For
over 1000 years man has invented and enjoyed a variety of games
played by hitting a ball with either a closed fist - as in “fives”
or “bunch of fingers” - or with some form of bat or racket. Around
the year 1148 the French played “la Paume”, meaning “the palm of the
hand”, which developed into Jeu de Paume, Real Tennis, Royal Tennis
or, if you play the sport, simply Tennis. At sometime in the early
19th century this obsession with rackets and balls spawned another
variety of the sport in the unlikely birthplace of the Fleet Prison
in London. The prisoners in “The Fleet”, mainly debtors, took their
exercise by hitting a ball against walls, of which there were many,
with rackets and so started the game of “Rackets”. Rackets
progressed, by some strange route, to Harrow and other select
English schools about 1820 and it was from this source that our own
sport of Squash, or Squash Rackets, developed.
Squash was invented in Harrow school around 1830, when the pupils
discovered that a punctured Rackets ball, which "squashed" on impact
with the wall, produced a game with a greater variety of shots and
required much more effort on the part of the players, who could not
simply wait for the ball to bounce back to them as with Rackets. The
variant proved popular and in 1864 the first four Squash courts were
constructed at the school and Squash was officially founded as a
sport in its own right.
In those early days Squash, as with all other sports, was without
any form of international standardisation and it was inevitable that
slight variations in the way it was played, and the equipment used,
would occur. Luckily only two main streams of activity followed, one
in England with its 21 feet wide courts and “soft” ball and the
other in North America, with its 18½ feet wide courts and “hard”
ball and with both courts having the same length of 32 feet the
universality of Squash was not seriously challenged. We will look at
these two branches separately and also at the way in which Squash
spread to almost every nation in the world.
EARLY DAYS IN ENGLAND
The first recorded reference to "Squash", other than in Harrow
school, appeared in 1890 in the English book "The Badminton Library
of Sports and Pastimes" written by the Duke of Beaufort. Eustace
Miles, a world championship at both Tennis and Rackets, wrote the
first book on Squash in 1901; stating that the sport was enjoyed by
thousands of players in various parts of the world. By that time
there were courts in schools and universities in England and some
also in private houses. The first professional Squash Championship
was held in 1920 in England, when C.R. Read (Queens Club) beat A.W.B.
Johnson (RAC Club).
In 1923 H.A.L. Rudd, writing in "Baily's Magazine", forecast that
Rackets would lose many players to Squash with the arrival of the
first English Amateur Championships. He was concerned at this
prospect as he considered Rackets to be a "manlier" game; Squash
afforded a good "sweat" but did not demand the same skill as
Rackets, in his opinion. Rudd's forecast proved to be only too
correct as Squash grew rapidly and soon left its parent sport far
behind in popularity.
As Squash play developed so did its administrative structure. The
first discrete national associations to be formed were the United
States Squash Racquets Association in 1907 and the Canadian Squash
Racquets Association in 1911. In England the game was regulated by a
Squash sub-committee of the Tennis and Rackets Association from 1908
until it gained full status as the Squash Rackets Association in
1928.
A court built at the Bath Club in London at the beginning of the
20th century was chosen as the model for the standard size of a
Squash court, 32 feet by 21 feet or 9.75 metres by 6.4 metres, much
smaller that the court for Rackets which measures 60 feet by 30 feet
(18.3 metres by 9.1 metres). The British dimensions were proposed in
1911, but not ratified until 1923. The point-a-rally scoring system
to 15 was used universally in Squash until 1926 when the current
hand-in, hand-out system to 9 points was introduced outside North
America. The American hardball game, however, continued to be played
to 15 points and this system was also adopted for the men's
professional circuit in 1991 in an effort to shorten the matches.
In 1933 the great Egyptian player F.D. Amr Bey, won the first of his
five British Open Championships, then seen as the World
Championships. He was followed in his achievement by M.A. Karim of
Egypt who won the title four times from 1947 to 1950 and then the
dominating Khan dynasty from Pakistan; Hashim (1951-1958), Roshan
(1957), Azam (1959-1962), Mohibullah (1963), Jahangir (1982-1992)
and Jansher (1993-1994).
The Women's British Open commenced even earlier than the Men's, with
Miss J.I. Cave winning the title in 1922. Until 1960 the title
belonged solely to English players, with Janet Morgan (Shardlow)
winning 10 times between 1950 and 1959. She was followed by the most
famous woman Squash player ever, the Australian Heather Blundell
(McKay), who won the title 16 times and dominated the sport from
1961 to 1979 - remaining undefeated throughout her playing career.
Significant and multiple successors were the New Zealander, Susan
Devoy, who won the title 8 times between 1984 and 1992, and the
Australian, Michelle Martin, who won the title 6 times from 1993 to
1998.
Perhaps the players who had the most impact on the development of
the sport were Jonah Barrington (Ireland) and Geoff Hunt
(Australia). They dominated Squash between the late 1960's and early
1980's, capturing the imagination of sportsmen and women everywhere
and starting a boom in the sport which raised the number of courts
to 46000 worldwide and the number of players to over 15 million by
1994.
SQUASH
IN AMERICA
Squash was certainly being played in Canada before 1882, as it was
then that James P Conover, the Headmaster of St. Paul’s School in
Concord, New Hampshire, USA, saw it being played in Montreal. He
thought it would be a perfect sport for his boys and wrote in the
November 1882 edition of the school magazine “It is the universal
experience that, for health and for the highest perfection in the
game, the average boy or man should play but one rubber a day”. He
went on to describe the new Squash complex and its 21 feet wide
courts and compare the game favourably with Rackets.
“This building will cover an area of fifty feet by sixty, and will
have a height of about seventy feet from the ground to the eaves.
The ball used in such courts is about the size of a walnut, of
rubber, and hollow, with a hole in it to prevent breaking. The
so-called “squash-ball court” recommended itself to the club for
many reasons; such courts are largely used in English public
schools; cost of construction is much less; fewer racquet bats are
broken and fewer balls destroyed; fewer heads are cracked and fewer
knees and elbows barked; the danger from being hit by the ball
(quite an item among young players) is cancelled; and for all
intents and purposes the game is the same and produces just as good
players.”
Although the International, or “soft”, ball was harder and bouncier
than it is now it was not ideally suited to the cold courts in
Concord where the temperature was often below freezing point during
play. A harder rubber ball was developed and found to be more suited
to slightly narrower courts, leading to the 18½ feet court, 19 feet
court and other experimental widths. It was not until 1924 that the
court specifications were codified, at which time it was decided to
standardise on the 18½ feet width and a 17 inch ’ tin’ rather than
the 19 inch variety used for the soft ball. By 1929 official court
plans were being sold by the USSRA and the hardball game was brought
into controlled growth.
The United States Squash Racquets Association was founded in 1907
and it was in that year also that the first recognised National
Championship for Squash in any country was held with John A Miskey
of Philadelphia winning the American title, a feat he repeated in
1908 and 1910. After Miskey the National title was won six times by
Stanley W Pearson, also from Philadelphia, between 1915 and 1923,
with his son Stanley Jr continuing the tradition by taking it in
1948. Other great national players from Philadelphia included
Charles M P Brinton (1941/42/46/47) and G Diehl Mateer Jr
(1954/56/61) with Henri R Salaun from Boston winning four times
between 1995 and 1961. Victor Niederhoffer (New York) dominated the
1970s with 5 victories, Kenton Jernigan (Newport, Rhode Island)
recorded three titles in the 1980s and Mexican Hector Barragan won
five consecutive titles from 1990 to 1994.
In the early days most of the Women’s National titles were won by
players from Boston, Philadelphia or Wilmington, interspersed by the
occasional English tourist winner, such as Susan Noel (1933), Margot
Lumb (1935) and the great Janet Morgan (1949 & 1955). Margaret Howe
of Boston won three times between 1929 and 1934, while two
Philadelphians, Anne Page and Cecile Bowes, won four times each
between 1936 and 1948. Thereafter one player or another dominated
the scene for several years; Betty (Howe) Constable from
Philadelphia winning four titles (1956-1959), Margaret Varner
(Wilmington) four (1960-1963), Gretchen Spruance (Wilmington) five
(1973-1978) with the 1980s totally dominated by Alicia McConnell
(Brooklyn) with seven titles (1982-1988) and Demer Holleran from
Hanover NH taking over in 1989 to remain undefeated for seven years
until 1995.
With the establishment of a Professional Tour, to which clubs were
encouraged to send their teaching pro., a list of world famous names
acquired US titles from the mid-fifties - Hashim Khan (4 wins),
Mahmoud Kerim (4), Mohibullah Khan (5), Sharif Khan (9), Mark
Talbott (5), Jahangir Khan (2) and Jansher Khan (3).
Squash played with a hard ball on an 18½ feet wide court was the
only form of the sport played in the USA until the mid-1980s, but
then growing exposure to the “International” game resulted in some
21 feet wide courts being built and the international, “soft”, ball
being used on both the wide and narrow courts. Additionally, the
USSRA recognised a 20 feet width as being acceptable for
International play, this width being derived from the increasing
trend to convert Racquetball courts to Squash use. In an incredibly
short period of time in the early 1990s Squash in the USA changed
from being overwhelmingly “hardball” to predominantly “softball”,
with the only available monitor of the trend, ball sales, indicating
that by 1996 around 80% of all play was International. Quite why
this change happened, and why so quickly, is still being debated but
there is little doubt that a new generation of players is now
experiencing the love affair with international squash which
happened in all other nations and finding it preferable to the
higher racket skills demanded by the hardball game.
The North American players were also the first to appreciate the
virtues of Doubles Squash, with the hardball being used on a court
measuring 45 feet long by 25 feet wide. The first National Doubles
Championships were held in 1933 and Hardball Doubles continues to
thrive even though the singles version now holds only a minority of
play.
SQUASH IN
AUSTRALIA, GERMANY AND ROUND THE WORLD
Squash spread rapidly in its early days and the major growth areas
were wherever British forces were stationed. South Africa, India,
Pakistan, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries
learned their Squash from the military and soon adopted it as their
own. Probably the most successful Squash nation of all time,
Australia, had its Squash seed planted through contact with the
military.
Although the first Squash courts in Australia were established in
1913, at the Melbourne Club in Victoria, there was no official
Squash association until 1934 although top players had been engaged
in ad hoc club tournaments since 1927. During 1934 a group of
players decided that local administrative pressure and the need to
liaise with interstate and overseas organisations demanded an
official body and the Squash Rackets Association of Australia (SRAA)
was founded, although its main tasks remained locally orientated in
the Melbourne area. Even when the first Australian Championships
were held, for men in 1931 and women in 1932, they were, in reality,
State Championships for Victoria. The SRA of Victoria was formed in
1937.
In New South Wales the first court was built just after the first
World War, by Mr. Bjelke-Petersen, the uncle of the former
Queensland Premier, Sir Joe Bjelke-Petersen. The New South Wales SRA
was formed in 1937 and the first pennant competition in Sydney
commenced in July 1939.
But it was in the 1960s that Squash started to really take off in
Australia. Greater commercial development came into the sport and
public Squash centres were built all over the country, bringing the
game to a much wider audience. This growth brought amazing
international success with many of the world’s best players coming
from the Australian Squash scene. Heather McKay, Ken Hiscoe, Geoff
Hunt, Vicki Cardwell, Steve Bowditch, Rhonda Thorne and, more
recently, Michelle and Rodney Martin all become World Squash
Champions at senior level and Peter Nance, Chris Robertson, Robyn
Lambourne, Sarah Fitz-Gerald and Rachael Grinham achieved the same
distinction at junior level. Hunt was World Champion 7 times and won
8 British Open titles while Heather McKay was the most successful
Squash player of all time, being undefeated in international
competition for an astounding 19 years.
In 1976 the headquarters of the SRAA were transferred to Queensland
and merged with the Australian Women’s SRA to form the ASRA in 1986,
its name being changed to Squash Australia in 1990.
In Germany Squash was born twice! Its first cradle was in Berlin in
1930 when the first four courts were built by Dr. Ernst von Siemens,
head of the technology department of the electronics company which
bore his name, and he started regular company staff activities and
even foreign competitions on the “wall-play-halls”. Other courts
followed, but during wartime they were all used for a variety of
other purposes and it was not until 1978 that the Siemens courts
were again used by the “Berlin Wallball Game Club”.
The initiative for the rebirth came from Christhof Viscount Vitzthum
who had discovered the sport in Australia, heard about the Siemens
courts by accident and started to promote Squash and bring the
courts back into use. But an even earlier start had been made in
Hamburg by a merchant, Henning Harders, who erected three courts
following an infection by the Squash bug in Australia and it was a
group of Hamburg players who founded the German SRA in 1973 and sent
a team to the European Team Championships in Stockholm in 1974.
Two years after the German SRA was founded the first National
Championships were held and within a few years there were over 6000
courts and 2 million players in the nation - the most spectacular
growth of Squash anywhere in the world.
German Squash celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1998 by
bringing the Women’s World Championships to Stuttgart.
Many other nations experienced tremendous growth in Squash, starting
slowly in the 1960s and 1970s, but then gaining momentum over the
past thirty years. In each country the basic story is the same: a
group of enthusiasts starts to play and promotes the game which,
because of its inherent qualities of intense exercise coupled with
all-absorbing competition, grows rapidly and becomes a major sport
in the land. The formula which made Squash grow in its traditional
homelands is now being seen again in the Czech Republic, Poland,
Malaysia, Japan, Brazil, Colombia, Korea and many new Squash
nations, worldwide.
PAKISTAN – BIRTHPLACE OF CHAMPIONS
Of all the nations where Squash is played, Pakistan is the greatest
enigma, producing a succession of amazing Squash champions from a
country where there are still less than 500 courts. No history of
Squash can be complete without an account of the amazing exploits of
the Khan dynasty, starting with Hashim who won the first of his
seven British Open titles in 1951 at the age of 35 years. Hashim was
the first of a line of great Pakistani Squash Champions - Azam Khan,
Mohibullah Khan, Roshan Khan, Aftab Jawaid, Gogi Alauddin, Mo Yasin,
Qamar Zaman, Mohibullah Khan Junior, Hiddy Jahan and the two
greatest players of the 1980s and 1990s, perhaps of all time,
Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan. Jahangir, now Emeritus President of
the World Squash Federation, dominated the sport for 14 years,
winning the British Open 10 times and the World Open 8 times and was
undefeated for 5½ years. Jansher took over his mantle in 1989 with
the first of his World Open titles and began a debate in the sport
about which JK was the greatest of them all.
NEW
MILLENIUM, NEW ORDER
As the 20th century came to an end, the professional Squash scene
was still dominated by the older powers – England, Australia and
Canada. In the PSA rankings Jonathan Power of Canada and Peter Nicol
of England reigned supreme, but a new force was arising as
exemplified by Ahmed Barada. Egypt was starting to awaken. On the
women’s front the WISPA ranking were still dominated by England,
Australia and New Zealand, with Sarah Fitz-Gerald, Carol Owens,
Cassie Jackman and Leilani Joyce (Rorani) sharing the top spots. But
here again there were signs of new nations emerging.
As the new decade progressed a remarkable change happened. On the
men’s front Egypt and France came into prominence and by 2009 Amr
Shabana, Ramy Ashour and Karim Darwish headed the list for Egypt and
Gregory Gaultier and Thierry Lincou waved the French flag. In the
women’s rankings a new, huge talent in the shape of Malaysia’s Nicol
David took a strong grip on the top of the list and headed Vanessa
Atkinson of Netherlands, the Grinham sisters from Australia and
Natalie Grainger of USA.
The continuing development of Squash into new areas is now showing
itself on the professional scene and the ‘local hero’ effect is
spreading the sport even more widely.
SQUASH AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES Squash made its first bid to be included
on the Olympic Programme for the Barcelona Games in 1992 and under
the leadership of Presidents Tunku Imran and Susie Simcock continued
the campaigns for Atlanta in 1996, Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004
and Beijing in 2008. During this time there was no formal procedure
for gaining admission to the Games and the process of lobbying was
frustrating and occult in nature.
With up to 12 sports vying for limited opportunities
for entry, a more disciplined method of modification and selection
for the programme was required. This came about with the appointment
of Jacques Rogge as the new IOC President, in succession to Juan
Antonio Samaranch. Under his leadership a formal bid process was
instituted for selection for the 2012 Games, eventually used to vote
for London in 2012. Five sports, including Squash, were selected to
go through a rigorous examination process and in 2005 the IOC
Session in Singapore was given the opportunity to vote on the shape
of the programme. The first series of votes resulted in Baseball and
Softball being eliminated from the 2012 programme and this,
theoretically, created a space for two new sports. After a close and
tense series of votes, Squash and Karate were voted ahead of Rugby
Sevens, Golf and Roller Sports as the delegates’ choice, but
protocol demanded that a vote was then taken to grant the chosen
sports Olympic status. Neither Squash nor Karate secured the
two-thirds majority necessary and consequently the London Games were
confirmed with a reduced compliment of sports.
With the experience of 2005, the IOC created an even more formalised
process for the selection of the programme for 2016. The 5 sports
from the 2005 list were joined by Baseball and Softball to undergo
detailed evaluation; and by now it was apparent that substantial
time, effort and finance had to be put behind the bids. The WSF,
under the new President N Ramachandran mounted a highly visible
campaign, identifying the unique qualities that the introduction of
Squash could bring to the programme in 2016 and a formal vote on
this is to be taken at the IOC Session in October 2009 in
Copenhagen. Squash is poised to gain its overdue admission to the
most important event in world sport.
THE WORLD
SCENE
In its early days international Squash was controlled by the Squash
Rackets Association of England and the United States Squash Rackets
Association, but in 1966 representatives of the sport from
Australia, Great Britain, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South
Africa, USA, Canada and the United Arab Republic met in London and
agreed to form the International Squash Rackets Association (ISRF),
the first meeting of which was held on 5 January 1967.
The ISRF continued to thrive and was amalgamated with the Women's
International Squash Federation in 1985. In 1992 the name of the
Federation was changed to the World Squash Federation (WSF), finally
recognising that the sport had been universally referred to simply
as "Squash", rather than "Squash Rackets", for most of its
existence.
Squash is played in more than 185 countries, on nearly 50000 courts, and
the WSF now has 147 Squash playing National Associations in
membership. It is the sole International Federation for the sport,
as recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and
maintains responsibility for the Rules of the Game, Court and
Equipment Specifications, Refereeing and Coaching. The WSF maintains
a World Calendar of events, organises and promotes World
Championships for Men, Women, Junior Men, Junior Women and Masters
age groups in both singles and doubles Squash; and leads its Member
Nations in programmes for the development of the sport.
Squash has been played for over 140 years, grown sensationally in
the last forty and is now poised to become one of the largest and
best loved of all sports.
For
over 1000 years man has invented and enjoyed a variety of games
played by hitting a ball with either a closed fist - as in “fives”
or “bunch of fingers” - or with some form of bat or racket. Around
the year 1148 the French played “la Paume”, meaning “the palm of the
hand”, which developed into Jeu de Paume, Real Tennis, Royal Tennis
or, if you play the sport, simply Tennis. At sometime in the early
19th century this obsession with rackets and balls spawned another
variety of the sport in the unlikely birthplace of the Fleet Prison
in London. The prisoners in “The Fleet”, mainly debtors, took their
exercise by hitting a ball against walls, of which there were many,
with rackets and so started the game of “Rackets”. Rackets
progressed, by some strange route, to Harrow and other select
English schools about 1820 and it was from this source that our own
sport of Squash, or Squash Rackets, developed. 
