Alan’s Archive

11 Points with Karim Darwish Squash fans are looking forward to seeing former world number one Karim Darwish in action at the 2014 Canary Wharf Squash Classic. He tells Alan Thatcher how much he is looking forward to the tournament and his plans for growing the game back home in Cairo. 1: Karim, it’s wonderful [...]

By ALAN THATCHER GOOD to see Ramy Ashour back in action in Hong Kong. Let’s hope the hamstring holds up and he can quickly get back to the dazzling form that preceded his unhappy withdrawal from the World Championships in Manchester. Along the way he faces a possible clash with Spanish number one Borja Golan, who [...]

By ALAN THATCHER, Mad Blog Columnist SQUASH star Chris Simpson appears on the BT Sport Channel this weekend. In a new series, BT bring together athletes from two different sports, and Simpson was filmed with British tennis No.2 Dan Evans at the West Warwicks Club. Simpson, the PSA world No.24 from Guernsey, now based in [...]

By ALAN THATCHER, Mad Blog Columnist CONGRATULATIONS to the city of Kingston-upon-Hull, home of the Allam British Open Squash Championships and now UK City of Culture for 2017. The Open is scheduled to remain in Hull for at least one more year, following last year’s initial sponsorship by Assem Allam backing the event at the O2 [...]

PSA World Tour Challenger 10 SE Leisure Kent Open, at The Mote Squash Club, Maidstone, Kent. Quarter-Finals: (1) Adrian Waller (Eng) beat Chris Ryder (Eng) 14-16, 11-4, 11-6, 11-8 (76 mins) (WC) Joel Hinds (Eng) beat (Q) James Earles (Eng) 11-4, 15-13, 13-11 (45 mins) (3) Joe Lee (Eng) beat Yann Perrin (France) 11-5, 11-4, 3-0 retired (23 [...]

BLOG: How squash gold can change the world By ALAN THATCHER Should squash make its debut in the 2020 Olympic Games, my fervent wish is that the spread of medals can help to overcome prejudice and social issues in large parts of the world. Just imagine if the 2020 women’s Olympic squash semi-finals featured four [...]

BLOG: Getting ready for the biggest party in the world With one month to go before bidding sports make a presentation to the IOC, wrestling is making a last, desperate bid to regain Olympic status. Apparently, May has been declared “World Wrestling Month” by the sport’s global governing body. I wonder where they got the [...]

Sharpes Shuts Out Illingworth In Sudbury 5 April 2013 RESULTS: PSA Challenger 15 Northern Ontario Championship, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada Quarter-finals: [1] Chris Simpson (ENG) bt [Q] Scott Arnold (AUS) 11-6, 11-8, 12-10 (37m) Charles Sharpes (ENG) bt [3] Julian Illingworth (USA) 11-6, 8-11, 11-5, 11-6 (62m) Cesar Salazar (MEX) bt Jan Koukal (CZE) 6-11, 11-6, 2-11, 11-8, 11-7 (63m) [2] Marwan El Shorbagy (EGY) bt Christopher Gordon (USA) 11-4, 7-11, [...]

                            By ALAN THATCHER You have to feel sorry for Nicol David. She loses a squash match and the Malaysian government think it’s their job to start interfering. Following David’s loss to Laura Massaro in the semi-final of the KL Open, the [...]

  WSF CEO Andrew Shelley has circulated the following message to all the WSF federation members around the world – as have PSA and WSA to all their members.  We need to get more of the sport’s global followers to show their support for our Olympic 2020 bid. All readers are encouraged to follow suit by [...]

PSA International 50 Canary Wharf Squash Classic East Wintergarden, London, England (4) Peter Barker (England) beat (1) Nick Matthew 11-7, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8 (69 mins) (2) James Willstrop (England) beat (3) Mohamed El Shorbagy (Egypt) 6-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-7 (66 mins)    By ALAN THATCHER Peter Barker stunned top seed Nick Matthew to set up [...]

  Canary Wharf Squash Classic PSA International 50 tournament East Wintergarden, Canary Wharf, London Quarter-finals: (3) Mohamed El Shorbagy (Egypt) beat Henrik Mustonen (Fin) 3-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-6, 11-9 (52 mins) By ALAN THATCHER Number three seed Mohamed El Shorbagy withstood a tremendous battle from Finnish qualifier Henrik Mustonen to reach the semi-finals. Mustonen, the [...]

Canary Wharf Squash Classic PSA International 50 tournament East Wintergarden, Canary Wharf, London Tom Richards (England) beat Ali Anwar Reda (Egypt) 11-4, 11-5, 11-3 (36 mins) (4) Peter Barker (England) beat Alan Clyne (Scotland) 11-7, 11-3, 11-7 (38 mins) (1)  Nick Matthew (England) beat Miguel Angel Rodriguez (Colombia) 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-9 (70 mins) Steve Coppinger [...]

Matthew Bids For Fourth Canary Wharf Crown 16 March 2013 By ALAN THATCHER England’s two-time world champion Nick Matthew is aiming to make up for a shock defeat last week in Kuwait by storming to a fourth consecutive title in the Canary Wharf Classic next week in London. The PSA World Tour International 50 squash event takes place at the East Wintergarden in Canary [...]

First published on June 5, 2012 By ALAN THATCHER I love playing doubles. And that’s not just because I’m growing old and slow and need somebody else (like a younger team-mate) to cover three-quarters of the court for me. I’ll make that abundantly clear, before somebody else dives in to make the point! To me, [...]