Squash is a lot funnier than badminton!

I find it interesting that most of us as younger athletic participants took our bodies and their functioning for granted (unless we were operating at its limitations) but as we grow older we are very much aware of our limitations and nearly all the time. Compensating for those limitations is the key, but even that has its own limitations.

I used to play basketball, one on one, with my younger sons and used my distant jump shooting and muscle under the boards to prevail. Then my sons grew stronger and taller (than me) and I finally ended my one on one games with them when they frequently blocked my long distance jump shots (how embarrassing that was) and when instead of muscling them out under the basket I would simply get bounced off them.

I have experience playing tennis- singles and doubles – but have only known a few squash players (who approached the game with an almost religious fervor) and only watched matches intermittently. I have heard that squash can be more of a power game than tennis, but when I look at the top squash versus top tennis players I see the body builds of squash players looking like faster, but less powerful versions of their tennis counter parts.

I also understand that squash is on the list as a potential future sport for the Olympics. I am still pouting about their removal of women’s softball – a great athletic sport that was easy on the eyes to watch.

Older players at my club gravitate towards doubles. Plus it’s more fun. The game is intrinsically more interesting than singles because of the big court and kill shots and there’s a lot more chit chat and pleasantries on the court, for some reason. Probably like golf foursomes rather than twosomes – they end up being more companionable.

Congratulations on your obviously very hard and well fought victory. We’ve had several ‘wee small hours of the morning in the UK’ chats about squash, past tournaments you’ve taken part in and of course your tendency for squash name dropping, but hey nothing wrong with that IMO (its just that it makes me very jealous) on unthreaded in the past so I know how much this win means to you.

For fun I used to run a handicapped invitation only (mainly friends) little tournament at my local Squash club (the Northern Club in Crosby, Liverpool which my friends called ‘The KS Classic’) for a while. It was very hard for any of the squash club team players invited to win the tournament because of the handicap system that we employed as their handicap actually increased if they won a previous round and severely if their win was by a large margin in the previous round. It was great fun for all and was rounded off with the (as you already know obligatory best bit the) meal and drinks session afterwards. All in all a great way to spend you spare time in the holiday period between Christmas and New Year when most companies have closed down for the festive period. In the 10 years or so I ran it I only ever won it myself once and was very proud when I did. That year someone else did the handicapping so perhaps slipped up or maybe perhaps I just got lucky .

Buoyed by your victory, I really think its time now that you took me up on the offer I made quite sometime ago now to challenge Billy ‘the Wiki’ Connelley and some of his squashing playing Green Party mates to a team match over here in the UK. I’d consider it an honour to be on the same squash team with none other than the famous (infamous to some) Steve McIntyre. Lubos, I wonder if Ms Evets Erytnicm will be on their team ?

Well Done!

KevinUK

Here I am looking grandfatherly with some of the young people. The two girls are both champion squash players and the cell phone photo doesn’t do them justice. I told you it was a great game. My Pro Am partner Alex Carter is on the right.

I’ll just say a great win for anyone at any age.

I am confused was the young man at the far right in the picture your partner and if so who would drive him to the matches.

Yeah and we get it: jocks and particularly winning jocks are chick magnets.

This IS a climate issue, a sporting climate.

Is this a joke? Most blogs I’ve ever been to have some social / fun posts as well as the serious threads. Though I do have to say that I wondered if keeping Steve’s squash exploits thread at the top for more than a day might confuse some casual passers by.

If you’re serious, I’d suggest going down the left column to “Favorite Posts” and read the first couple of entries to get a taste for the site.