Trading Secrets

Rod Gilmour

Description

The greatest names in squash describe their most famous matches, the stories behind their success, the legendary training secrets and physical attributes that made them champions. From Pakistani great Azam Khan and the extraordinary story of how he came to Britain, Trading Secrets follows the emergence of Geoff Hunt and Jonah Barrington, two players who took fitness and sporting rivalry to a new level in the 60s and 70s. Their rivalry ignited the back pages of newspapers across the globe. Trading Secrets also lifts the lid on the stars' secrets in a sport that is slowly rediscovering its lustre after several decades in the wilderness. Reflecting this popular resurgence, the book looks at the battles of Peter Nicol, Britain's first world champion, and Canadian magician Jonathon Power before the likes of Nick Matthew and Ramy Ashour recall the matches which have transcended them into modern greats of the game. Their duels have been brought to life with archived reports from squash's correspondents of the time.

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 3
• EAN13: 9781785310843
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2015
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Rod Gilmour, 2015
All rights reserved under Internationaland Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been grantedthe non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No partof this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or storedin or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express writtenpermission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library.
Print ISBN 978-178531-043-0
eBook ISBN: 978-1-78531-084-3
---
Ebook Conversion by www.eBookPartnership.com
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword By Malcolm Willstrop
Introduction
Broken Rackets And Dirty Tricks
Small Town Girl
The First Of Squash s Grudge Rivalries
Beating A Khan And The Cramps At Bromley
The Start Of Sport s Unrivalled, Unbeaten Record
The Man Who Ended Khan s Run
A Burning Desire To Beat The Khans
Boxing Clever On Court
I Handed Over My Bandana And Said, That s Me Done
Annihilation, Magic And Power
Coping With World Number One Was Horrendous
Doing The Double In Doha
From Meltdowns To Melbourne Glory
The Cairo Comeback
Why Being At The Top Is The Best Place To Be
A Double Marathon At Docklands
From Hospital Bed To Glasgow Gold
Ramy s Resurrection
Index
Photographs
Acknowledgments
THE FOLLOWING have all played an instrumental part in how this book was put together. Ian McKenzie, Squash Player Magazine s editor, for letting me into his archives and reproduction of articles, Howard Harding for statistics, Richard Eaton and Andrew Shelley for their expertise and photographer Steve Line. I also recommend a subscription to Squash Player Magazine at www.squashplayer.co.uk/subscriptions .
ROD GILMOUR has covered squash for the Daily Telegraph and Squash Player Magazine since 2008. He collaborated with James Willstrop on his diaries for Shot and a Ghost: a year in the brutal world of professional squash , which was nominated for the prestigious William Hill Sports Book of the Year award in 2012.
Foreword By Malcolm Willstrop
MY FIRST experience of the game of squash came in my schooldays at St Peter s York, which had a tradition of squash through England cricket captain Norman Yardley, winner of the North of England men s title three times, I believe, while still a pupil, W. Toyne, headmaster and formerly of Haileybury College and Gerald Pawle, contemporary of Yardley s and a Daily Telegraph sports writer.
The court was a converted Fives court at the side of the cricket field and the queues to book the court were always long! Little did I realise that one day I would be watching players I coach playing at world level under the Pyramids, in New York s Grand Central Station and by Hong Kong Harbour - all quite wonderful locations to play squash.
I remember being on a three-day course at Uxbridge to see if I was suitable officer material in the RAF. I told the panel that I was a squash player and how impressed they were - not by me but by the game.
Those were the days of courts in the Officers Mess, private clubs, which still exist, and the public schools. The best players in those days came from Oxbridge: Jonny Leslie (Rugby), John Easter (St Edward s), Phil Ayton (Brighton College or Lancing), Kim Bruce Lockhart (Harrow), who sadly died young. The dominant schools then were Lancing, Barnard Castle and Gresham s.
Those were the days of the Lansdowne and the RAC clubs. When I went back to teach at St Peter s, two new courts had been built, the game was taking off and along came Jonah Barrington, which was just what the sport needed. He rightly caught the attention of the media, released the game from its conservative fetters and the boom was on.
We sometimes forget just how far the game has progressed in such a short time. Who would have predicted the glass court, the spectacular venues all over the world, the world tour? I remember, too many moons ago, going to a hangar in Blackpool to test the perspex court.
That was an amazing experience. I was there at the first unofficial World Junior Championship in the cold of Sundsvall, Sweden. I was there years later to see my son, James, win his title in Chennai. This after my other son, Christy, came third, stepson David Campion had come second, so it took three goes.
There have been the greats: Jahangir Khan, Jansher Khan, Jonah, Geoff Hunt, Peter Nicol, Amr Shabana and the most original player ever to have lived, Ramy Ashour.
But the depth of the professional game nowadays is plain to see and with it we have enjoyed the era of Shabana, Nick Matthew, Ashour, Willstrop, Greg Gaultier and Karim Darwish: the strongest ever crop at the top of the game.
As it now enters change, it is unlikely to be replicated, at least immediately. Shabana was and is complete, Ashour is a genius, Matthew a great achiever and there is much to admire with the other three too.
The game at the top provides a living, but hardly reflects the quality of the players and the severe demands of the game.
It had early problems with television, which was long ago solved by PSA TV and its production output. The men s final at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow was a powerful showpiece, but the game has not been glamorised enough and hasn t yet realised how vital betting is to attract media attention.
Yet, the progress the game has made is remarkable. I hope that in the next few years the professionals will be properly rewarded for their skills, hard work and resilience. Few sportsmen work so hard for their living. Hopefully there is more to come.
MALCOLM WILLSTROP is one of the most respected coaches in the history of the game. He was recognised for his services to the sport when he was inducted into the UK Sport coaching hall of fame in 2004. He has coached for over 50 years and, for over two decades, at Pontefract Squash Club where he took son, James, and Lee Beachill to the world No.1 position.
Introduction
REPORTING ON squash is an odd concept. From an outsiders point of view, it may be played in small confines, with two players thrashing a ball against a wall and not much else to go on, but squash is so much more than that.
It is one of the most consistently draining sports I have covered as a journalist. Watching two athletes battle it out in a small glass box from close quarters, you feel part of the action. You are one of those players. Throw in a two-hour, five-game marathon and you can come away with your energy sapped. It is intoxicating and, more often than not at the top of the game, dramatic.
This is certainly the case at an event such as the Tournament of Champions at Grand Central Terminal in New York. The press area is situated underneath the stands behind the back wall in the art deco Vanderbilt Hall and, in between matches, you brush past players trying to warm up in the small areas consigned to the event. There s a buzz like no other, while the ToC encapsulates the sport as a whole: cover squash long enough and you bear witness to player habits, the moods, the freneticism. Squash simply sucks you in.
The stories and subplots surrounding tournaments or individual matches are endlessly fascinating too. In essence, it is all about the match-ups and rivalries, the pursuit of beating the best at the time, the fight to get into the top 16 where life as a touring professional starts to bear fruit.
So, rather than reading about these specific matches and points as a whole, and how these greats won the titles, my aim was to get a clearer picture of their thoughts and mindsets at the time and how they were able to cross the winning line (unless your name is the indefatigable and unbeatable Jahangir Khan).
Back in the heyday of squash - the late 1960s to the late 80s, when clubs were flourishing, the sport found a regular spot on BBC s Grandstand and reports were regular fodder for sports editors - press rooms were a lively place to be.
Unfortunately, those media coverage good times have dwindled as the sport has progressed to the thrill it is today: modern glass courts, a high-definition TV product and remarkably fit entertainers few know about (Olympian Jessica Ennis told me in 2012 that Nick Matthew, Yorkshire s three-time world champion, was Britain s most understated and fittest sportsman).
Yet, the stories are still bountiful. British journalists attending the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow will testify to that, having crossed Glasgow to Scotstoun to watch the final between James Willstrop and Matthew and made reference to the pair s career-long, lively rivalry in their reports.
The press tribunes were packed with a representative from every UK newspaper and major news agency that day. Even though it took an all-English final on a Monday to do so, it showed that squash is not a low-end general sport . It deserves the right to be reported on as any major sport would: player reactions, match reports, analysis or evocative pictures sitting alongside. That will hopefully change to some degree when squash is finally admitted into the Olympics, though the sport still seeks the nod from the International Olympic Committee after three fraught and fruitless bid campaigns attempting to swoon IOC chiefs in recent years.
The World Squash Federation s bid for inclusion to the London 2012 Games was curtailed by a controversial two-thirds majority vote by the IOC s executive committee which saw no sport included, despite squash and karate doing enough to warrant a place.
Four years later, rugby sevens and golf were given preferential treatment for inclusion to the 2016 Rio Games. For the 2020 bid, squash spent a reported 1m and put togethe