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Gallery > March '06 Global Gallery |
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| SQUASHTALK OPINION |
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Mike
Corby's Sledgehammer
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IF YOU SEE MIKE CORBY WITH A SLEDGE HAMMER, BEST CANCEL YOUR SQUASH
GAME
The
Lambs Club saga in London continues and let me tell you, Mike Corby
is as mad as hell. You remember he came to the sad conclusion that
he would have to sell the club in order to keep his chain of fitness
clubs in business. He sold it to a developer who intended to raze
the building and erect 120 apartments. Some club members
didn’t feel he had the right to do this to such an historic building
with so much squash history. When they started a protest movement, Squashtalk
scored another scoop by publishing the story. Our story
was used by the protesters to further their cause with the local newspapers,
radio stations and finally with the planning board of the local
council.
The protesters then brought in Sport England and fed them some horsemanure about England being the centre of world squash and London, with Lambs the very epicenter of the squash firmament. I pointed out that this had not been true for ten years, and that England, London and Lambs had had their day and the squash world had moved on.
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| Mike Corby, squash player, administrator, and fitness club entrepreneur - backed the British Open, owns the Lambs Club. |
This brought a nasty letter from the leader of the protest movement accusing me of crooked journalism without actually responding to my points regarding outdated claims.
Anyway the protesters were successful in having the developer’s plans rejected and Mike Corby is a most unhappy fellow. He told me that the protest had already cost him a million quid ($1.7million) of the deal that he thought he had all tied up. He said he had a good mind to take a sledge hammer and knock the squash court walls down himself.
And I have sympathy for his feelings. Here is a man who has put a helluva lot into squash, who gave his club to hundreds of tournaments, who saved the British Open twice and endless other deeds that no other person in Britain can match. He is repaid by some selfish club members who, through some skewed thinking, feel they have a right to say what happens to Lambs. Did they raise the money to outbid the developers and buy the club? I doubt it. Has any one of them put more money into the club than their annual dues? Not bloody likely. And yet they stand on their soapbox as they they hold th freehold and yell that their beloved court is being taken away from them.
Wouldn’t it have been wiser to persuade the developer (with a nudge from the local council) to build a squash facility in the basement of the new apartment block? This way everybody would be served: Mike would get his capital, the members would still have a club and Islington Borough Council could boast a fine sports facility, a modern one with glass back courts and 21st century design. After all, Lambs is getting old and tatty.
OLYMPIC HOPES RAISED AGAIN
The
latest bulletin from the World Squash Federation shows that Christian
Leighton, the chief executive, is still highly optimistic about getting
squash into the Olympics within the foreseeable future. (I should live
so long!).
His message reads:
“Softball and baseball were hoping to
get a second chance at remaining on the programme of the 2012 Olympic
Games. This did not materialize and therefore 26 sports will be
participating in London. In addition. Dr. Jacques Rogge has made
indications that it may be possible to increase the maximum number
of sport from 28 to 29 or 30. If this proposal is approved at the
2007 IOC session, squash could be fighting for one of up to four
slots in 2009. A very uplifting perspective when you compare with
the situation in Singapore in July 2005.”
I don’t understand how he can call this ‘maybe, possibly, perhaps’ situation uplifting when compared to Singapore when we had our foot in the door with our body very close behind before the members of the IOC decided to vote against any new additions - despite earlier agreements – and slammed the door in our face. It was one of the cruelest decisions ever and I feel sorry for Christian and the other squash people who were in Singapore practically celebrating victory when the disastrous vote was announced, acting like a cold, wet sponge. Please don’t get me started again…..
CANARY WHARF ON AN UPWARD CURVE
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| The Canary Wharf pro event is flourishing. (photo © 2006, Fritz Borchert) |
On a much happier note I can report that Eventis and Alan Thatcher, the promoters behind the Canary Wharf Classic, are doing everything right in growing this tournament, which started as a small eight man invitational. This year it stepped up to become a four star knock out event and attracted three sold-out nights. It has settled into the calendar very well and whereas, just three years ago England boasted just one (very weak) tournaments - the ailing British Open, the listing is beginning to grow. There is the English Open in August which has now been joined by Alan Thatcher’s Liverpool Open and the welcome return of Dunlop as a sponsor for the British Open. And next year Manchester will host two World Opens. Also, let us not forget the women’s World Open in Belfast later this year. Who knows, Britain may yet become a power in world squash again.
NO POWER FOR THE WRITTEN PRESS
You may have noticed that Squashtalk scooped the world again with its
story on Jonathon Power’s retirement from the circuit. We
got the scoop because of Jonathon’s high regard for Ron Beck
and the Squashtalk site. This is in complete contrast to the
Tournament of Champions who kept Ron waiting 20 minutes before
grudgingly giving him his press pass and then telling him they didn’t
have a power outlet for him for his computer. Funnily enough there
wasn’t one writer in what passes for a press room. Anybody who
read Ron’s two reports will know that he can hold
his own with any squash journalist in writing an informed report. Let
me remind Ron - and for that matter Mike Corby – of
my sister’s favourite saying: “No good deed goes unpunished.”
YOU
CAN’T TURN OFF THIS POWER
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| Jonathon Power will be sorely missed on tour. (photo © 2006, Debra Tessier) |
Jonathon Power will be sorely missed on the circuit. His unique personality on and off the court will be replaced by no-one. That frisson of excitement, that wonderful anticipation of the unexpected, the eye-popping shot, the fast repartee with the referee and the sheer glory of his unique approach to the game of squash will be missing from PSA tournaments. Power, however will go marching on, giving clinics and exhibitions and giving unfettered freedom to his wonderfully warm, witty personality.
In North America you will probably find promoters paying Power to give exhibitions before a tournament’s final, so that if the final is a bust, the paying customers will at least have had the satisfaction of seeing one of the greats in action.
A GREAT TOURNAMENT TO HONOUR A GREAT PLAYER?
What I would like to see
is a Jonathon Power Open with $150,000
prize money being played in a different Canadian city each year. Come
on Royal Bank of Canada, or Bank of Montreal, or Blackberry
(A CANADIAN INVENTION !), open your vaults and let Canadians
see one of their rare world champions.
A DECADE AGO
March 1996, lest you forget, the top ten players were:
Jansher Khan, Rodney Eyles, Brett Martin, Peter Nicol, Del Harris,
Simon Parke, Chris Walker, Anthony Hill, Mark Chaloner, and Mark
Cairns.
Five
out of ten were England players – Nicol was still flying
the Scottish flag – with three Australians and one lone Pakistani.
Now, ten years later the top ten comprises:
Jonathon Power, David Palmer, Amr Shabana, Thierry Lincou, James Willstrop,
Anthony Ricketts, Peter Nicol, Lee Beachill, John White, Nick Matthew.
That’s four Englishman, two Australians, one Canadian, one Egyptian,
one Frenchman and one Scot (White).
England and Australia still strong, Pakistan nowhere, but a wonderfully welcome addition of other nationalities.
And who is still going strong in the top ten? The incredible Peter Nicol.
No
real point to this bit….just a quick stroll
down memory lane.
