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The Aura of the British Open:
A Historical Perspective on the men's event.
   last updated on: June 6, 2001 23:12

British Open: Larger than Life By Ron Beck

The British Open was built by the legendary players who called it "their own". For decades, the world's greatest squash players, men and women, have focused on the British Open. They organized their lives, focused their training, tapered their psyche, dug deep inside to perform at the British Open.

It really all started with F.D. Amr Bey, an Egyptian transplanted to England, who took up squash and became determined to win and retain the British Open Championship. Amr Bey won the title six time, and was undefeated in British Open appearances. Amr Bey was viewed as the first "professional amateur" - that is squash became all consuming to him and his training led him to levels of accuracy and fitness that made him legendary and unbeatable in his day. You can say that he focused his life for those six years around winning the British Open.

Following a single win by a Britisher - Jim Dear in 1939 - Mahmoud Karim regained the crown for Egypt, winning the event for four straight years. Egyptians would go on to win 13 total titles through today.

Karim, who had been regarded as unbeatable for his mesmerizing shotmaking, had his string cut short by the legendary Hashim Khan. .

Hashim was in his mid-thirties when he first entered and won the British Open, but went on to dominate the sport throughout most of the fifties, picking up a further six British Open titles to establish a record which stood till 1981.

But Hashim also needs to be viewed grouped together with his close relatives, cousin Roshan, brother Azam, and nephew Mo Khan. Together, these four won the British Open for 13 straight years from 1951 through 1963. This string of Pakistani victories also coincided with the birth of a new nation, Pakistan, and created a strong sense of national pride and identity.

While Pakistan was becoming an incubator for an incredible array of squash talent, three other stars were emerging, Australians Ken Hiscoe and Geoff Hunt and Irishman Jonah Barrington.

Ken Hiscoe became the most illustrious player never to win the British Open, while Barrington went on to win six British Opens and Hunt seven. Again, for Barrington and Hunt, the British Open became the focus of their entire careers. Their entire training and competitive schedules were focused around their meetings at the British Open.

Barrington, who was trained by Roshan's brother Nazrullah Khan, won six titles but found a horde of loyal Pakistani fans amassed to cheer against him, to prevent him from earning the seventh title that would tie legendary Hashim's record. These Pakistani fans physically prevented Naz from coaching Barrington between games in his quest for the seventh title - such was the prestige and allure of the British Open.

These stars created a stong motivation for the Pakistani squash movement, whose stars Gogi Alauddin, Mo Yasin, Qamar Zaman, Hiddy Jahan, Mohibullah Khan ("the younger"), and Torsham Khan were playing foil to Barrington and Hunt (though Zaman gained the Open title once in 1975).

It was the incomparable Jahangir Khan, younger brother of Torsham, who reclaimed the British Open Championship for Pakistan. But Jahangir did more than simply win the British Open -- in many ways he raised the stature and mystique of the British Open to a new level.

Jahangir, who as a teenager wrested the world championship away from Geoff Hunt in 1981, won the British Open Title for 10 straight years. His run of ten championships is made much more impressive by the fact that for the last three of those years, Jansher Khan had won many of their meetings, but Jahangir in each case was able to raise the level of his competitive effort up to be able to win the all-important British Open title. Jahangir's record is likely to remain unbroken for many years, possibly forever.

Finally, after a 10 year run, Jahangir relinquished the championship to Jansher, who won the Open six times, ending in 1997. Since then the British Open Title has been 'up for grabs' - bounced between Peter Nicol, Jonathon Power and David Evans (one win each).

Which player will next marshall the talent, will, determination and charisma to create the next British Open dynasty?