Big-banging Aussie clocks up 176 mph raising the bar by…ONE
Big-hitting Aussie Cameron Pilley broke his own world speed record tonight smashing a squash ball at an amazing 176 miles per hour. It increased the world’s best by a single digit from 175 but he joked afterwards: “As they say at Tescos, every little helps.”
Cameron rose to the challenge laid down by SquashMad.com who set up the equipment to test the arm and fitness of the 6ft 3 inch world number 17. He is in England competing in the Shabana Shoot-out with fellow PSA players Amr Shabana, Daryl Selby and Peter Barker at Bishop’s Stortford Squash Club in Hertfordshire before next week’s Allam British Open in Hull.
As a sidebar to the sell-out two-night event, the players were challenged to have a crack at Cameron’s world speed record set in October 2011. And as fast as you could say crash, bang wallop…the record tumbled.
Cameron, the ever-smiling Aussie star from Yamba in New South Wales, wound up his Karakal racket with three warm-up attempts before letting rip with his thundering fourth. When the electronic scoreboard lit up 176 mph the Stortford crowd erupted before heading for the bar for a celebratory tipple or two.
His three PSA pals also had a shot at the record but came up way short. Daryl Selby whimped in at 131 pmh, Shabana notched 133 and Pete Barker 154. Close but no cigar.
Despite missing the record by a country mile, Daryl was first with the praise. “He forehand power is just ridiculous,” he said. “No wonder it whistles when it flies past my ear during a match.”