News

World Squash Day to relaunch the sport: “We are all in this together” says founder By JAMES ROBERTS – Squash Mad Correspondent World Squash Day will help to “relaunch the game” when events take place across the globe on Saturday October 10th. That’s the prediction of World Squash Day founder Alan Thatcher, who is determined [...]

PSA World Tour returns with action in Manchester and Egypt By ALAN THATCHER – Squash Mad Editor The PSA World Tour resumes in September with the Manchester Open signalling the return to competitive play for the first time since the coronavirus lockdown began in March. The first events to appear since the shutdown will be [...]

Annie and Leo call their quits over the Covid-19 lockdown period By ALEX WAN – Squash Mad Asian Bureau Editor Hong Kong’s most decorated pair of siblings, Annie and Leo Au, both called time on their careers after a combined 28 years on tour – elder sibling Annie joining the tour in 2004 and Leo [...]

World Squash Library launches World Junior Compendia By HOWARD HARDING – Squash Mad International Correspondent Following the success of its senior packages, the World Squash Library now launches synopses of the Men’s and Women’s World Junior Individual Championships, the originally biennial events which began in 1980 in Sweden for boys and a year later for [...]

Sports lawyer Rowena Samarasinhe joins PSA Board By ALAN THATCHER – Squash Mad Editor London-based commercial sports lawyer Rowena Samarasinhe, based in London, has joined the PSA’s Board of Directors. Samarasinhe has well over a decade of dedicated experience in the sports industry and is currently the Managing Director of GENSport Limited as well as [...]

‘Turning professional was not for me’ says Hall of Famer Anil Nayar By ALAN THATCHER – Squash Mad Editor I was expecting a book about squash. But the life story of former Indian and American national champion Anil Nayar is not just about squash. It’s a book about kindness, sportsmanship, honesty and decency. These are [...]

Heavy metal comes to squash: ‘Building a steel court is just the start of the dream – now we want to create an Iron Workers League to take squash beyond the Ivy League’ By ROBERT PACEY – Squash Mad Correspondent The world of squash is waking up to an alternative lifestyle for the game. With the [...]

Smack and whack, it’s good to be back! By ALAN THATCHER – Squash Mad Editor Squash players in the UK returned to the courts at the weekend as the lockdown restrictions were lifted. After months of home-made courts in the back garden, online fitness routines, trick shots with toilet rolls, and coronavirus fatigue giving way [...]

Former IT man James Singh builds open-source programme for developing squash at Giffnock By ANDY WESTON – Squash Mad Correspondent Giffnock’s James Singh worked as an IT specialist but when the opportunity arose to switch career and become a full-time squash coach, he didn’t hesitate to make the transition. James was a junior player at [...]

US Open moves to new home in 2021 By MATT COLES – Squash Mad Correspondent US Squash and the Professional Squash Association (PSA) have announced that the 2020 U.S. Open Squash Championships, scheduled for November 14-21 in Philadelphia, has been cancelled due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The decision has been made to prioritise the [...]

‘I had to stop training because of a rib injury but I can’t wait to start playing again’ By ANDY WESTON – Squash Mad Correspondent It’s been a contrasting lockdown for Scotland’s top two male squash players. For Greg Lobban it came at a time when he was in the form of his life having [...]

  Clubs instructed to fully engage in assessing the risks and managing a safe return to play By ALAN THATCHER – Squash Mad Editor England Squash have published a comprehensive – and cautious – set of guidelines to enable squash clubs to reopen and return to play. The guide is published on the England Squash [...]

Keeping squash alive at grassroots level is huge for coach Jane Martin  By ANDY WESTON – Squash Mad Correspondent As a player Jane Martin was one of the best, reaching a career-high world ranking of eight back in the 1990s. A born and bred Geordie with working class roots, Jane represented England at numerous levels [...]

Clubs must hold pilot trials to satisfy safety rules before a full reopening By ALAN THATCHER – Squash Mad Editor Squash clubs appear to have been given permission to reopen in a restricted fashion on July 25 following today’s government announcement, although this seems to be a date for launching a selective trial process to [...]

Brighton’s famous footballers were all part of the Corals family By BEN HUTTON – Squash Mad Correspondent Coral Squash and Badminton, Coral Sport and Fitness, Coral Health and Fitness, along with many others, will be the official name. We all know and love it as Corals. The club, at the Hove greyhound stadium, opened in [...]