London Site for '05 British Open
Mar 29, 2005, by Howard Harding
SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2005 all Rights Reserved;

British Open To Move from Nottingham to London

As first announced by Martin Bronstein two weeks ago in his SquashTalk column, the British Open Squash Championships will return to England's capital city when the 2005 event will be staged at London's prestigious Royal Horticultural Halls, in Westminster, from 7-15 October.

Action will take place on a state-of-the-art all-glass court erected in the Lawrence Hall, a spectacular and popular venue boasting a unique Art Deco style and high vaulted ceilings.

Nottingham gave the British Open a lot of support, including this building-high banner on a Nottingham main street. Photo © 2005 Ron Beck, SquashTalk

NOTTINGHAM LOSES EVENT
Though it will be a big prestige boost for the British Open to move back to London, and an obvious benefit in terms of potential sponsorships, it is unfortunate for the Nottingham boosters who gave every possible support and publicity to the event that was held in that city for two years. In many ways the Nottingham Albert Hall venue was an ideal location for the British Open, in terms of the size and configuration of the Albert Hall. The Nottingham Visitors bureau gave the British Open much more support than they might expect in a larger city, including building-high banners which announced and gave the event a lot of public publicity. The only downside of the Nottingham location is its distance from the London nerve center of English squash.

LONDON TRADITION
The 'Wimbledon of Squash' was first played at the Queen's Club in London in 1922. More recently, the sport's blue riband event established an 11-year 'residency' at the Wembley Conference Centre from 1984, before moving out of England - for the first time - to Cardiff in 1995. After periods in Birmingham, Aberdeen and Manchester, the British Open was held at the Albert Hall in Nottingham in 2003 and 2004.

"After two successful years in Nottingham, we are pleased to be able to stage the British Open once again in London, bringing the event back to the city of its birth, more than eight decades ago," said Championships Chairman John Beddington.

"We have been inundated with demands to bring the event back to London - so we are sure that squash fans in London and the South East will relish the return of the world's most prestigious tournament."

Rene Dee, Managing Director of the Royal Horticultural Halls, stated: "We are delighted to welcome the British Open Squash Championships to our iconic Lawrence Hall in the heart of Westminster. The British Open will follow a series of historic other sporting Championships that have been staged in our Halls during the past century and, in particular, the Badminton Association's 'All England Championships' held for 30 years from 1910-1940 and the very first World Snooker Championship held with us in 1946.

"As a recently-appointed London Business Tourism Champion for VisitLondon, I can also endorse London's pre-eminent position for hosting such events," Dee added.

The 2005 tournament will boast a men's Professional Squash Association (PSA) event and a Women's International Squash Players' Association (WISPA) event, both attracting the world's top players. In addition, there will be a full programme of Masters events - making this the world's largest combined men's and women's major championship.

With qualifying and early rounds at Lambs Health & Fitness Club in the City, action will transfer onto the all-glass court in the Lawrence Hall from the last sixteen rounds through to the finals on Saturday 15th October.

For the second successive year, the event will be boosted by a special BBC Sport highlights programme which will be broadcast on BBC TV Grandstand on Sunday 16th October.

Jackie Robinson, Chairman of England Squash, said of the news of the British Open's return to London: "We are delighted that the British Open is coming back to the capital. This great news shows that the event is going from strength to strength - it will be a fantastic showcase for squash in this country."

Further details regarding ticket availability, etc, will be announced later.

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