Framboise: a breath of fresh air
I received an email in early February from
Ian McKenzie, editor of SquashPlayer, telling me that there was this
French woman who was keen to provide some stories for us from the National
Championships. "Would that be ok?" he asked.
Well, of course. It's always good to have extra input. I received a nice
email from the lady, introducing herself and sending a photo, and she even
suggested a title - "say it with a French accent". So it looked like we
would have something extra for the Nationals. Great.
And then I arrived. And the whirlwind hit
me. Stories on the matches. Interviews with the players. Atmosphere pieces
about the venue, the scoring system ... everything! Framboise was
everywhere, passing me the memory stick (she insisted on the big one) with
the latest story, saying "is it ok?".
Well, of course you all know by now that
it was far better than 'ok'. Yes, I needed to adjust some of the words,
but this was fantastic stuff, written in a way that just gripped you and
left you asking for more. And more. And ...
So the page I'd set up quickly grew, I had
to add "today's stories" at the top to make it all accessible, and "Say it
with a French Accent" became the best thing on the site.
So was that it? A one-off breath of fresh
air? Errrr ... nope.
Framboise was mad keen to do more. In
March she basically spent a month following the BSPA circuit round the
country, fitting in the National Club Championships and the Home
Internationals along the way. By now she was equipped with a camera, and
the photos brought the words to life even more. She was always in the
right place at the right time.
At the end of March Framboise was at the
Canary Wharf Classic, sending game-by-game scores, followed by match
reports in her unique style that made you feel as is you were there. Then
came Rennes, fantastic reports, photos and interviews - the whole world
was in Rennes, it seemed.
The tournament reporting continued to get
better and better. The Super Series Finals saw the unveiling of
'Portraits' - daily mini-interviews with players, sponsors, promoters ...
At the English Open 'En Bref' was added to
portraits. A newspaper-style collection of snippets to give viewers a
flavour of the event.
We had a slogan for 'En Bref' -
"everything you didn't know you needed to know". I was quite proud of that
as a title. But that was the only thing I contributed to it. The idea, the
words, the pictures, the drive, the determination. Framboise. All
Framboise.
So is that it? Tournament coverage like
you've never seen?
Oh, no.
You may have noticed over the last few
months that SquashPlayer has changed (for the better, we hope).
A crisper style to most items, less
mistakes, more links, generally a better feel.
New sections: 'Points of View' replaced by 'Have your Say'. Kaleidoscope,
with contributions from many people from many walks of squash life. Club
of the Week. SquashPlayer.fr A new look for the Calendar.
Can you guess how all of these came about?
One word. Framboise.
And "Say it with a French Accent" has grown from a single page on the
Nationals to a site in its own right that, as of this week, has generated
over 100,000 page impressions.
Neil Harvey. Ross Norman. Tim Garner. Shahid Zaman. Tony Parker. Corinne
Castets. Joe Shaw.
Where do you think they all those interviews and articles came from? And
how much effort do you think they took?
Interviewing the subject, transcribing the
tape (did you know that five minutes of tape equals one hour of
transcribing!), editing the words. Doing the same for several of the
subject's friends or colleagues.
Massive effort.
And Malcolm Willstrop. A whole week of
Malcolm Willstrop. Imagine the effort that took. But it stands as a
tribute to Malcolm. By Framboise.
Framboise. A breath of fresh air. Salut.
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