Thatcher on Thursday
Alan Thatcher's regular comment on the World of Squash  

Thatcher on Thursday
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2nd July
GLASTONBURY GERIATRICS INSPIRE A NEW TRAINING REGIME
25th June
BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS
18th June
AFTER THE APPLAUSE IN LAUSANNE, THE WORLD OF SQUASH WAITS FOR IOC VOTE
 

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2nd July
GLASTONBURY GERIATRICS INSPIRE A NEW TRAINING REGIME

Sorry, folks, but this week's column has been cancelled. I've been far too busy making the most of our mini heatwave and watching those two great British institutions that usually fall foul of the summer rain, namely Wimbledon and Glastonbury, bathed in sunshine (apart from when the new roof was finally unveiled on Court One on Monday).

It's such a difficult choice to make, heading for the beach or slumping in front of the telly to cheer on British hero Andy Murray (he's only Scottish when he loses) or watch some of rock's golden oldies try to remember their chords and choruses at Glasto.

Status Quo don't appear to have too much trouble in that department, probably because they've never used more than four chords in their entire career. 

But I was shocked to learn that Bruce Springsteen is actually older than I am, which prompted a debate at the squash club about fitness, memory, longevity and the secrets of maintaining performance levels at an advanced age.

We'll never know, of course, how Michael Jackson would have performed in his comeback series in London, but one thing's for certain: he would have needed some phenomenal training prior to rehearsals to have recreated his moonwalk and other amazing dance routines at the age of 50.

Maybe it was the stress and strain of rehearsals that resulted in his appetite for a cocktail of painkillers.

Whether in sport or any branch of entertainment, the longer the breaks you take the harder you have to work when you decide to get back on stage or the sporting arena, whatever level you play at.

That's where the discussion focused on Murray and his astonishing fitness levels. Watching him in action at SW19 this year has been a real joy. He's faster, fitter and stronger, all ingredients that have given him a rock-solid confidence.

He clearly has a massive appetite for success, which has been apparent as he been chasing down balls around the Centre Court as though his life depended on every point, even when he has been enjoying a commanding lead. That's the kind of attitude that made Peter Nicol such a dominant performer for so long in squash and it provides a simple lesson for any ambitious player. The first priority is to compete with your opponent on a physical level.

So, after debating the Murray muscles, Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen and Peter "The Boss" Nicol, it was time to get back on court after a two-week holiday and do some squash training, armed with the knowledge that your performance levels drop by a significant percentage in every area, even after just two weeks away from the court.

In typical British style (following the tradition of mad dogs and Englishmen going out in the mid-day sun) my training partner Keith and I hit the court at 12.30pm yesterday as the temperature peaked at 31 degrees.

It felt even hotter an hour later on an oxygen-free court as we followed our drills by finishing up with a match. After three games we were both leaning on our rackets, exhausted, as a couple of rallies sneaked into double figures.

I suddenly felt very old, very fat and very slow.

But there's only one solution.

More training.

Final piece of squash-based Glastonbury trivia: We were all mightily impressed by Natasha Khan of the band called Bat For Lashes.  She just happens to be the daughter of Rahmat Khan, former coach of the mighty Jahangir.

I wonder if she would mind performing alongside Lost For Words (featuring James Willstrop) and the Danny Lee Band? Now that would be a great gig.

HOT WORK: Aaron Frankcomb prepares to serve to Alan Clyne on a sweat-stained floor at The Mote Picture by Kim Roberts

(click image for larger view)

Our new tournament, The Mote Classic, was a big success down in sunny Kent. We attracted an excellent draw, and our spectators were hugely impressed by the quality of the play on offer.

Once again the pros displayed an incredible mix of determination, hunger, sportsmanship, speed and skill to entertain the crowds at The Mote Squash Club in Maidstone. None more so than in an incredible semi-final battle between Scotland's Alan Clyne and Australia's No.2 seed Aaron Frankcomb.

Clyne held match ball in the fourth game but Frankcomb held on to win the game and take it to the fifth, where he triumphed in one minute under two hours.

It was a phenomenal battle, and, as our picture shows, the floor was absolutely dripping with sweat and had to be wiped several times.

In all my years of playing squash, watching the game and organising tournaments, I don't think I have ever seen a floor in such a condition

- not even during Jahangir's epic win over Gamal Awad which lasted two hours and 46 minutes at Chichester all those years ago.

The picture is a clear illustration of the industry and commitment shown by our leading squash players. And it clearly proves how much they deserve a place to showcase those talents at the highest level, in the Olympic Games.

Sadly for Frankcomb, it was his second five-game marathon of the day, having beaten Malaysia's Jam Adnan earlier in the day, and although he put up a magnificent fight in the final the following day, No.1 seed Chris Ryder of England prevailed 3-1 ... in a mere 82 minutes.

We look forward to welcoming the players back to the Garden of England next year, when we are planning to upgrade the tournament to a PSA ranking event.

PAR ROW RAGES ON

It would have been interesting to see how long the Clyne-Frankcomb match would have taken using traditional scoring. Maybe it would have lasted longer than the Khan-Awad marathon.

Once again the question of scoring has come to the fore as counties plan for next season. Already the two Kent competitions, the Outer Kent League and Priory League, plus the Kent Junior League) have voted overwhelmingly to retain traditional scoring.

Although the leading Kent male players were happy to play PAR 11 in the county championships, the women absolutely hated it.

And we are still nowhere near finding a solution for junior girls'

squash, where a large percentage of matches are over in less than ten minutes.

Chris Nutley, Head of Competition and Events at England Squash and Racketball, sent the following note to counties last week.

PAR SCORING: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR 2009-10

The last 12 months has seen a real shift in our sport with the World Squash Federation (WSF) voting to adopt Point A Rally (PAR) as the sports standard scoring system at its Annual General Meeting in October last year. All championship squash played under the WSF’s and the European Squash Federation’s jurisdiction is now played PAR 11.

On a national level England Squash and Racketball (ESR) introduced PAR

11 for all its junior squash at the beginning of the 2008-09 season and trialled it at the 2009 senior Inter County Premier Finals. PAR 11 has now also been adopted as the standard scoring for Racketball and is already in use at all major tournaments.

 From the 2009-10 season the following events will be PAR 11:

•National Squash Championships (senior and junior) •British Junior Open •Senior Inter County Championships •Junior Inter County Championships •All junior sanctioned events •National Racketball Championships •ESR sanctioned racketball championships In addition, we are looking at the suitability of PAR 11 for Masters, and are currently engaged in consultation with Over-35 and Over-40 players to gauge opinion. A decision will be made prior to the start of the new season as to whether to move to PAR 11 for these categories. For all other age groups in ESR events, HI-HO (hand-in, hand-out) scoring will remain for 2009 for the 2009-10 season.

We do see this as an evolutionary process. Pretty much the whole of Europe and many parts of the world have already moved completely to PAR

11 for all squash.

As previously recommended, ESR suggests that counties consider the adoption of PAR 11 for county closed and county leagues for the 2009-10 season onwards. A number of counties have looked at this in a different ways. Some have adopted PAR 11 for premier divisions, others across the board.

Some have decided that, for now, they do not want to change.

Furthermore, we do believe that scoring systems at recreational and club level should be entirely discretionary, and are not proposing mandatory change in this area.
 

The World Squash Federation's 2016 Bid Team delivered their final presentation to the IOC in Lausanne on Monday.

Former world champion Thierry Lincou described the ordeal as being as mentally challenging and nerve-wracking as any major championship match he has played during a long and distinguished career.

The unexpected star of the show was 13-year-old Hanna Fekede, whose word-perfect delivery of squash's message produced spontaneous applause from the most influential sports officials on the planet.

All seven competing sports bidding for a place in the 2016 Olympics now face a nervous wait until mid-August, when the IOC will nominate two contenders to go forward to the final vote in Copenhagen on October 2.

George Mieras, the WSF Olympic Bid Co-Ordinator, said: "We were all delighted with the way our presentation went on Monday. We spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday rehearsing the presentations, reviewing, changing here and there, getting the timings right and also going over potential questions which we thought might be asked.

"Scott Garrett, our Bid Manager, worked tirelessly to bond and direct the group and get the presentations up to top standard. Come Monday afternoon off we went to find that things were running a bit early, so there was no waiting around, it was into the deeply impressive IOC Conference Room and on with the presentation.

"For those of us sitting downstairs waiting time passed very slowly.

Then we heard applause - amazing - and next our party came round the corner with our Patron, HRH Tunku Imran, wreathed in smiles. All the panel were exhausted with the tension: Thierry Lincou summed it up 'that was pressure of a degree I have never encountered in any match I have played'.

"The presentation format began with our introductions, then our brand new DVD, then two minutes each from the panel members with accompanying photographs on the four-sided central screen, then questions, a total of 30 minutes.

"We had one absolute starlet on our team, 13 year old Hanna Fekede, tiny in stature but with a mixture of poise and utter charm. In a wonderful presentation, which struck an emotional chord with every listener, Hanna stood up and spoke totally from memory. When she finished there was spontaneous applause from the IOC Executive Board.

"The summary followed, then amazingly no questions bar one from the President asking World No.1 Nicol David “how a boyfriend might be fitted into her incredibly busy schedule”, a question fielded with total aplomb

- ask her! President Rogge then said 'an excellent presentation' and there was further applause. We had a long period of press interviews after that, with Rami, Nicol and of course Hanna being much sought after.

"You can see our state of art DVD, which in HD really does prove that the ball can be seen and that squash is TV friendly, and the presentation speeches on our website - do take a look.

"Four months ago we were lagging behind; there is no doubt about it. But since January we have worked tirelessly and made gigantic strides. Our Patron, who is of course an IOC Member, was absolutely delighted with the massive improvement in our presentation and the way we had answered most of the questions posed after the November 2008 presentation.

"Everyone involved really managed this weekend to give it the very best shot possible and the whole squash family can be deeply proud of that panel of presenters: HRH Tunku Imran, President Ramachandran, Nicol David, Thierry Lincou, Siyole Lusasemi (a first year professional from South Africa) and Hanna Fekede.

"Scott Garrett was the IT man and Team Director and has given our bid massive commitment since being invited to become Bid Manager in mid-January. Our PR/Media company, Juniper, has also been doing splendid work especially for the publications which IOC members read.

"We must not forget the many years of preparatory work which went into all of this. Tunku Imran, Susie Simcock, Jahangir Khan all worked so hard during their terms of office as President and thereafter to develop the contacts and get us the opportunity to become serious contenders for a place in the Olympic Games.

"Working on this with all of them of course was our utterly dedicated CEO for these many years, Ted Wallbutton, whose contribution was immense. We have been much helped this past year in particular by Ramona von Ondarza, whose quite amazing knowledge of things Olympic and the IOC people has been invaluable to us.

"We have Jahangir now featured in the Olympic museum in the Sporting Heroes section - if in Lausanne do visit this.

"Many, many others have also helped and supported this bid. Our partners PSA and WISPA are totally committed. Year in, year out our own media Director, Howard Harding, has also kept us in the Olympic eye. We are also deeply appreciative of the literally hundreds of messages wishing us good luck, which we received between us this weekend, from National Federations and individuals - thank you all so much. Many contributions to our fund have been made and we hope that there will be many more yet as we still face a very significant shortage - please do continue to publicise this need and help us.

"We have done all that we can do up to this stage. We must now keep ourselves in front of the IOC Executive Board during the weeks to come and we shall do so. They have an incredibly difficult task ahead in choosing two out of seven excellent contending sports. We just hope and believe that the reasons which we gave them, as in our view compelling in favour of squash, will see us as one of these two sports, turning our long-held dream into a reality and seeing our squash family become part of the much greater Olympic family."

Scott Garrett said: "Our team, led by HRH Prince Imran (WSF Patron), captained by N. Ramachandran (WSF President), with team members Nicol David, Thierry Lincou, Siyoli Lusaseni and Hana Fekede, presented squash's case for Olympic inclusion to the Executive Board of the IOC.

"These are the most powerful people in sport, who have seen and heard it all. Yet the Squash 2016 team was able to make them applaud spontaneously both mid-way through the 30-minute presentation, and again loudly at the end. Several IOC members were also seen to wipe away a tear or two, such was the power of our presentation. You can see our bid film here (www.squash2016.info)

"On a personal note, I should like to thank each and every one of you from the squash community for your contribution to this effort. We could not have put on such a stellar performance on Monday without you and I know the bid team would like you to share their pride in the professional way in which they represented our sport.

"But it ain't over yet. Next steps for the IOC Executive Board are to reconvene in Berlin in mid-August, at which time they will recommend a short list of new sports to be included in 2016. We believe that list will contain only two sports, for the IOC General Congress to vote on, en bloc, at its meeting in Copenhagen in October.

"So we will know if we are still in the race by about August 14, and, if so, we should know for sure if we are in the 2016 Games on October 2.

"Lots to do between now and then, but for now, my thanks to you. We took a big stride towards victory on Monday. Now let's nail it on."