Hello fellow squash fans and players, today I found myself wondering, why is everyone so rude?

Just today I heard an incident where a man was unexpectedly asked to mark and ref a club champs game for two of his friends. The man reluctantly agreed (as we all do after a hard day at work and a few beers at the pub). While he was marking the one player played a good shot off the 'T' and then retreated as to prevent a let,but , by doing so he went too far and stepped on his opponents foot. The opponent that had his foot stepped on was in a position to play the ball and therefore protested to the ref. The ref sportingly allowed a let as he was unsighted and did not feel it deserved a stroke, so he did what he thought was right. The player who moved back and stood on his opponents foot , after winning the game anyway, still argued with the ref afterwards. This to me shows a blatent disregard toward the ref, whom I happen to know has passed the level two M&R exam. The ref was fed up with this as he felt he had done a favour to the two players who had failed to get a marker or a ref in the first place, so in trying to contain his rage walked away and left for home.

If anyone can tell us in this situation, first of all was the ref's decision right and second can incidents like this be avoided or dealt with in a better manner then above, by all parties concerned, at club level. Should we be strict and use conduct stroke games and matches more often or is there another choice for referee and markers alike?

The answer to the question: why is everyone so rude, is that life is too fast paced and in moments of hurried decisions or because we get to used to being have to act hurried and in fear of being late for an appointment we dont have etc., but these are all key elements in squash like the ref making quick decisions that should be respected by both players, so I ask you members of the squashball community how can behaviour be improved and how can we educate stubborn old players on proper court conduct? Some responses would be nice as we have all either been part of or heard of incidents such as the one above.

Many thanks

Brendon Fourie