BBC SPORT | Commonwealth Games 2002 | Squash | From prison rackets to squash racquets Wednesday, 26 June, 2002, 10:48 GMT 11:48 UK From prison rackets to squash racquets Harrow School developed squash in the 19th century They say that crime does not pay, but for squash, it certainly did. Because without the help of the criminal element at the start of the 19th century, the popular sport may never have seen the light of day Event guide: Squash It was in the confines of Fleet Prison in London that squash originally hails. Inmates used to pass the time by hitting a ball against the walls of the exercise area with racquets, thus inventing a game known as 'Rackets'. Inexplicably, the game was soon taken up by Harrow and other select English schools.

Squash timeline 19th century: A game called 'Rackets' is developed in a London prison 1830: Squash invented at Harrow School 1864: The first four squash courts are built at Harrow 1907: National squash associations start to be set up 1912: First professional championship held in England 1966: International Squash Rackets Association (ISRF) founded 1985:ISRF amalgamated with the Women's International Squash Federation 1992:ISR becomes the World Squash Federation (WSF) 1998: Squash featured in the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur In about 1830, pupils at Harrow noticed that a punctued ball, which "squashed" on impact with the wall, offered more variety to the game and squash as we know it was born. The new game proved popular and, 34 years later, the school built its first four squash courts and squash had been officially founded as a sport in its own right. By the start of the 20th century, it had spread to Canada and the USA, and was also becoming popular elswhere.

Squash was soon being played in South Africa, India, Pakistan, Egypt, New Zealand and Australia, mainly due to the presence of British Forces personnel. Official squash associations started up in the early 20th century and were soon followed by major championships. The British Open became one of the main tournaments, seen by many as an unofficial world championship. But it was not until the 1960s that squash changed its image of a sport played by select schools and private clubs. The emergence of the game's first worldwide superstars helped spark a dramatic increase public interest across the globe. Jonah Barrington for Ireland, Australia's Geoff Hunt and Jahangir Khan of Pakistan were just some of the players to take the men's game to new levels. Australia's Heather McKay and Susan Devoy of New Zealand produced similar feats in the women's game. By the mid-1990s, squash was being played by 15m people worldwide and further evidence of the sport's status came with its inclusion in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

With squash's governing body working hard to get on the Olympic Games programme, it is clear that the sport has come far from the confines of a London jail over a century ago. Review the action Harrow school uniforms: uniform details Harrow School Figure 1.--Boys at Harrow are seen here attending a memorial service for Old Harrovian Winston Churchill in 1965. We have obtained some information on Harrow. A Harrow school uniform can be seen on the social class page. Some Harrovians wore light-coloured waistcoat, which were permitted to wear with their Eton suits on special occasions. Eton boys were restricted to buttonholes. The Eton suit continued as the dress for juniors at Harrow into the 1960s. A photograph shows boys attending a memorial service for Old Harrovian Winston Churchill in 1965. A HBC reader has provided us some information on the Harrow uniform during the 1970s-80s. History Harrow is one of the best know Engklish public schools. It is one of the original nine English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868.

The School was founded in 1572 by John Lyon of Preston, under a Royal Charter issued by Queen Elizabeth I. Lyon was a member of the gentry and Harrow at the time was a more rural setting, albeit ner London. Lyon wanted a school for local boys. He was particularly adament about educating boys and Harrow is still to this day a single gender school. Harrow begin to take its current shape in the Victorian era. It was at this time the school rolls was significantly expnded. Britaon needed administrators for its new-found empire. Existing public schools expanded and new schools were founded. Most of Harrow's boarding houses were built at this time. Harrow by the 19th century was no longer a school for local boys, but one of the most prestigious public schools in Britain, attended by well-to-do boys from all over the country, royalty, and boys from leading families around the Empire. The Harrow governers founded John Lyon School in the 1870s which focused on the education of local boys. Location The School was founded in a rural setting near London. Since the 16th century, however, Londin has grown and spread out.

Thus the school is now located is located at Harrow on the Hill in northwestern London. Curriculum The academic program at Harrow and the classics was for the first three centuries based largely on the classics. Like all the public schools, the academic program steadily became more rigorous during the 19th century. It is now a demanding program. The program added a greater emphasic on science in the 20th century. Almost all boys entering Harrow at age 13 years come from private preparatory schools and are thus 1-2 yhears ahead of boys their age in the state system. New boys study English, French, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, History, Geography, Latin or Classical Civilization or Mandarin Chinese, Religious Studies, Art, Music, Design Technology and Information Technology. Boys who demostrate a facility for foreigbn language can optionally take Greek, German, or Spanish. While there is now a strong science program, Harrow continues to emphasize the classics (Latin and Ancient Greek). Boys during their second and third years begin to work preparing for their GCSE examinations. Theboys when finishing their third year will have completed required classes in English Language, English Literature, French, Mathematics, Religious Studies and a Science.

There are a range of optional subjects availabke, including: History, Geography, Latin, Classical Civilisation, Greek, German, Spanish, Italian, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Music, Art and Design Technology. Senior boys in the Sixth Forms pursue a more specialized program. They are expected to take AS-level in at least four main subjects, going on to A-level in at least three. There are many to choose from, including English Literature, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Greek, History, Geography, Economics, Business Studies, Ancient History, Classical Civilization, Political Studies, Religious Studies, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Design Technology, Physical Education, Music, Music Technology, Art, History of Art, Theatre Studies, Statistics, and Photography. Sports Harrow like other public schools developed an important sports program before sports were as important as they are in our modern world. In large measure this was because as a boarding school, somethinghad to be found to occupy the boys outside of class. Sport came to become a major part of the program. Academics in the late-19th century began to develop more strongly. Although sports continue to be an important part of the program as it as other public schools.

It is seen to provide important lessons in mastering challenges and team work that cannot be offered in the classroom. Harrow offers a very high standard of coaching and competition for the talented sportsman. But there are also opportunities for the less talented to enjoy sports. Boys can play sport every day if they so desure, but unlike presvious times there is more choice involved. The School has programs in major sports which compete with other schools. There are less intense opportunities for the less gifted sportsmen more interested in friendly diversions. There are house competitions and interamural programs. Likevother public schools, there are extensive sports facilities at Harrow, including playing fields which include all-weather pitches which are suitable for rugby, soccer, and hockey. The modern Sports Centre has an 8-metre high indoor climbing wall, and weights room. There is also a 25-meter swimming pool. We are not sure when swimming was added to the sports program at Harrow, but it was certainly functioning by the 19th century. Boys used to swim nude in their outdoor and indoor pools which apparently was common at British schools. At Harrow this continued into the 1980s.

At that time some housemaster�s wife complained that the housemaster�s wives and daughters were prohibited from using the pools. The sports hall with indoor cricket nets for winter practice. There are courts for tennis, rackets, squash and Fives and the School has its own nine-hole golf course. The athletics facilities were re-built in 2005. Boarding Britain's public schools developed as boarding institutions. About 800 boys now attend Harrow, all of whom board. Harrow is one of acdeclining number of British schools which continue to focus on providing a high quality boarding school experience. The boys y are organized into twelve boarding houses. All the boys continue to board full time. There are non of the variables forms of boarding which have developed in recent years. . Old Boys Harrow is noted for its illustruious old boys. Eight primeministers attended Harrow. The most famous old boy at Harrow was Primeminister Winston Churchill . He was not happy there. As a younger student he was very hurt that his parents rarely visited him while at the school. He did poorly academically, but was brillint in the subjects tghat appealed to him.

Indian primeminisdter Jawaharlal Nehru attended the school. Another famous old boy was Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston. Traditional Uniform The Harrow uniform took its tradition form in the 19th century. The formal Harrow school uniform can be seen on the social class page. Some Harrovians wore light-coloured waistcoat, which were permitted to wear with their Eton suits on special occasions. Eton boys were restricted to buttonholes. We note boys wearing both top hats and boaters. The Eton suit continued as the dress for juniors at Harrow into the 1960s. The photograph shows boys attending a memorial service for Old Harrovian Winston Churchill in 1965 (figure 1). In addition to the formal uniform we note caps and blazers worn for games. Uniform in the 1970s-80s A Harrow graduate tells us about the uniform he wore, "I attended Harrow School between the ages of 13 and 18, from the late-1970s to the early -80s.

It was - and is - a school steeped in tradition which pervades every aspect of school life, including the uniform and the way in which it is worn." Ordinary uniform The uniform worn from Monday to Saturday consists of a solid blue blazer - known as a �bluer� - dark blue sweater, white shirt, black tie, grey trousers and black shoes. The bluer has no emblem of any kind on the breast pocket, even though the school crest and motto (�stet fortuna domus�) are ancient and well respected, and has a rough texture. The tie is pure black in mourning for Queen Victoria, a tradition that is unlikely to change! All of this is topped off by a straw Harrow Hat with a blue band. This is not a boater, this crown is much shallower, the crown is 2inches high and the brim (wider than that of a boater) is 3inches wide. Harrow School is spread out over a wide area (the whole of the town of Harrow on the Hill), with major public roads running right though it, and walking to lessons wearing that hat is no joke, believe me.

Of course, when 700 other boys are doing the same thing, nobody really notices or worries too much about it. Sunday uniform On Sundays the school attends chapel, and the students wear morning dress, consisting of a cut-away tailcoat (similar to those worn in the mid 19th Century) black waistcoat, black tie, white shirt, and striped formal trousers held up by braces - plus the ubiquitous hat. Boys under 5ft have to wear a �Harrow Short-coat� (a tailcoat without tails. Simaler to an Eaton-jacket but cut straight at the back) but otherwise the outfit is the same. The entire school did not attend Chapel in tails on Sundays. Pupils of religious denominations other than Church of England (COE) were not compelled to attend chapel on Sundays. They could worship at a church / institution nearby, ie Catholic in their Bluer to avoid embarrassment. [Hanna] Variations Some uniform traditions are so old that nobody remembers why they exist, or pretends that there is a logical reason to them, but they are enforced and obeyed just the same.

For example, the blazer - bluer - cannot be buttoned up by anyone who has been at the school less than three years (a �three-yearer�), and an umbrella, when carried, must be unfurled at all times by everyone except school monitors (prefects). There were personalised waistcoats that could be worn on Speech day and the numerous other House Clours/Ties/Fez�s. [Hanna] Uniform privileges are bestowed by virtue of age, rank, or sporting proficiency. A three-yearer can wear a white cravat-type scarf inside their shirt instead of a tie in the afternoons, and many sports allow those representing the school to wear special ties, as do some of the more exclusive clubs. Additionally, the main school sports - rugby, cricket, and Harrow Football (a unique game which I will not explain here) - allow those in the school first team to wear special blazers, not unlike those worn by rowing enthusiasts at the Henley Regatta. School monitors are a class apart and have the school crest on the ribbon around the rim of their boaters and on their ties.

Furthermore, on Sundays they wear top hats and carry black canes, looking for all the world like they�ve stepped though a time warp from the mid 19th century. The �Phil Athletic Club� (a club for the schools foremost sportsmen) may wear a black bow-tie and �The Guild� (a club for the schools most scholarly boys) may wear a maroon tie with the school crest on it and a maroon waistcoat on Sundays. �Bloods� (Boys who are in the schools top team for a major sport) may wear grey waistcoats on Sundays. �Triple-Bloods� (a boy in the school foremost team for three sports) may wear a red bow-tie. The Head-Boy has all the aforementioned privileges and on special occasions wears a white bow-tie, black trousers, white waistcoat, evening-tails (the same as the rest of the school) and, of course, a top-hat and cane.

Casual wear and conclusions Although the uniform as described above has not changed much - and probably will not change much more - with passing time, society in general has become less formal over the years and this is reflected in the wearing of casual clothes inside boarding houses and at certain special events - such as dances and parties - involving other young people from outside the school. Overall, however, Harrow is a place which thrives on tradition and encourages a respect for it in many ways, not least of which is the wearing of proper uniform. 140 years of squash – World Squash Also available as a pdf document For over 1000 years man has invented and enjoyed a variety of games played by hitting a ball with either a closed fist – as in “fives” or “bunch of fingers” – or with some form of bat or racket. Around the year 1148 the French played “la Paume”, meaning “the palm of the hand”, which developed into Jeu de Paume, Real Tennis, Royal Tennis or, if you play the sport, simply Tennis.

At sometime in the early 19th century this obsession with rackets and balls spawned another variety of the sport in the unlikely birthplace of the Fleet Prison in London. The prisoners in “The Fleet”, mainly debtors, took their exercise by hitting a ball against walls, of which there were many, with rackets and so started the game of “Rackets”. Rackets progressed, by some strange route, to Harrow and other select English schools about 1820 and it was from this source that our own sport of Squash, or Squash Rackets, developed. Squash was invented in Harrow school around 1830, when the pupils discovered that a punctured Rackets ball, which “squashed” on impact with the wall, produced a game with a greater variety of shots and required much more effort on the part of the players, who could not simply wait for the ball to bounce back to them as with Rackets. The variant proved popular and in 1864 the first four Squash courts were constructed at the school and Squash was officially founded as a sport in its own right.

In those early days Squash, as with all other sports, was without any form of international standardisation and it was inevitable that slight variations in the way it was played, and the equipment used, would occur. Luckily only two main streams of activity followed, one in England with its 21 feet wide courts and “soft” ball and the other in North America, with its 18½ feet wide courts and “hard” ball and with both courts having the same length of 32 feet the universality of Squash was not seriously challenged. We will look at these two branches separately and also at the way in which Squash spread to almost every nation in the world. EARLY DAYS IN ENGLAND The first recorded reference to “Squash”, other than in Harrow school, appeared in 1890 in the English book “The Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes” written by the Duke of Beaufort. Eustace Miles, a world championship at both Tennis and Rackets, wrote the first book on Squash in 1901; stating that the sport was enjoyed by thousands of players in various parts of the world.

By that time there were courts in schools and universities in England and some also in private houses. The first professional Squash Championship was held in 1920 in England, when C.R. Read (Queens Club) beat A.W.B. Johnson (RAC Club). In 1923 H.A.L. Rudd, writing in “Baily’s Magazine”, forecast that Rackets would lose many players to Squash with the arrival of the first English Amateur Championships. He was concerned at this prospect as he considered Rackets to be a “manlier” game; Squash afforded a good “sweat” but did not demand the same skill as Rackets, in his opinion. Rudd’s forecast proved to be only too correct as Squash grew rapidly and soon left its parent sport far behind in popularity. As Squash play developed so did its administrative structure. The first discrete national associations to be formed were the United States Squash Racquets Association in 1907 and the Canadian Squash Racquets Association in 1911.

In England the game was regulated by a Squash sub-committee of the Tennis and Rackets Association from 1908 until it gained full status as the Squash Rackets Association in 1928. A court built at the Bath Club in London at the beginning of the 20th century was chosen as the model for the standard size of a Squash court, 32 feet by 21 feet or 9.75 metres by 6.4 metres, much smaller that the court for Rackets which measures 60 feet by 30 feet (18.3 metres by 9.1 metres). The British dimensions were proposed in 1911, but not ratified until 1923. The point a rally scoring system to 15 was used universally in Squash until 1926 when the current hand in, hand out system to 9 points was introduced outside North America. The American hardball game, however, continued to be played to 15 points and this system was also adopted for the men’s professional circuit in 1991 in an effort to shorten the matches. In 1933 the great Egyptian player F.D.

Amr Bey, won the first of his five British Open Championships, then seen as the World Championships. He was followed in his achievement by M.A. Karim of Egypt who won the title four times from 1947 to 1950 and then the dominating Khan dynasty from Pakistan; Hashim (1951 1958), Roshan (1957), Azam (1959 1962), Mohibullah (1963), Jahangir (1982 1992) and Jansher (1993 1994). The Women’s British Open commenced even earlier than the Men’s, with Miss J.I. Cave winning the title in 1922. Until 1960 the title belonged solely to English players, with Janet Morgan (Shardlow) winning 10 times between 1950 and 1959.

She was followed by the most famous woman Squash player ever, the Australian Heather Blundell (McKay), who won the title 16 times and dominated the sport from 1961 to 1979 – remaining undefeated throughout her playing career. Significant and multiple successors were the New Zealander, Susan Devoy, who won the title 8 times between 1984 and 1992, and the Australian, Michelle Martin, who won the title 6 times from 1993 to 1998. Perhaps the players who had the most impact on the development of the sport were Jonah Barrington (Ireland) and Geoff Hunt (Australia). They dominated Squash between the late 1960’s and early 1980’s, capturing the imagination of sportsmen and women everywhere and starting a boom in the sport which raised the number of courts to 46000 worldwide and the number of players to over 15 million by 1994. SQUASH IN AMERICA Squash was certainly being played in Canada before 1882, as it was then that James P Conover, the Headmaster of St.

Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, USA, saw it being played in Montreal. He thought it would be a perfect sport for his boys and wrote in the November 1882 edition of the school magazine “It is the universal experience that, for health and for the highest perfection in the game, the average boy or man should play but one rubber a day”. He went on to describe the new Squash complex and its 21 feet wide courts and compare the game favourably with Rackets. “This building will cover an area of fifty feet by sixty, and will have a height of about seventy feet from the ground to the eaves. The ball used in such courts is about the size of a walnut, of rubber, and hollow, with a hole in it to prevent breaking.

The so-called “squash-ball court” recommended itself to the club for many reasons; such courts are largely used in English public schools; cost of construction is much less; fewer racquet bats are broken and fewer balls destroyed; fewer heads are cracked and fewer knees and elbows barked; the danger from being hit by the ball (quite an item among young players) is cancelled; and for all intents and purposes the game is the same and produces just as good players.” Although the International, or “soft”, ball was harder and bouncier than it is now it was not ideally suited to the cold courts in Concord where the temperature was often below freezing point during play. A harder rubber ball was developed and found to be more suited to slightly narrower courts, leading to the 18½ feet court, 19 feet court and other experimental widths. It was not until 1924 that the court specifications were codified, at which time it was decided to standardise on the 18½ feet width and a 17 inch ’ tin’ rather than the 19 inch variety used for the soft ball.

By 1929 official court plans were being sold by the USSRA and the hardball game was brought into controlled growth. The United States Squash Racquets Association was founded in 1907 and it was in that year also that the first recognised National Championship for Squash in any country was held with John A Miskey of Philadelphia winning the American title, a feat he repeated in 1908 and 1910. After Miskey the National title was won six times by Stanley W Pearson, also from Philadelphia, between 1915 and 1923, with his son Stanley Jr continuing the tradition by taking it in 1948. Other great national players from Philadelphia included Charles M P Brinton (1941/42/46/47) and G Diehl Mateer Jr (1954/56/61) with Henri R Salaun from Boston winning four times between 1995 and 1961.

Victor Niederhoffer (New York) dominated the 1970s with 5 victories, Kenton Jernigan (Newport, Rhode Island) recorded three titles in the 1980s and Mexican Hector Barragan won five consecutive titles from 1990 to 1994. In the early days most of the Women’s National titles were won by players from Boston, Philadelphia or Wilmington, interspersed by the occasional English tourist winner, such as Susan Noel (1933), Margot Lumb (1935) and the great Janet Morgan (1949 & 1955). Margaret Howe of Boston won three times between 1929 and 1934, while two Philadelphians, Anne Page and Cecile Bowes, won four times each between 1936 and 1948.

Thereafter one player or another dominated the scene for several years; Betty (Howe) Constable from Philadelphia winning four titles (1956-1959), Margaret Varner (Wilmington) four (1960-1963), Gretchen Spruance (Wilmington) five (1973-1978) with the 1980s totally dominated by Alicia McConnell (Brooklyn) with seven titles (1982-1988) and Demer Holleran from Hanover NH taking over in 1989 to remain undefeated for seven years until 1995. With the establishment of a Professional Tour, to which clubs were encouraged to send their teaching pro., a list of world famous names acquired US titles from the mid-fifties – Hashim Khan (4 wins), Mahmoud Kerim (4), Mohibullah Khan (5), Sharif Khan (9), Mark Talbott (5), Jahangir Khan (2) and Jansher Khan (3).

Squash played with a hard ball on an 18½ feet wide court was the only form of the sport played in the USA until the mid-1980s, but then growing exposure to the “International” game resulted in some 21 feet wide courts being built and the international, “soft”, ball being used on both the wide and narrow courts. Additionally, the USSRA recognised a 20 feet width as being acceptable for International play, this width being derived from the increasing trend to convert Racquetball courts to Squash use. In an incredibly short period of time in the early 1990s Squash in the USA changed from being overwhelmingly “hardball” to predominantly “softball”, with the only available monitor of the trend, ball sales, indicating that by 1996 around 80% of all play was International. Quite why this change happened, and why so quickly, is still being debated but there is little doubt that a new generation of players is now experiencing the love affair with international squash which happened in all other nations and finding it preferable to the higher racket skills demanded by the hardball game.

The North American players were also the first to appreciate the virtues of Doubles Squash, with the hardball being used on a court measuring 45 feet long by 25 feet wide. The first National Doubles Championships were held in 1933 and Hardball Doubles continues to thrive even though the singles version now holds only a minority of play. SQUASH IN AUSTRALIA, GERMANY AND ROUND THE WORLD Squash spread rapidly in its early days and the major growth areas were wherever British forces were stationed. South Africa, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries learned their Squash from the military and soon adopted it as their own. Probably the most successful Squash nation of all time, Australia, had its Squash seed planted through contact with the military. Although the first Squash courts in Australia were established in 1913, at the Melbourne Club in Victoria, there was no official Squash association until 1934 although top players had been engaged in ad hoc club tournaments since 1927.

During 1934 a group of players decided that local administrative pressure and the need to liaise with interstate and overseas organisations demanded an official body and the Squash Rackets Association of Australia (SRAA) was founded, although its main tasks remained locally orientated in the Melbourne area. Even when the first Australian Championships were held, for men in 1931 and women in 1932, they were, in reality, State Championships for Victoria. The SRA of Victoria was formed in 1937. In New South Wales the first court was built just after the first World War, by Mr. Bjelke-Petersen, the uncle of the former Queensland Premier, Sir Joe Bjelke-Petersen. The New South Wales SRA was formed in 1937 and the first pennant competition in Sydney commenced in July 1939. But it was in the 1960s that Squash started to really take off in Australia. Greater commercial development came into the sport and public Squash centres were built all over the country, bringing the game to a much wider audience.

This growth brought amazing international success with many of the world’s best players coming from the Australian Squash scene. Heather McKay, Ken Hiscoe, Geoff Hunt, Vicki Cardwell, Steve Bowditch, Rhonda Thorne and, more recently, Michelle and Rodney Martin all become World Squash Champions at senior level and Peter Nance, Chris Robertson, Robyn Lambourne, Sarah Fitz-Gerald and Rachael Grinham achieved the same distinction at junior level. Hunt was World Champion 7 times and won 8 British Open titles while Heather McKay was the most successful Squash player of all time, being undefeated in international competition for an astounding 19 years. In 1976 the headquarters of the SRAA were transferred to Queensland and merged with the Australian Women’s SRA to form the ASRA in 1986, its name being changed to Squash Australia in 1990. In Germany Squash was born twice! Its first cradle was in Berlin in 1930 when the first four courts were built by Dr.

Ernst von Siemens, head of the technology department of the electronics company which bore his name, and he started regular company staff activities and even foreign competitions on the “wall-play-halls”. Other courts followed, but during wartime they were all used for a variety of other purposes and it was not until 1978 that the Siemens courts were again used by the “Berlin Wallball Game Club”. The initiative for the rebirth came from Christhof Viscount Vitzthum who had discovered the sport in Australia, heard about the Siemens courts by accident and started to promote Squash and bring the courts back into use. But an even earlier start had been made in Hamburg by a merchant, Henning Harders, who erected three courts following an infection by the Squash bug in Australia and it was a group of Hamburg players who founded the German SRA in 1973 and sent a team to the European Team Championships in Stockholm in 1974. Two years after the German SRA was founded the first National Championships were held and within a few years there were over 6000 courts and 2 million players in the nation – the most spectacular growth of Squash anywhere in the world.

German Squash celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1998 by bringing the Women’s World Championships to Stuttgart. Many other nations experienced tremendous growth in Squash, starting slowly in the 1960s and 1970s, but then gaining momentum over the past thirty years. In each country the basic story is the same: a group of enthusiasts starts to play and promotes the game which, because of its inherent qualities of intense exercise coupled with all-absorbing competition, grows rapidly and becomes a major sport in the land. The formula which made Squash grow in its traditional homelands is now being seen again in the Czech Republic, Poland, Malaysia, Japan, Brazil, Colombia, Korea and many new Squash nations, worldwide. PAKISTAN – BIRTHPLACE OF CHAMPIONS Of all the nations where Squash is played, Pakistan is the greatest enigma, producing a succession of amazing Squash champions from a country where there are still less than 500 courts.

No history of Squash can be complete without an account of the amazing exploits of the Khan dynasty, starting with Hashim who won the first of his seven British Open titles in 1951 at the age of 35 years. Hashim was the first of a line of great Pakistani Squash Champions – Azam Khan, Mohibullah Khan, Roshan Khan, Aftab Jawaid, Gogi Alauddin, Mo Yasin, Qamar Zaman, Mohibullah Khan Junior, Hiddy Jahan and the two greatest players of the 1980s and 1990s, perhaps of all time, Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan. Jahangir, now Emeritus President of the World Squash Federation, dominated the sport for 14 years, winning the British Open 10 times and the World Open 8 times and was undefeated for 5½ years. Jansher took over his mantle in 1989 with the first of his World Open titles and began a debate in the sport about which JK was the greatest of them all.

NEW MILLENNIUM, NEW ORDER As the 20th century came to an end, the professional Squash scene was still dominated by the older powers – England, Australia and Canada. In the PSA rankings Jonathan Power of Canada and Peter Nicol of England reigned supreme, but a new force was arising as exemplified by Ahmed Barada. Egypt was starting to awaken. On the women’s front the WISPA ranking were still dominated by England, Australia and New Zealand, with Sarah Fitz-Gerald, Carol Owens, Cassie Jackman and Leilani Joyce (Rorani) sharing the top spots. But here again there were signs of new nations emerging. As the new decade progressed a remarkable change happened. On the men’s front Egypt and France came into prominence and by 2009 Amr Shabana, Ramy Ashour and Karim Darwish headed the list for Egypt and Gregory Gaultier and Thierry Lincou waved the French flag. In the women’s rankings a new, huge talent in the shape of Malaysia’s Nicol David took a strong grip on the top of the list and headed Vanessa Atkinson of Netherlands, the Grinham sisters from Australia and Natalie Grainger of USA.

The continuing development of Squash into new areas is now showing itself on the professional scene and the ‘local hero’ effect is spreading the sport even more widely. SQUASH AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES Squash made its first bid to be included on the Olympic Programme for the Barcelona Games in 1992 and under the leadership of Presidents Tunku Imran and Susie Simcock continued the campaigns for Atlanta in 1996, Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008. During this time there was no formal procedure for gaining admission to the Games and the process of lobbying was frustrating and occult in nature. With up to 12 sports vying for limited opportunities for entry, a more disciplined method of modification and selection for the programme was required. This came about with the appointment of Jacques Rogge as the new IOC President, in succession to Juan Antonio Samaranch. Under his leadership a formal bid process was instituted for selection for the 2012 Games, eventually used to vote for London in 2012.

Five sports, including Squash, were selected to go through a rigorous examination process and in 2005 the IOC Session in Singapore was given the opportunity to vote on the shape of the programme. The first series of votes resulted in Baseball and Softball being eliminated from the 2012 programme and this, theoretically, created a space for two new sports. After a close and tense series of votes, Squash and Karate were voted ahead of Rugby Sevens, Golf and Roller Sports as the delegates’ choice, but protocol demanded that a vote was then taken to grant the chosen sports Olympic status. Neither Squash nor Karate secured the two-thirds majority necessary and consequently the London Games were confirmed with a reduced compliment of sports. With the experience of 2005, the IOC created an even more formalised process for the selection of the programme for 2016. The 5 sports from the 2005 list were joined by Baseball and Softball to undergo detailed evaluation; and by now it was apparent that substantial time, effort and finance had to be put behind the bids.

The WSF, under the new President N Ramachandran mounted a highly visible campaign, identifying the unique qualities that the introduction of Squash could bring to the programme in 2016, but the sport lost out to golf and Rugby7s. Currently the bidding process is underway for the 2020 Olympic Games, with one place definitely available and squash very much in the running as a result of a full and strategized bid. Squash is poised to gain its overdue admission to the most important event in world sport. THE WORLD SCENE In its early days international Squash was controlled by the Squash Rackets Association of England and the United States Squash Rackets Association, but in 1966 representatives of the sport from Australia, Great Britain, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, USA, Canada and the United Arab Republic met in London and agreed to form the International Squash Rackets Association (ISRF), the first meeting of which was held on 5 January 1967. The ISRF continued to thrive and was amalgamated with the Women’s International Squash Federation in 1985.

In 1992 the name of the Federation was changed to the World Squash Federation (WSF), finally recognising that the sport had been universally referred to simply as “Squash”, rather than “Squash Rackets”, for most of its existence. Squash is played in some 185 countries, on nearly 50,000 courts, and the WSF now has 150 Squash playing National Associations in membership. It is the sole International Federation for the sport, as recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and maintains responsibility for the Rules of the Game, Court and Equipment Specifications, Refereeing and Coaching. The WSF maintains a World Calendar of events, organises and promotes World Championships for Men, Women, Junior Men, Junior Women and Masters age groups in both singles and doubles Squash; and leads its Member Nations in programmes for the development of the sport. Squash has been played for over 140 years, grown sensationally in the last forty and is now poised to become one of the largest and best loved of all sports. 2010-05-31 History of Squash History of Squash Job, Jobs, Jobs Something to sell ...

by Ted Wallbutton of the WSF For over 1,000 years man has invented and enjoyed a variety of games played by hitting a ball with either a closed fist - as in ï¿½fivesï¿½ or ï¿½bunch of fingersï¿½ - or with some form of bat or racket. Around the year 1148 the French played ï¿½le Paumeï¿½, meaning ï¿½the palm of the handï¿½, which developed into Jeu de Paume, Real Tennis, Royal Tennis or, if you play the sport, simply Tennis. At sometime in the early 19th century this obsession with rackets and balls spawned another variety of the sport in the unlikely birthplace of the Fleet Prison in London. The prisoners in ï¿½The Fleetï¿½, mainly debtors, took their exercise by hitting a ball against walls, of which there were many, with rackets and so started the game of ï¿½Racketsï¿½.

Rackets progressed, by some strange route, to Harrow and other select English schools about 1820 and it was from this source that our own sport of Squash, or Squash Rackets, developed. Squash was invented in Harrow school around 1830, when the pupils discovered that a punctured Rackets ball, which "squashed" on impact with the wall, produced a game with a greater variety of shots and required much more effort on the part of the players, who could not simply wait for the ball to bounce back to them as with Rackets. The variant proved popular and in 1864 the first four Squash courts were constructed at the school and Squash was officially founded as a sport in its own right. In those early days Squash, as with all other sports, was without any form of international standardisation and it was inevitable that slight variations in the way it was played, and the equipment used, would occur.

Luckily only two main streams of activity followed, one in England with its 21 feet wide courts and ï¿½softï¿½ ball and the other in North America, with its 18ï¿½ feet wide courts and ï¿½hardï¿½ ball and with both courts having the same length of 32 feet the universality of Squash was not seriously challenged. We will look at these two branches separately and also at the way in which Squash spread to almost every nation in the world. EARLY DAYS IN ENGLAND The first recorded reference to "Squash", other than in Harrow school, appeared in 1890 in the English book "The Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes" written by the Duke of Beaufort. Eustace Miles, a world championship at both Tennis and Rackets, wrote the first book on Squash in 1901; stating that the sport was enjoyed by thousands of players in various parts of the world. By that time there were courts in schools and universities in England and some also in private houses. The first professional Squash Championship was held in 1920 in England, when C.R.

Read (Queens Club) beat A.W.B. Johnson (RAC Club). In 1923 H.A.L. Rudd, writing in "Baily's Magazine", forecast that Rackets would lose many players to Squash with the arrival of the first English Amateur Championships. He was concerned at this prospect as he considered Rackets to be a "manlier" game; Squash afforded a good "sweat" but did not demand the same skill as Rackets, in his opinion. Rudd's forecast proved to be only too correct as Squash grew rapidly and soon left its parent sport far behind in popularity. As Squash play developed so did its administrative structure. The first discrete national associations to be formed were the United States Squash Racquets Association in 1907 and the Canadian Squash Racquets Association in 1911. In England the game was regulated by a Squash sub committee of the Tennis and Rackets Association from 1908 until it gained full status as the Squash Rackets Association in 1928.

A court built at the Bath Club in London at the beginning of the 20th century was chosen as the model for the standard size of a Squash court, 32 feet by 21 feet or 9.75 metres by 6.4 metres, much smaller that the court for Rackets which measures 60 feet by 30 feet (18.3 metres by 9.1 metres). The British dimensions were proposed in 1911, but not ratified until 1923. The point-a-rally scoring system to 15 was used universally in Squash until 1926 when the current hand-in, hand-out system to 9 points was introduced outside north America. The American hardball game, however, continued to be played to 15 points and this system was also adopted for the men's professional circuit in 1991 in an effort to shorten the matches. In 1933 the great Egyptian player F.D. Amr Bey, won the first of his five British Open Championships, then seen as the World Championships. He was followed in his achievement by M.A.

Karim of Egypt who won the title four times from 1947 to 1950 and then the dominating Khan dynasty from Pakistan; Hashim (1951-1958), Roshan (1957), Azam (1959-1962), Mohibullah (1963), Jahangir (1982-1992) and Jansher (1993-1994). The Women's British Open commenced even earlier than the Men's; with Miss J.I. Cave winning the title in 1922. Until 1960 the title belonged solely to English players, with Janet Morgan (later Shardlow) winning 10 times between 1950 and 1958. She was followed by the most famous woman Squash player ever, the Australian Heather McKay, who dominated the sport from 1966 to 1977 and remained undefeated throughout her playing career. Her successor was the New Zealander, Susan Devoy, who won the title 8 times between 1984 and 1992.

Perhaps the players who had the most impact on the development of the sport were Jonah Barrington (Ireland) and Geoff Hunt (Australia). They dominated Squash between the late 1960's and early 1980's, capturing the imagination of sportsmen and women everywhere and starting a boom in the sport which raised the number of courts to 46000 worldwide and the number of players to over 15 million by 1994. SQUASH IN AMERICA Squash was certainly being played in Canada before 1882, as it was then that James P Conover, the Headmaster of St. Paulï¿½s School in Concord, New Hampshire, USA, saw it being played in Montreal. He thought it would be a perfect sport for his boys and wrote in the November 1882 edition of the school magazine ï¿½It is the universal experience, that for health and for the highest perfection in the game, the average boy or man should play but one rubber a dayï¿½. He went on to describe the new Squash complex and its 21 feet wide courts and compare the game favourably with Rackets.

ï¿½This building will cover an area of fifty feet by sixty, and will have a height of about seventy feet from the ground to the eaves. The ball used in such courts is about the size of a walnut, of rubber, and hollow, with a hole in it to prevent breaking. The so-called ï¿½squash-ball courtï¿½ recommended itself to the club for many reasons; such courts are largely used in English public schools; cost of construction is much less; fewer racquet bats are broken and fewer balls destroyed; fewer heads are cracked and fewer knees and elbows barked; the danger from being hit by the ball (quite an item among young players) is cancelled; and for all intents and purposes the game is the same and produces just as good players.ï¿½ Although the International, or ï¿½softï¿½, ball was harder and bouncier than it is now it was not ideally suited to the cold courts in Concord where the temperature was often below freezing point during play. A harder rubber ball was developed and found to be more suited to slightly narrower courts, leading to the 18ï¿½ feet court, 19 feet court and other experimental widths.

It was not until 1924 that the court specifications were codified, at which time it was decided to standardise on the 18ï¿½ feet width and a 17 inch ï¿½ tinï¿½ rather than the 19 inch variety used for the soft ball. By 1929 official court plans were being sold by the USSRA and the hardball game was brought into controlled growth. The United States Squash Racquets Association was founded in 1907 and it was in that year also that the first recognised National Championship for Squash in any country was held with John A Miskey of Philadelphia winning the American title, a feat he repeated in 1908 and 1910. After Miskey the National title was won six times by Stanley W Pearson, also from Philadelphia, between 1915 and 1923, with his son Stanley Junior continuing the tradition by taking it in 1948.

Other great national players from Philadelphia included Charles M P Brinton (1941/42/46/47) and G Diehl Mateer Jr (1954/56/61) with Henri R Salaun from Boston winning four times between 1995 and 1961. Victor Niederhoffer (New York) dominated the 1970s with 5 victories, Kenton Jernigan (Newport, Rhode Island) recorded three titles in the 1980s and Mexican Hector Barragan won five consecutive titles from 1990 to 1994. In the early days most of the Womenï¿½s National titles were won by players from Boston, Philadelphia or Wilmington, interspersed by the occasional English tourist winner, such as Susan Noel (1933), Margot Lumb (1935) and the great Janet Morgan (1949 & 1955).

Margaret Howe of Boston won three times between 1929 and 1934, while two Philadelphians, Anne Page and Cecile Bowes won four times each between 1936 and 1948. Thereafter one player or another dominated the scene for several years; Betty (Howe) Constable from Philadelphia winning four titles (1956-1959), Margaret Varner (Wilmington) four (1960-1963), Gretchen Spruance (Wilmington) five (1973-1978) with the 1980s totally dominated by Alicia McConnell (Brooklyn) with seven titles (1982-1988) and Demer Holleran from Hanover NH taking over in 1989 to remain undefeated for seven years until 1995.

With the establishment of a Professional Tour, to which clubs were encouraged to send their teaching pro., a list of world famous names acquired US titles from the mid-fifties - Hashim Khan (4 wins), Mahmoud Kerim (4), Mohibullah Khan (5), Sharif Khan (9), Mark Talbott (5), Jahangir Khan (2) and Jansher Khan (3). Squash played with a hard ball on an 18ï¿½ feet wide court was the only form of the sport played in the USA until the mid-1980s, but then growing exposure to the ï¿½Internationalï¿½ game resulted in some 21 feet wide courts being built and the international, ï¿½softï¿½, ball being used on both the wide and narrow courts. Additionally, the USSRA recognised a 20 feet width as being acceptable for International play, this width being derived from the increasing trend to convert Racquetball courts to Squash use.

In an incredibly short period of time in the early 1990s Squash in the USA changed from being overwhelmingly ï¿½hardballï¿½ to predominantly ï¿½softballï¿½, with the only available monitor of the trend, ball sales, indicating that by 1996 around 80% of all play was International. Quite why this change happened, and why so quickly, is still being debated but there is little doubt that a new generation of players is now experiencing the love affair with international squash which happened in all other nations and finding it preferable to the higher racket skills demanded by the hardball game. The North American player was also the first to appreciate the virtues of Doubles Squash, with the hardball being used on a court measuring 45 feet long by 25 feet wide. The first National Doubles Championships were held in 1933 and hardball Doubles continues to thrive even though the singles version now holds only a minority of play. AUSTRALIA, GERMANY AND 123 OTHER NATIONS Squash spread rapidly in its early days and the major growth areas were wherever British forces were stationed.

South Africa, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries learned their Squash from the military and soon adopted it as their own. Probably the most successful Squash nation of all time, Australia, had its Squash seed planted through contact with the military. Although the first Squash courts in Australia were established in 1913, at the Melbourne Club in Victoria, there was no official Squash association until 1934 although top players had been engaged in ad hoc club tournaments since 1927. During 1934 a group of players decided that local administrative pressure and the need to liaise with interstate and overseas organisations demanded an official body and the Squash Rackets Association of Australia (SRAA) was founded, although its main tasks remained locally orientated in the Melbourne area. Even when the first Australian Championships were held, for men in 1931 and women in 1932, they were, in reality, State Championships for Victoria. The SRA of Victoria was formed in 1937. In New South Wales the first court was built just after the first World War, by Mr.

Bjelke-Petersen, the uncle of the former Queensland Premier, Sir Joe Bjelke-Petersen. The New South Wales SRA was formed in 1937 and the first pennant competition in Sydney commenced in July 1939. But it was in the 1960s that Squash started to really take off in Australia. Greater commercial development came into the sport and public Squash centres were built all over the country, bringing the game to a much wider audience. This growth brought amazing international success with many of the worldï¿½s best players coming from the Australian Squash scene. Heather McKay, Ken Hiscoe, Geoff Hunt, Vicki Cardwell, Steve Bowditch, Rhonda Thorne and, more recently, Michelle and Rodney Martin all become World Squash Champions at senior level and Peter Nance, Chris Robertson, Robyn Lambourne, Sarah Fitz-Gerald and Rachael Grinham achieved the same distinction at junior level. Hunt was World Champion seven times and won eight British Open titles while Heather McKay was the most successful Squash player of all time, being undefeated in international competition for an astounding 19 years.

In 1976 the headquarters of the SRAA were transferred to Queensland and merged with the Australian Womenï¿½s SRA to form the ASRA in 1986, its name being changed to Squash Australia in 1990. In Germany Squash was born twice! Its first cradle was in Berlin in 1930 when the first four courts were built by Dr. Ernst von Siemens, head of the technology department of the electronics company which bore his name, and he started regular company staff activities and even foreign competitions on the ï¿½wall-play-hallsï¿½. Other courts followed, but during wartime they were all used for a variety of other purposes and it was not until 1978 that the Siemens courts were again used by the ï¿½Berlin Wallball Game Clubï¿½. The initiative for the rebirth came from Christhof Viscount Vitzthum who had discovered the sport in Australia, heard about the Siemens courts by accident and started to promote Squash and bring the courts back into use.

But an even earlier start had been made in Hamburg by a merchant, Henning Harders, who erected three courts following an infection by the Squash bug in Australia and it was a group of Hamburg players who founded the German SRA in 1973 and sent a team to the European Team Championships in Stockholm during 1974. Two years after the German SRA was founded the first National Championships were held and within a few years there were over 6000 courts and 2 million players in the nation - the most spectacular growth of Squash anywhere in the world. Germany celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary in 1998 by bringing the Womenï¿½s World Championships to Stuttgart. Many other nations experienced tremendous growth in Squash, starting slowly at the beginning of the century and then gaining momentum over the past thirty years. In each country the basic story is the same. A group of enthusiasts start to play and promote the game which, because of its inherent qualities of intense exercise coupled with all-absorbing competition., grows rapidly and becomes a major sport in the land.

The formula which made Squash grow in its traditional homelands is now being seen again in Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Korea and many new Squash nations, worldwide. PAKISTAN ï¿½ BIRTHPLACE OF CHAMPIONS Of all the nations where Squash is played Pakistan is the greatest enigma, producing a succession of amazing Squash champions from a country where there are still less than 400 courts. No history of Squash can be complete without an account of the amazing exploits of the Khan dynasty, starting with Hashim who won the first of his seven British Open titles in 1951 at the age of 35 years. Hashim was the first of a line of great Pakistani Squash Champions - Azam Khan, Mohibullah Khan, Roshan Khan, Aftab Jawaid, Gogi Alauddin, Mo Yasin, Qamar Zaman, Mohibullah Khan Junior, Hiddy Jahan and the two greatest players of the 1980s and 1990s, perhaps of all time, Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan.

Jahangir, now a Vice-President of the World Squash Federation, dominated the sport for 14 years, winning the British Open 10 times and the World Open 8 times and was undefeated for 5ï¿½ years. Jansher took over his mantle in 1989 with his first of World Open titles and began a debate in the sport about which JK was the greatest of them all. THE WORLD SCENE In its early days international Squash was controlled by the Squash Rackets Association of England and the United States Squash Rackets Association, but in 1966 representatives of the sport from Australia, Great Britain, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, USA, Canada and the United Arab Republic met in London and agreed to form the International Squash Rackets Association (ISRF), the first meeting of which was held on 5 January 1967. The ISRF continued to thrive and was amalgamated with the Women's International Squash Federation in 1985.

In 1992 the name of the Federation was changed to the World Squash Federation (WSF), finally recognising that the sport had been universally referred to simply as "Squash", rather than "Squash Rackets", for most of its existence. Squash is played in 130 countries, on 47000 courts, and the World Squash Federation now has 116 Squash playing National Associations in membership. It is the sole International Federation for the sport, as recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and maintains responsibility for the rules of the Game, Court and Equipment Specifications, Refereeing and Coaching. The WSF maintains a World Calendar of events and organises and promotes World Championships for Men, Women, Junior Men, Junior women and Master age groups in both singles and doubles Squash. The Federation leads its Member Nations in programmes for the development of the sport and is currently working with the IOC towards the target of having Squash included as a sport on the programme of the Olympic Games in the year 2008.

Squash has been played for over 130 years, grown sensationally in the last thirty and is now poised to become one of the largest and best loved of all sports.

Question: What sport was developed in the mid 19th century at Harrow School?
Answer: SQUASH