Getting a worldwide handicap or rating system is hard. The U.S. golf handicap was created in 1911 but even today there are different systems in Great Britain and Ireland, in South Africa and in Australia. Tennis in America has had a rating system since 1979. In September 2000 the International Tennis Federation launched a worldwide  system, the international tennis number, but it hasn’t been accepted everywhere yet.

Even in real tennis, a sport with about five thousand participants in just four countries, it took a centuries for a mathematical system to be adopted (in 1984) and then more struggle before a global, computerized one only was implemented in 2001. Even then there were pockets of resistance.

In squash, it is a mess. Last month I helped host and play in a match in Philadelphia against a team from England. Without a global ratings system, we were left to figure out who to match them up against in a way that is shockingly primitive in the twenty-first century. The extent of our information from the tour captain was: 

Number 1 has played for England at U17 level (national standard) but just returned from Afghanistan though, so won’t be at the top of his game; Number 2-6 are good club level standard (UK County standard); Number 7-8 are average club level standard; Number 9-11 are below average club level standard.

We had trouble translating that and fielded a team that was too strong. 

A decade ago, the U.S. adopted its ratings system. 

http://www.squashmatrix.com/

Jim, 

Hmm, ratings, grading, rankings, classifications, classements. From that you will anticipate that I am going to say that there are an array of systems.

Australia, for example, have a pennant competition with a ranking system called Matrix, New Zealand have gradings, the French and others have classement where they rank hundreds or thousands. I have dim memories of place where depending upon how high you play in a club team and in which division you are categorised. And then there is the various half points in USA.

Meanwhile personally I am part of a ranking system where I boast a position of three……in my home!

I have no knowledge of what, if anything, WSF has done historically in this area to encourage uniformity, but I think it would be a fruitless exercise as so much depends upon the local circumstances and systems that evolve to cater for them. For example, I used to run graded events in England and struggled to get entries, whereas they are very popular in NZ.

We also have to bear in mind that lower than county / state / regional level the value of these listings can be irrelevant for most players. If they play in their club league / ladder they know where they feature, and in all probability never play beyond their own club. Their league number is their ranking.

Of course, in an ideal world, for squash to somehow evolve a uniform system like golf’s rankings would be great, but there is no clamour and it would be problematic.

For now there are more important matters front and centre. No, not the minor matter of the Olympic bid but my tilt at second spot in my home!

Hope all goes well with you.

Regards

Andrew

The Super Bowl of Squash? In the U.S. it is probably that Sunday in February when they play the finals of the men’s intercollegiate team nationals. 

Here is a twenty-three minute film on the 2011-12 Trinity men’s squash team season:

http://uverseonline.att.net/play/tv/show/u-verse-exclusive/p/video/dk___dk_ex…

A lively group of squash players in the Royal Marines are touring the U.S. right now. Most of them were on two previous tours to South Africa in 2007 and 2010, so they know the standard operation procedures of a tour and are having a great time at it. We hosted them in Philadelphia on Tuesday and it was great fun, a lot of various racquet sports in addition to the squash singles. At dinner afterwards, the four Pommies I sat near told me about their times serving in Afghanistan. All had been there at least once. One guy had just returned two weeks ago and was heading back for another tour next month. He admitted it was tough, especially because there are no usable squash courts left in the country.

Right about now exactly a century ago, perhaps the most poignant conversation in squash history occured.

Earlier this week the BBC interviewed me about this conversation. Here is the story:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-17696474

The Titanic, nearly nine hundred feet long, boasted many amenities for its passengers: a swimming pool, a gymnasium, a Turkish bath and the latest import from Wiesbaden, mechanical bicycles or “electric camels.” On Middle Deck (F) and Lower Deck (G), just forward of the foremost boiler rooms and adjacent to the post office sorting room, was a squash court.

“A squash racquet court,” read the notes on the Titanic’s blueprints, “is provided on Deck F, and is in charge of a professional player. Tickets for the use of the Court may be obtained at the Enquiry Office 2s/2d [or 50 cents; about $15 in 2012] per half hour to include the services of the Professional if required. Balls may be purchased from the Professional who is also authorised to sell and hire racquets. The court may be reserved in advance by applicaton to the Professional in charge, and may not be occupied for longer than one hour at a time by the same players if others are waiting.”

About half a dozen spectators could crowd onto the F deck in an enclosed gallery, with an unsightly wire fence as protection from errant balls. The walls of the court were made of steel, painted grey, and the wooden floor was made from Veitchi flooring compound. It certainly was a fast and loud court.

The professsional was Fred Wright. Born and raised in Great Billing, a village in the East Midlands. Wright was twenty-four years old, unmarried and living in Shepard’s Bush in London. We don’t know about his prior experience on a squash court (the game was so young that very few clubs had proper professionals). Wright signed on for the daily wage of one shilling, depending for his livelihood on tips.

We know he got a few. An American officer, Colonel Archibald Gracie, wrote in his memoir, The Truth about the Titanic (1913) about playing with Wright. Breaking the Sabbath, Gracie played squash with Wright before breakfast on Sunday, 14 April.

That evening when the unsinkable ship hit an iceberg, seawater rushed into boiler room number six, the room right next to the squash court. By midnight the court itself was flooded; instead of two men swatting a ball, passengers saw in horror sea water. Above on the open decks, Gracie bumped into Wright as they scrambled to the lifeboats. Gracie remembered his half past seven court the following morning.

“Hadn’t we better cancel that appointment?” Grace said.

“Yes, we better,” replied Wright.

Wright went down with the ship. His body was never found. He was, perhaps, the shortest-serving squash pro in history. 

We are creatures of habit and routine. We sometimes don’t notice when something is different from the norm.

Ten days ago I played in a Wilmington v. Lancaster squash match at Reflex, the downtown Wilmington club. Reflex has a flag-bedecked four-wall glass court and I was lucky to play all four of my matches on there (I ended up playing eleven games, winning nine, over the course of ninety-five straight minutes of play). I had already played four games when I was warming up with a new opponent. Commenting about the court, he said, “Oh, well, the lower tin is something you have to get used to.”

I hadn’t noticed—maybe it was all the doubles I’ve been playing—but the tin on the glass court was seventeen inches high, not nineteen. I had just been obliviously moving along, very pleased about my suddenly brilliant dropshots and the fact I hadn’t been tinning that much.

It is much like when I play a leftie. Invariably, I head to the right service box to serve when I am hand-in, serving to their forehand, and sometimes I won’t remember who I’m playing for a few serves (I’ve always loved how lefties subtly encourage you to do this by heading to the left side of the court after losing a point, knowing that many players will forget they are playing a southpaw).

The same thing apparently is happening right now to the PSA players at the 2012 El Gouna International Squash Open, where they are playing on a brand-new portable glass court owned by the Egyptian Squash Federation. The court, built by ASB, doesn’t have the traditional back-wall door, but rather not one but two doors on the side walls. Some players, after winning a game, instinctively are heading to the back wall.  

http://www.elgounasquashopen.com/

Maybe, someday, there will be a portable court with a door in the tin, replicating America’s coolest squash court exit at the Amalgamated Chowder Club in Keene, New Hampshire. 

Ever get bored in a reception room, waiting for your meeting or interview or appointment to start?

If you are James Willstrop and Peter Nicol, you know what to do:

A tough stretch here. First last week we heard about the tragic death of Michael Rothenberg at the age of forty-seven. Michael had been a key leader of squash in New York in the nineties and cared deeply about changing the game for the better.

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/remembering-michael-rothenberg

Then, the news about Bob Callahan. On Sunday the 19th of February, he made his historic breakthrough and after so many close calls he finally beat Trinity and won the national championship. It was his third title in his thirty-one years at Princeton, and his first since 1993. He and I talked for an hour in the middle of the week, and he seemed tired but that made sense after al the euphoria and emotions after their win.

The following Sunday the 26th he was diagnosed with a tumor in his brain. Today he had surgery at Sloan Kettering. He’ll hopefully be home by Friday and will soon begin rounds of radiation and chemotherapy. 

Today in New York, Penguin published the paperback version of Run to the Roar. This is very exciting for everyone involved in the book.

The response has been amazing. We’ve done dozens and dozens of events around the country for the past fourteen months, and we’ve got dozens more scheduled for 2012. At many events we’ve sold 150, 200, 350 copies of the book. We’ve gotten literally hundreds of emails about how the book has changed someone’s life, helping them face what they have feared the most. It has been inspiring, humbling and at times very very touching. 

The paperback has been been updated. Errors have been corrected. And we’ve written an interesting afterword updating the story from the summer of 2010. Of course, with the streaks ending at two hundred and fifty-two consecutive wins and thirteen consecutive national titles this winter, the book’s next chapter is now being made. 

Enjoy. 

http://runtoroar.com/

Recently, I went to the Cayman Islands twice. Well, once in December I actually went and in George Town had a lovely meeting with Dan Kneipp, the squash coach turned event promotor who lives in the Caymans with his wife and two toddlers. Dan is running the women’s 2012 World Open in December. The rumor was that the Caymans were out as a venue, but Dan explained the situation (the men’s open is out but the women’s open is completely on course).

I also got to chat with Guy Harvey, a keen squash player who has designed the previous Caymans Open tee-shirt, easily the best looking tournament shirt I’ve ever seen. Guy has a few things on his plate besides squash: http://www.squashsite.co.uk/2009/delaware2012.htm

The Cedrus Investments World Open will be held 1-8 December in Grand Cayman. 

The other times I went to the Caymans was in Grand Central in January as the Cayman’s had their tiki bar set up at the ToC. I was talking to Dan there at the finals when he had to peel off to greet the premier of the Caymans, McKeeva Bush, who had come all the way to the U.S. to view the squash matches. A lot has happened in the fifteen years of the ToC but it might have been the first time a sitting head of state literally sat in the bleachers to view a match.