SPRING ISSUE - THE GLOBAL GALLERY

PETER (Braveheart) NICOL

A couple of armoured vehicles for Mr Nicol please.  Is he off to Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan for an exhibition match?  Actually no. He’s going to Aberdeen, Scotland. Which is where he comes from originally. And he’s not off for a quick flying visit – he’s actually moving back there, lock, stock and Jessica (his American lady).

So you ask, why does he need armoured vehicles?  Well those squash fans with a good memory will remember that he thrust off his Scottish affiliation because he failed to get the sort of support from the Scottish SRA that England’s players were getting from the English SRA. There had been a history of dispute Scotland’s top players and the non-thinkers who ran the governing body. Indeed, there were internationals where Nicol and Martin Heath failed to play.

For non Brits: Scotland looks down on the Sassenachs with an ill disguised superiority, so when one of their top sportsman switches allegiance to those people south of Hadrian’s wall,  emotions run high. One of my Scottish friends told me, with eyes flashing, that if he ever met that  (expletive deleted) Nicol he would thump him.

Anyway all that is history now  - at least I hope it is for Peter’s sake – and he’s back to the land of single malts, bagpipes and haggis to look after his squash club in Aberdeen as it goes through a makeover. We wish him luck.

[See related Scottish squash stories: read more and more]

GOVERNING BODIES – WHO ARE THEY AND WHY?

I have this theory that if a man can’t become a dentist, lawyer or politician, he works for a sport governing body.   I have written about the past problems  with the PSA and WSF, helping in  my own small way, to get rid of the man at the top. But within the last two months  two other stories came up  concerning the French Federation and US Squash. Both of them quite unbelievable.

First of all a nasty man called Jacques Fontaine, president of the French Federation, who runs it like his own fiefdom, who issues ticket to allow players to play in the French leagues. If he doesn’t like them, they don’t play, no argument. He used to own a squash club in Paris and in order to win the French and European club championships, Fontaine virtually bought the world’s top ten.  At one European championship Jonathon Power was there as a Paris player but didn’t even play! He got his couple of grand anyway.  When other countries and clubs started dropping out because they could not compete with Fontaine’s large wallet, the European Squash Federation stepped in,  changing the rules so that no club could have more than one top twenty player in the team.  Fontaine decided he didn’t like the rules, dropped out and no longer owns the club.  You see. If Fontaine can’t control it, he won’t play.

Fontaine has long had it in for Nicolas Barbeau, a qualified squash referee, who used to run a squash magazine, which I wrote for.  I  wrote about Fontaine’s less than ethical conduct and abuse of power.   Because he did not like the truth in printed word, seven years ago Fontaine banned Barbeau from reffing in France. Just like that.  But, it was thought, Fontaine’s power stopped at the French border. Not so.

At the world team championships in India in December 2007 any qualified referee could officiate if they were willing to pay their own expenses. (You don’t need to be appointed by your federation.)

 
Well, Barbeau just did that. He emailed  the Indian Federation, explaining he was  a European Referee, seeking International status and asked if he could attend and referee at the Men’s Teams.

Yes, they said, come right on over and we’ll make sure you ref some games. Barbeau  bought his ticket from Paris to India and started reffing. But then made the mistake of writing about it on a website. Fontaine saw the story, was furious that the man he had banned was reffing somewhere in the world.  He shot off an email insisting that Barbeau should be banned from the event, using spurious reasons such as not being appointed by FFS and “not a good referee!”.

The WSF tried to fight this for a few days, but on semi-finals day, just hours before the first matches, an urgent email arrived threatening that if  the Indian Federation and/or WSF did not drop Barbeau  from his refereeing duties, Fontaine would withdraw the French Team from the semi finals!  Outrageous! Would he really pull the French team to satisfy his own lust for power? Instead of the world governing body calling his bluff, both the Indian Federation and the WSF bowed to the blackmail of Jacques Fontaine. Barbeau was stripped of his duties and he went home.

Shame on the WSF and the Indian Federation for allowing Fontaine to bully them in this way.

The only heartening news is that  there was an attempted coup this year at the FFS and Fontaine only just managed to keep his position. But there are now seven members of the board to contest his outrageous megalomania. And the first thing they managed was to get Nicolas Barbeau back into French squash as a referee.  The sooner they manage to oust Fontaine from the Federation, the sooner French squash will become credible again.

PLAYING HARDBALL IN THE SOFTWARE GAME

And so to Kevin Klipstein CEO of US Squash, whose salary has gone up $20,000 year for the last three years despite his profligacy regarding his organisation’s software.

After much hit and miss and about $300,000, Railstation software was up and running handling all rankings, leagues  and other stuff for all states affiliated with  US Squash. And according to most reports, it was working very well. So well in fact that US Badminton, seeing how good it was, decided to adopt Railstation for its sport.

For some reason Klipstein felt he no longer controlled the software which had cost US Squash so much money and dropped it in favour of something called Top Dog, causing a six week shutdown of computer usage. (There are still a lot of glitches in Top Dog, which also did not go down well ). This switch was done without the initial support of the board – Klipstein admits he didn’t even consult with them on such a big issue. 

The National Capital SRA (Washington DC) were left high and dry in the middle of their summer season. They continue to run Railstation and offered their members the chance to ditch membership of the Federal body and join as state members only, thereby ensuring state ranking and league results.

Klipstein got real mad at this  and disenfranchised the Capital Association  - that’s right, he threw them out -and then tried to set up his own US Squash district committee in the state.  And this is how it stands now, threats and counter threats.

So, like I said at the beginning, where do these Sport Governing bodies presidents, CEO’and officers come from? The Harvard Failed Business School? What gene do they share that ensures they always make the wrong decision?  And finally, how come  George W Bush avoided the net and didn’t end up as Executive Secretary of the US Synchronised Swimming Association? He would have been just perfect.  (Just try to imagine George W trying to say Synchronised Swimming Association).

HAS THE TIDE TURNED FOR ENGLISH SQUASH?

You may have noticed a lack of players from the mother country in recent junior championships. Sometimes not even a quarter-finalist from England, while other countries around the world (not just Egypt) are producing world class juniors.   This was particularly disturbing as England had a huge start on all other countries and even now enjoys state funding that is probably better than any three countries combined.  Finally, FINALLY!  at the recent European Junior Championships, England hit the bullseye in both the Men’s and Women’s Under 19 tournaments,  Anthony Graham upset the seeding  (he was seeded  5/8) to beat Lucas Serme of France and top seed Sarah-Jane Perry beat another England player, Millie Tomlinson for her title.  Its been six years since James Willstrop won the title for England.  I can’t even remember the last England champion in the women’s …Jennie Duncalf ? Tania Bailey?

CANARY WHARF SINGS AGAIN

There’s not doubt about it, as John Nimick said in his interview with Squashtalk, the venue is the tournament.  The Tournament of Champion at Grand Central and the Canary Wharf Classic in London’s Docklands are both hugely successful because of their unique and fitting venues. This year, Canary Wharf was sold out for the last three nights and the players delivered a wonderful set of quarters, semis and final.  Not one dud match out of the seven. The paying customer all got their money’s worth and you can be sure that next year tickets will start selling much earlier. The other point  to be made is that  Nimick has run the TOC for 12 years  and now has got everything working to perfection.  Canary Wharf is in its fifth year and Eventis, headed up by Peter Nicol, has also honed the tournament so that it runs like a watch.

It is a pity that the Egyptian stopped the Pyramids tournament, that certainly would have competed for top venue. Perhaps they should put their money into Hurghada on the Red Sea. That too is unique and could well become one of the major venues.

Surely the Aussies could somehow use the Sydney Opera House to stage a tournament. And there must be some spectacular site in Paris to house a born-again French Open?
I live in hope.

THE END OF BAD COMMENTARY – Oh Yes Please!

The PSA is making a clean sweep, finally. They are looking at all areas of their operation in their effort to market their sport. This housecleaning, I’m glad to report, includes their television and internet broadcasting (webstreaming).  They made a good start by getting rid of that Welsh windbag Robert Edwards and bringing back squash’s most articulate and knowledgable  legend, Jonah Barrington. We now understand the web-streaming service is out for tender, which could mean an improved picture and a much high standard of commentary.  Let me claim a little bit of history here: I was the first commentator on the first webstreaming, which came from the Tournament of Champions.  I watched the game on a 9inch black and white television and spoke into the mike of a laptop.  (My back ached for a week after). And I did it for free. “It’ll look good on your CV,” promised Adrian  Battersby, the man who runs Horizon with his wife. As I was well past pensionable age, what hell did I need with a CV. 

Because of a disagreement about business ethics, I have refused to work for Horizon although Adrian and I still have a cordial relationship when we meet at tournaments.  Adrian took over the main commentator’s role backed up by various coaches, players and other people associated with the game, most of whom are very bad commentators.  Very few players can articulate their knowledge well, without resorting to clichés. So I now hope that regardless of which company gets the webstreaming contract, the PSA will carefully vet the commentators list and specify which commentators are acceptable and which should never be allowed within a mile of a microphone.

Indeed, the PSA should choose a dozen,  give them all a couple of matches to work on and then let the viewers vote on which they think are the best. What a great idea.   Alex Gough, it’s yours at no charge.

 

 

 

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