Almanac Squash: A Potted Memoir of Squashing Balls

 

As a young lad growing up in a small country town I only had access to sports such as Aussie Rules football in the winter and cricket in the summer. Sometimes a little tennis. Living on the coast of course, provided both swimming and fishing opportunities too, as well as other outdoor activities.

 

Following my move to the city for further study and work, and then later to various other parts of the country, my access to and involvement in a variety of other sporting pursuits improved. Indeed, I ended up throughout the course of my life trying and participating in a large number of different sports. One of them was the game of squash.

 

My first foray into the game of squash, socially and then competitively, was during my early 20s when living in Hobart. Rob, a work colleague, started a team with two of his mates and asked me to join. Apart from Rob, the rest of us were all novices so our team competed initially in the lower grades, but as we improved we were moved up over a few seasons to the higher grades. Even though football and cricket were my main interest, I really got into squash, playing and training two or three times a week and sometimes more. As is my wont with all sports in which I became interested enough to play, I began reading about squash and following the exploits of the champions of the day especially Geoff Hunt, Heather McKay, Jonah Barrington and the great Pakistani Khan family. I came to love the game and for a time became a bit of a fanatic.

 

Geoff Hunt, my hero at the time, played in an era of wonderful squash players. I was also a great fan of the exceptional Pakistani Khan family of players and Jonah Barrington of the UK. Barrington once referred to squash as ‘boxing with racquets’.  What inspiring players they all were and their matches against each other were fantastic. Geoff Hunt though, was always the star and others on the then world stage of squash always found it hard to get a win against him. The 1970s in squash was a period of supreme rivalry. Incredibly, Geoff Hunt won 178 of his 215 tournament appearances.

 

Greg Baum wrote an excellent article about Geoff Hunt’s life and achievements in squash published in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald of Saturday, November 9, 2024: ‘Squash legend was rarely cornered’ and online titled ‘Australian sporting Legend Geoff Hunt played 215 tournaments. He won 178 of them’.

 

The 70s and 80s was a time when the interest in and love of squash, was extremely high. Nearly every country town and city had a multitude of squash centres and competitions. According to some reports and people I have spoken to who still play, squash appears to be enjoying a renaissance phase after many years in the wilderness.

 

The renewed interest and resurgence are reportedly driven by squash’s inclusion as one of five new sports in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. But challenges remain, due to a lack of facilities. I’ve read that interest in the game started to fade when facilities in many cities and towns across Australia were under utilised and not financially viable so were sold off for development.

 

Those reading this piece who may have played squash during its period of high participation, will recall when nearly every second person seemed to possess a squash racquet. At the height of Squash’s popularity booking a court was essential. I remember the days when office workers all around the country would scurry out of their work places at lunch time to get in a game of squash during the break (I was one of them!).

 

The Hobart team I played with fell apart when my very attractive girlfriend at the time broke off our relationship in favour of one of my team mates! I was warned of his interest but didn’t heed the ‘heads up’. Apart from the rare social hit, I let the game go after that for nearly a year until my re-location to Darwin.

 

I picked the game up again when asked by a mate to become part of a team playing in the lower grades of the local Darwin competition.  As I tended to do in Hobart, I once again started training a couple of times a week at the Dashwood squash courts during lunch times while playing competition on another night. We were competitive for our grade level but not enough to worry the top teams. I think we made the finals once but were knocked out in the semis in a closely fought encounter with the top team. Having beaten us easily during the season, I think they took us too easily on the night, and we surprised them with having a particularly good night! We were on, so to speak, and very nearly rolled them over. In those days squash was very popular in Darwin and there were many excellent players. Darwin squash teams were very competitive against interstate teams and, if I remember correctly, at the time won more times that they lost when touring interstate.

 

I was a regular at the Dashwood courts but there were other courts where we played at Nightcliff and Millner.  There were also courts at the Larrakeyah army barracks which were open to the public.

 

I remember Betty Bowditch, lovely person and mother of Steven, serving me coffee when working at the Dashwood courts. Steven was a superb young player then, on the up and up. He went on to become world amateur champion and was eventually inducted into the Squash Australia Hall of Fame. From what I remember Betty was no slouch either; rarely losing.

 

To get onto some of the courts at the Dashwood squash facility in Darwin during the 1970s you had to climb down and up a ladder. After a tough game, climbing back up with weary legs was a challenge at times. I don’t recall why they were built like this but it probably had something to do with the climate? Weariness of course, was worn off in the club bar afterwards as was much of the great work we’d done by the calorie replacement beverages in the bar.

 

Squash was probably at its zenith in the 1970s being popular all around the world, especially in Australia, Great Britain, Pakistan and the USA. Who can forget the other great Australian players besides multiple world title holder Geoff Hunt. Players such as Ken Hiscoe, Cam Nancarrow and Heather McKay, from Queanbeyan, NSW, the greatest women’s squash player of all time. Like Hunt, McKay won multiple world and Australian squash championships. She was only ever beaten twice in her 20 year career and won a record British Open title 16 times. McKay also represented Australia in hockey and at one time, won the World Veterans Tennis Championship. Surely, she has to be one of Australia’s greatest women sportspersons.

 

Members of the Khan squash playing dynasty from Pakistan were also part and parcel of the international squash scene during the 1970s and 80s as they had been for decades. Great players like Mohibullah Khan, Jahangir Khan, Torsam Khan, Roshan Khan, Rahmat Khan, Nasrullah to name just a few from that era. I remember reading somewhere that the Khans were to squash what the Bachs were to music!

 

 

For those who may be interested, YouTube has a wonderful documentary on the Khan family – The Khans of Pakistan – A Squash Dynasty.

 

 

My personal training day in Darwin during the mid 1970s was at lunchtime on Wednesdays. This was when I’d spend an hour alone practising various strokes and the like.

 

It was after one of these sessions, while sitting in the Dashwood bar/coffee shop enjoying a Betty Bowditch cuppa, when I met a Khan.

 

As I was sipping away he entered the coffee shop and sat close by. I couldn’t help thinking at the time that he looked familiar but I couldn’t place him as a local.  After several minutes he engaged me in conversation asking how my session went, how often I played, my training regime etc.

 

I have to be honest here and admit that when thinking about writing this piece I couldn’t remember if it was Torsam Khan or Mohibullah Khan that I was speaking to – far too many years have passed. Thinking on it further though and doing a bit of research, I’m reasonably sure it was Torsam Khan. Regardless, it doesn’t alter the facts as I describe them below.

 

Torsam Khan was passing through Darwin on his way home. He told me that he had been competing at the 1976 Australian Professional Squash Championship in Adelaide. Torsam was the son of former world class champion Roshan Khan and brother of probably the most famous squash player of all time, Jahangir Khan. He asked if I would have a hit with him. Awe and star struck at the same time, I made excuses about having to be back at work so I had time limitations. He offered me a personal session of 15 minutes where he could show me the different types of training methods he used between tournaments (he mentioned he averaged about four hours a day on the court). What followed is etched in my memory forever. It was fantastic. Torsam had me stand aside as he went through his routine. He displayed all of the speed, flexibility, fast reflexes, superior eye to ball coordination, spatial awareness etc. that one expects of a world class player. One exercise involved him crouching down in a back corner to hit a high lob shot overhead to the opposite adjacent corner of the front court where it would drop quickly to the floor (as in a drop shot) then he would sprint to the front and return the ball from whence it came. This was a non-stop exercise which he conducted without error – the ball landing in the same spot time and again. It was mesmerising.

 

Sadly, Torsam died tragically of a heart attack on court during another tournament in Adelaide in November, 1979.

 

Back in the day there were those who considered squash a dangerous game. The physical effort of playing the game being a cause of heart attacks was a point of debate during the years I played. Mostly, in my experience, by non-players defending their reasoning for not playing. Having said this, over the years I have been told of players having had heart attacks on court. Whether this was due to playing the game of squash or an over exertion by overweight and non-fit players (and there were many) or just simply an individual heart condition or genetics, remains debatable. In my Darwin days I did have a cricketing colleague who died from a heart attack while playing squash on the Dashwood courts. While I think he was probably reasonably aerobically fit, he was quite solid and overweight. The medicos had difficulty getting him up and out of the court given the court structure (see above) and his weight. Very sad situation because the delay meant it took longer than normal to get him to hospital.

 

I don’t play anymore.  Haven’t for a long time. I still believe though, that squash is a great game both mentally and physically. It’s a tough game. So tough that members of the Khan dynasty often referred to themselves as warriors. The game is great for aerobic conditioning, it has strategy and certainly tests one’s endurance and sprinting abilities. Jehangir Khan, still regarded as the GOAT (greatest of all time) squash players, combined hours of racquet drills and court sprints with long morning runs and a solid gym program to enable him to be the best. In a YouTube interview he said: ‘To be the best I had to work harder than anyone else’. Jehangir was world champion six times and won 555 games straight; the longest ever winning streak.

 

My squash playing days ended in the mid 1980s soon after I made a career move to Canberra – home of Stewart Boswell, a former world ranked number four and winner of the Australian Open who honed his skills growing up at the Western Creek squash complex.

 

In Canberra, I once again commenced playing socially during lunch time with a work colleague at the Phillip Squash Courts.  This was until I smashed a ball from the back of the court into the scrotum of my playing partner who unfortunately had turned around to face me as I whacked the ball. Three balls were squashed resulting in a quick visit to emergency at the Woden Valley Hospital. Fortunately, solid bruising only was the diagnosis and all else was in working order.

 

I don’t think my colleague wanted to play with me again. Neither of us raised the matter of another game. The incident remained on his mind for several years after the event. He would mention it occasionally and usually when a few of us were enjoying a collegial beer around a bar table at the former ‘Contented Soul’ in the Woden Town Centre.

 

At least it wasn’t a heart attack!

 

 

To read more by Allan Barden click here.

 

 

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