Framboise


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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.