Cairns retires:
... and Boston courts ...

GLOBAL GALLERY January 2002 Martin Bronstein's astigmatic view of the world of squash.

© 2002 All rights reserved.
photos © 2002, D Tessier, R Beck and V Winchell

FAREWELL, OLD MAN
I looked at the list players in the qualifying draw for the Tournament of Champions and noticed that Mark Cairns had withdrawn. Two hours later I was at my club, Colets, and there was Cairns who was down to play number one for our first team in the Surrey league match. "Why did you withdraw from New York," I asked him.

"Well, er, well, you see, I’ve retired," he replied a little sheepishly. WHAT?? To say I was surprised would be understatement of a very high order. "I am taking on the job of general manager at the Winchester Squash and Tennis Club," he continued. "I’ve been on the tour since 1987 and I’m now 34. Everybody has to go sometime. Pity I went to Boston and lost. I should have quit after I won the Grasshopper tournament in Switzerland in November, to go out on a winning note," he said.

Mark was a winner for England: he played for England 21 times as a senior and never lost wearing an English shirt. A couple of years ago England were playing Australia in the world team champs in Cairo and Cairns had to play Rodney Eyles. Nobody gave Cairns a chance and thought Eyles would mash him. In an England shirt Cairns had a reputation to uphold and beat Eyles over five games. Cairns, who got to world number ten in 1997, also remembers the time he beat Rodney Martin in the British Open. "It was the first time I had beaten a really good player in a top event." Cairns will continue on as a director of the PSA and will also keep on playing leagues, but from today, Mark Cairns, pro squash player, no longer exists. Sad, very sad.

THE BIG MATCH OF THE YEAR
No, the needle match won’t be Power and Nicol, but between Nicol and Beachill. We were waiting for our baggage at Boston’s Logan Airport and the discussion got round to the lack of tournaments.

Beachill remarked that there was nothing in February or March and Pete, with a wicked glint in his eye, said: ‘Oh yes there is. The Nationals. I’ve got to stop you getting a double. I can’t let you win it two years running.’ Beachill laughed, but you could see he was worried. The strange fact is that no player has ever won the British National title two years running.

NOT THE WELSH CHAMPION
Why do I keep calling David Evans the Welsh champion? Because he’s the highest ranked Welsh player in the world rankings. But the fact is he is not the Welsh champion and has not been for the last year or so. Last year he missed the Nationals because he was sick and this year he was in Boston for the Memorial US Open, leaving the field open to former Welsh champ Alex Gough who duly picked up the national title with very little fuss.

LATE BREAKING NEWS
I’ve just heard, via Andrew Shelley of WISPA, the result of the Iranian Women’s Squash championship held in Tehran at the Pars Club. It was won by Fareshteh Varazi, a 43 year old mother of two who not only coaches squash and tennis but has translated squash coaching books. There were no men allowed to watch as females are not supposed to bare their legs in the presence of men. Things can change quickly however. The first time I saw Egyptian women playing squash – less than five years ago- they were wearing leggings or thin skirts. Now they all wear short skirts or shorts. And look how far they have come in just a few years. Welcome Iran and remember, once men wore long white trousers when they played squash.

EVEN LATER BREAKING NEWS
Still with WISPA, Natalie Pohrer, who we used to know as Natalie Grainger before she married American Ed Pohrer last year, got back to winning form in Philadelphia. She’s had a bit of a break because of a death in the family, but is bubbling again as only she can. After the victory she announced that she intends to play for the United States, having acquired citizenship through marriage.

As it is over three years since she played for her native South Africa, she should be eligible. She had intended to play for England until love bloomed in St Louis, which is when Natalie gave up her English lottery money. This can only be good news for the US women’s team for the upcoming world team champs in Denmark in October.

SCOTTISH OPEN STILL A POSSIBILITY
I had written that the Scottish Open was another casualty in 2002, but according to Peter Nicol, it is not completely dead. "It was never intended to be a one off," he told me, looking completely fresh after his relaxed trip in Virgin Upper Class. (I had to suffer Virgin Cattle Class and be scowled at by the Brit herders, sorry, cabin crew). It seems the Scots organisers are still trying to get some more money in place. Cross your fingers – the PSA boys need the work.

US OPEN AUTOGRAPHED SWEATSHIRT RAFFLE
As we promised at the US Open, Global Gallery announces the winner of the SquashTalk raffle at the US Open. The winner is... (drawn from a bowl by me, Martin Bronstein) ... Carl Cummings of Boston.

WORLD SQUASH DAY – IF YOU LIVED IN LONDON
The World Squash Day sort of sizzled out. The only discernible activity was at Lambs Club in London. The much publicised UK vs US match did take place there.

Peter Nicol gave up his sleep to play: He arrived in London at 0630 on Friday Morning and drove straight to the club to spend the day playing. Sometimes I think he is too nice. After a hard week in Boston at the US Open, the guy deserved a day off.

An event like world squash day is not organised in a couple of months…. It needs a year to get clubs around the world involved and they should be told what sort of activities to organise so that there is a genuine global linkup of squash players.

THAT’S NOT A SQUASH CENTRE –THESE ARE SQUASH CENTRES.
The England Squash Centre in Manchester is near completion and boasts six squash courts (with movable walls to change into to doubles courts) and a show court.

Well sorry England Squash, those are very small potatoes compared to the eye-opening, breath-taking, jaw dropping squash facilities I saw in and around Boston.

First of all I dropped in on Baj (Satinder Bajwa) the coach at Harvard University. (Baj also runs the Super Series tourney in London each June). They have 15 spanking new, plaster walled, glassback courts. Easily enough to allow the men’s and women’s squash teams to practise at the same time. Baj was telling me that when Trinity came to play Harvard, the foldaway seating was pulled out and about 1,000 spectators were screaming their teams on.

I’ve been told that the squash facilities at Yale and Trinity were ever more mouth watering.

And Princeton is good and big enough to have had the 1998 World Men’s Junior Champs back in 1998.

Then in Concord, where SquashTalk founder Ron Beck lives, we nipped into a small private school, the Concord Academy, where they had six brand new glassbacks. Further out in the country, standing in super rolling grounds is Groton Prep School, considered one of the two three prep schools in the US. It has 350 pupils, who come from not only all over the US but the rest of the world too.

We went to their athletics building….12, yes I counted them, 12 brand new glass backs. For just 350 pupils. I was left speechless. Beck reckons there are over 100 international squash courts in the Boston area, which ain’t bad. Does London have 100 squash courts left?

One thing these courts had in common: they were all supplied by Anderson Courts from upper New York State. That’s Anderson, as in Gordie Anderson, the US national over 55 champion. Now I knew Gordie when he was a leading Canadian player alongside Sharif Khan and Clive Caldwell. Gordie was a co-owner of the Squash Academy, my first ever squash club in downtown Toronto. In fact the last time I saw Gordie was in Toronto for the YMG classic where we exchanged insults yet again. Modest man, Gordie, never told me how rich and successful he was.

FULL HOUSE FOR TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS
If some of the big names were missing in Boston, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will all be arriving at Grand Central Station in New York in good time for the Tournament of Champions, the last big tourney before a most unwelcome hiatus. Ong Beng Hee, fresh from his victory in the Swedish Open, will be back in the draw where he will face Aussie Anthony Ricketts.

World number five Thierry Lincou from France is back in action after a rest and he gets a qualifier in the first round after which he could face Paul Price and then David Palmer, ouch! Jonathon

Power is in the bottom half of the draw and is seeded to meet world number two David Palmer, back in action after a month’s rest. But Power has to get past a revitalized Simon Parke in the first round.

John White is in Peter Nicol’s half of the draw. Joseph Kneipp, who made such an impact in Boston, is seeded two in the really tough qualifying draw which includes, Nick Taylor, Amr Shabana, Stefan Casteleyn, Shahir Razik and Peter Marshall.

Tickets have been selling at a very brisk rate for the last month, so if you haven’t got yours yet, look on SquashTalk, ticket agents for EventEngine, the tournament organisers.

IMPICATIONS AIN’T A BET
Some gentleman wrote on the USSRA site that "Martin Bronstein implied that he'd be willing to put a sum of money on Jonathon Power not getting to the final of the Tournament of Champions. I'll take that bet..."

The things some people will try to get their hands on my money. I have no recollection of any bet OR OF ANY IMPLIED BET. If the writer in question can tell me where he read these words, or implied words, I would be most grateful.

But here’s a bet: I will wager $25 that Nicol, Palmer, White and Power do not all reach the semi-finals of the Tournament of Champions. Any takers?

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Cairns retires: ... and Boston courts ...

GLOBAL GALLERY January 2002 Martin Bronstein's astigmatic view of the world of squash.

© 2002 All rights reserved. photos © 2002, D Tessier, R Beck and V Winchell

Cairns retires:
... and Boston courts ...

© 2002 All rights reserved.
photos © 2002, D Tessier, R Beck and V Winchell