after his farewell appearance in the event.

New Zealand grabbed the first gold medal of the day when the fourth-seeded pairing Jaclyn Hawkes & Joelle Kingshocked fancied English duo Jenny Duncalf & Laura Massaro, the third seeds, 11-9, 11-10 in the Women’s Doublesfinal in exactly one hour.

Duncalf and Massaro, who reached the gold medal play-off after upsetting top-seeded Australians Kasey Brown & Donna Urquhart in the semi-finals, led in the first game and had game-balls from 10-6 in the second.

But the Kiwis kept up the pressure before leaping for joy after their surprise gold medal triumph.

“We are OVER the moon,” said a beaming Hawkes, the world No14 from Auckland. “Not in my wildest dreams did I expect to do this – I am so happy to have won gold.

“It’s the first time we’ve played together,” continued the 27-year-old. “It’s great to get New Zealand’s fourth gold in the Games.”

Just before rushing back to the court to prepare for the next match – her Mixed Doubles final which followed immediately -Joelle King paid compliments to Hawkes: “My partner here was pretty awesome.

“When I was a little girl, I dreamed about winning a Commonwealth Games medal,” added the 22-year-old from Cambridge.

Duncalf was inevitably despondent: “We had the confidence to win gold. There’s a very fine line in doubles between winning and losing – they did really well to come back.”

Massaro added: We weren’t expecting to be paired up, and have had very little practice together, but I thought we did well.

“But it’s horrible to lose your final match – but I’m sure we’ll celebrate silver later,” suggested the 26-year-old world No7.

It was a first squash gold medal of the 2010 Games for Australia when favourites Kasey Brown & Cameron Pilley saw off New Zealand outsiders Joelle King & Martin Knight, the 11th seeds, 8-11, 11-7, 11-5 in a 96-minute Mixed Doublesfinal.

Clearly uplifted by her gold medal performance some 20 minutes earlier, King led the Kiwis to a first game lead before the top seeds turned up the power to storm to gold.

Is it a relief, the winning Aussies were asked by a home reporter? “No, it’s not a relief,” said Brown. “Yes, it is,” interjected Pilley. “It’s a relief to finish doubles!

“We both played two matches today we didn’t lose,” added Pilley, the world No16 from Yamba, New South Wales. “Gold again in 2014 in Scotland? That’s definitely the goal!”

When asked how it felt to win his county’s first squash gold medal this time, the tall 27-year-old responded: “It’s special – but more so because you’re playing for all of squash in Australia. It’s an honour to put on the Australian colours – it gives you something extra, and I think that showed when we came back from one-nil down.”

Both players agreed that a beer was one of their priorities.

“Gold means everything – it’s incredible,” said Brown. “To get gold for your country is pretty amazing.”

After winning bronze in the singles event, and bronze earlier in the day in the Women’s Doubles, Brown became the only player to win three medals in Delhi.

“Winning three medals is a fantastic feeling – a gold medal means so much, especially representing Australia,” added the world No8 from Taree, NSW.

“This year I’ve been working really hard and I feel I’ve really improved. I was confident I could do well.

“But the first thing I need to do is ring my Mum!”

A downbeat Martin Knight conceded that the best pair won: “Today, they just played better,” said the Wellington-born 26-year-old. “I set goals every day and today we were going for gold – and there’s no reason why we could have expected that. But I will go away with good memories.”

For more info, visit the WSF’s dedicated Commonwealth Games site www.cwgsquash.com

Men’s Doubles Final:
[1] Adrian Grant & Nick Matthew (ENG) bt [2] Stewart Boswell & David Palmer (AUS) 11-9, 6-11, 11-5 (133m)
Bronze medal play-off:
[4] Ryan Cuskelly & Cameron Pilley (AUS) bt [5] Alan Clyne & Harry Leitch (SCO) 11-5, 11-7 (52m)

Women’s Doubles Final:
[4] Jaclyn Hawkes & Joelle King (NZL) bt [3] Jenny Duncalf & Laura Massaro (ENG) 11-9, 11-10 (60m)
Bronze medal play-off:
[1] Kasey Brown & Donna Urquhart (AUS) bt [2] Lisa Camilleri & Amelia Pittock (AUS) 11-4, 10-11, 11-5 (54m)

Mixed Doubles Final:
[1] Kasey Brown & Cameron Pilley (AUS) bt [11] Joelle King & Martin Knight (NZL) 8-11, 11-7, 11-5 (96m)
Bronze medal play-off:
[3] Nicol David & Ong Beng Hee (MAS) bt [8] Donna Urquhart & David Palmer (AUS) 11-9, 11-6 (35m)