Laura Massaro and Nicol David give their backing to 4-Day festival at Edgbaston Priory
THE world’s biggest women and girls’ squash event is heading for Edgbaston in Birmingham this May with a four-day festival of squash aiming to attract players from across Europe.
The Squash Evolution event at the Edgbaston Priory (May 5-8) is open to players from all levels of the game, from professional, county, club and beginner standard, and is being backed by some of the biggest names in the sport.
Laura Massaro, the current world number one from Lancashire, and eight-times world champion Nicol David from Malaysia, gave their immediate support for the festival, designed to help the revival of squash, recently rated the world’s healthiest sport.
Laura said: “When I heard about the four-day squash festival at The Priory, I thought ‘Wow, this is just what the game needs’. It sounds absolutely fantastic. Good luck to all the Squash Evolution team. They are doing a fabulous job promoting women and girls’ squash.”
And Nicol added her support. “This sounds like a great tournament. Promoting events aimed at women players is what the game needs. I wish the Squash Evolution team all the best.”
This year’s event is the prelude to a full PSA women’s professional tour event in 2017. Squash Evolution is the sister company to the Off The Wall Squash Academy and spokesperson Karen Selby spoke of the exciting future plans.
She said:” We have a great team all committed to putting women’s squash right to the top of everyone’s consciousness. We have already staged women’s events in Essex and Hertfordshire and our partnership with the Edgbaston Priory is our most innovative and exciting yet.
“Our plan is to build towards an annual festival of women’s squash to run alongside a full PSA women’s tour event. The support and reaction from players all over the country, and beyond, has been so positive. We are buzzing and confident this will be the beginning of something amazing for women’s sport.”
The Edgbaston timetable looks something like this:
THURSDAY MAY 5TH: (Daytime) Primary Schools Team Squash event. (Evening) Women and girls’ coaching workshop.
FRIDAY MAY 6th: (Daytime) Schools and University coaching. (Evening) Women’s or Mixed doubles event. Curry night.
SATURDAY MAY 7th: Women & Girls’ squash and racketball competition. Exhibition match. Evening social, music, guest speaker, raffle.
SUNDAY MAY 8th: Continuation of competition, finals and presentations.
Full details and entry forms can be found on SquashEvolution.com or you can email [email protected]
