Heather McKay | Australian Institute of Sport | ZoomInfo.com Australian Institute of Sport HQ Phone: +61 2 6214 1010 Get ZoomInfo Grow + Get 10 Free Contacts a Month Please agree to the terms and conditions I agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . I understand that I will receive a subscription to ZoomInfo Grow at no charge in exchange for downloading and installing the ZoomInfo Contact Contributor utility which, among other features, involves sharing my business contacts as well as headers and signature blocks from emails that I receive. Bruce, Australian Capital Territory 2617 Australia Company Description The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is Australia's premiere sports training institute, endeavouring to enrich the lives of Australians through sports. The AIS is an internationally-acclaimed centre of sports excellence for the training and development ... more Find other employees at this company (435) Background Information Australian Sports Hall of Fame Member The Sport Australia Hall of Fame Ltd Founder Member Women's International Squash Players' Association Web References (47 Total References) Act Sport: HoF Inductees Heather McKay was undefeated in competitive squash matches between 1962 and 1981, when she retired from active open squash.

She won the British Women's Squash Championship a record 16 times, and the Australian Women's Squash Championships for 14 consecutive years. She is a member of the World Squash Hall of Fame and the Australian Sports Hall of Fame. Heather was also named in the Australian Women's Hockey Team in 1967 and 1971, and has been the USA Women's Professional Racquet-ball Champion three times. In 1985 Heather was named coach of the Australian Institute of Sport Squash Division, and has remained actively involved in the sport. Act Sport: HoF Inductees Heather McKay was undefeated in competitive squash matches between 1962 and 1981, when she retired from active open squash. She won the British Women's Squash Championship a record 16 times, and the Australian Women's Squash Championships for 14 consecutive years. She is a member of the World Squash Hall of Fame and the Australian Sports Hall of Fame. Heather was also named in the Australian Women's Hockey Team in 1967 and 1971, and has been the USA Women's Professional Racquet-ball Champion three times.

In 1985 Heather was named coach of the Australian Institute of Sport Squash Division, and has remained actively involved in the sport. ACTSPORT - Hall of Fame Heather McKay was undefeated in competitive squash matches between 1962 and 1981, when she retired from active open squash. She won the British Women's Squash Championship a record 16 times, and the Australian Women's Squash Championships for 14 consecutive years. She is a member of the World Squash Hall of Fame and the Australian Sports Hall of Fame. Heather was also named in the Australian Women's Hockey Team in 1967 and 1971, and has been the USA Women's Professional Racquetball Champion three times. In 1985 Heather was named coach of the Australian Institute of Sport, Squash Division and has remained actively involved in the sport. ACTSPORT - Hall of Fame Heather McKay was undefeated in competitive squash matches between 1962 and 1981, when she retired from active open squash. She won the British Women's Squash Championship a record 16 times, and the Australian Women's Squash Championships for 14 consecutive years.

She is a member of the World Squash Hall of Fame and the Australian Sports Hall of Fame. Heather was also named in the Australian Women's Hockey Team in 1967 and 1971, and has been the USA Women's Professional Racquetball Champion three times. In 1985 Heather was named coach of the Australian Institute of Sport, Squash Division and has remained actively involved in the sport. ACTSPORT - Hall of Fame Heather McKay was undefeated in competitive squash matches between 1962 and 1981, when she retired from active open squash. She won the British Women's Squash Championship a record 16 times, and the Australian Women's Squash Championships for 14 consecutive years. She is a member of the World Squash Hall of Fame and the Australian Sports Hall of Fame. Heather was also named in the Australian Women's Hockey Team in 1967 and 1971, and has been the USA Women's Professional Racquetball Champion three times. In 1985 Heather was named coach of the Australian Institute of Sport, Squash Division and has remained actively involved in the sport.

Similar Profiles Heather McKay - World in Sport Heather McKay Share Tweet Heather McKay Australia, it cannot be doubted, has produced many world class sports stars, per capita possibly more than any other country in the world. That and the little green god aside we have to take our hats off to number 95 on our lists of the 100 greatest sports stars ever – possibly the greatest sportswoman that Australia has ever produced. Yet why, we wonder, have so few people ever heard of the incomparable Heather McKay? It could be the fact that her sport was squash (she is not retired): for whatever reasons the sport has not joined the likes of golf and tennis in the megabucks or for that matter mega interest stakes. It could be, also (and we say this shamefully) that in an oft overlooked sport the female players are generally ignored even more than the male. Whatever the case, it remains that Heather McKay has one of the most outstanding sports records that you will ever hear about. Domination isn’t quite the word for what she represented in the squash world. She was the ultimate squash player of the 60s and 70s and won 16 British Open titles in a row between 62 and 77.

She also won the World Open title when it began in 1979. During this period she was never defeated. Not once. Never. Hats off to Heather! How many other sports stars have that sort of record? Yes, we couldn’t either. What was more she also played racquetball and field hockey at top levels. Born in 1941 McKay was defeated only twice in her career (once in 60 and again in 62). When she retired in 1981 she had not been beaten since that day in 1962. Her first British Open came at the age of 21 and then there was almost a generation of comfortable wins. In 1968 she won the final against Bev Johnson (also an Australian) without conceding a single point. Retiring at the age of 40 from top-level squash she has remained active in the Masters Level events, winning two over-45 and two over-50 World Championships. To cap it all she was a member of the Australian Women’s Hockey Team and won the American (Amateur) Racquetball Championship in 1979.

Moreover she won the professional version of that title three times (80, 81 and 84) as well as winning the Canadian Racquetball Championship five times. Some amazing facts about an amazing sportswoman. Although little known outside of her arena. You must be logged in to post a comment Login Related Posts McKay, Heather Pamela - Woman - The Australian Women's Register Blundell, Heather (maiden name) Summary Awarded the Australian Sports Medal on 30 August 2000, Heather McKay was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) on 26 January 1979 for her service to the sport of squash. She had previously been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 1 January 1969 for services to sport. An Australian representative in squash and hockey, McKay dominated ladies squash for two decades and lost only two squash matches in her career. Details Heather McKay (née Blundell) enjoyed a career of unparalleled dominance in her chosen sport and is one of Australia's greatest ever sportspeople.

During a playing career that lasted nearly twenty years, she won fourteen successive Australian Amateur titles in her sport (1960-73), sixteen British Amateur (later Open) titles (1962-77), the inaugural World Championship title (1976) and the World Championship again in 1979. She was named the ABC Sportsman (!) of the year in 1967. She lost two matches in all that time; one in 1960, the other in 1962. Even then, Heather McKay considered those losses to be steps towards later victories. The 1960 loss was to the late Yvonne West in the quarter final of the New South Wales Championship - a result she was tickled pink by considering it was the first time she'd played in the event after picking up the game the year before. She never lost an amateur title match in Australia again. The 1962 loss was to Fran Marshall, the reigning British Champion, in the final of the Scottish Championship. It was the last loss she would ever experience, and Heather was delighted with the result.

It was the first serious hit out she had in Britain before her first attempt at the British Amateur Championship, a title she took from Marshall a few weeks later. These achievements are unmatched by other Australian sporting heroes, yet more Australians will be familiar with the accomplishments of Pat Cash, Shane Warne or the Brisbane Lions Australian Football League team than they are with McKay's. She is a little frustrated by the lack of recognition, not because she needed it but because her sport could benefit from the publicity. Furthermore, she is confident the reason she has been overlooked has nothing to do with the fact that she is a woman and everything to do with her choice of sport. Heather McKay played squash. Despite there being a tradition of excellence in Australian squash at an elite level, and despite its popularity as a participant sport, squash in Australia has never had a high media profile, not even when an Australian woman was literally unbeatable. In fact, in a cruel paradox, the better she became, the less media coverage Heather McKay received. Her mother used to say to her, 'I knew if I didn't hear anything about you, that you had to be winning'. Clearly, if Mrs.

Blundell relied on the press for news of her daughter's achievements, she would be waiting a long time! Heather Blundell, born July 1941, was one of eleven children that grew up in Queanbeyan in New South Wales. Most of her brothers and sisters played sport regularly, some at a high level, in games like tennis, hockey, rugby and A.F.L. Her Dad was a champion country rugby league player and both parents played tennis. They actively encouraged all there children to live active lives and, as Heather says, 'it's just what you did in those days.' Given that both parents were incredibly busy (Heather's Dad worked as a baker by night and in his market garden by day, Heather's mum had eleven children to care for) the children, the children had to entertain themselves. Sport was a cheap, accessible form of entertainment. While she was adept at most sports she tried her hand at, as a young woman Heather excelled at tennis and hockey. In fact, it was in order to keep fit for hockey that she initially played squash.

After discovering the game when she was on holidays with a friend in Sydney, she came back to Canberra and, along with a group of other girls, made regular games at the 'Squash Bowl' in the city part of her training regime. It was pretty much hit and giggle stuff; they received no coaching, just a good cardio work out. Then one day when she was playing with a friend, Alan Netting, Alan told her that the New South Wales Country Championships were being held in Wollongong and suggested that they go down to them. After checking with Mum, who gave the plan the all clear, Heather and Alan joined the competition. She finished the tournament with victories in the Junior and Women's titles, a performance that caught the eye of the late Vin Napier, president of the Australian Squash Association. He suggested that she should attend the New South Wales championships in Sydney. With the help of her mother and her grandmother made it to the quarter final and won the junior tournament, without ever having received any formal coaching, and with the NSW Country tournament her only experience. It was at this point that Heather decided to switch her focus from tennis to squash.

This is not to say that she stopped playing other sports; on the contrary, she continued to play hockey throughout her squash career and well into her retirement from international competition. Indeed she was still playing good enough hockey to be named All Australian twice, in 1967 and 1971. But the fact that she never actually played representative hockey, because it clashed with her squash commitments, indicates where her priorities lay. After winning her first Australian title in 1960 (the first of fourteen straight), she was forced to make another choice; whether she was going to stay in Canberra and fiddle around, or further her career by moving to Sydney. Obviously, her meteoric rise in the sport suggested that she had the raw material to make the move worthwhile. The move was made easier because of the help of some good sponsors and friends. Spaldings (whose racquets she was using at the time) helped her to get a job at the Belleview Hill Squash courts, and Vin Napier put her touch with players and coaches who were generous with their time and advice. John Cheadle would have a hit with her once a week.

Keith Walker taught her to think a bit more about the game, rather than just 'hitting and hoping'. Heather spent her first year in Sydney listening, learning and playing a lot of squash. Having successfully taken on Australia twice, in 1961 and 1962, Heather thought it was time to take on the world. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the British Open was the unofficial world championship - an official world title did not come into being until 1976. Fortunately, she had an understanding employer, an enthusiastic and supportive state association and some helpful sponsors who regularly made it possible for her to find the time and money to take off to Britain for two months every year for sixteen years! She would play demonstration matches as fundraisers; the Australian Squash Association would provide some money, as would the Spalding Company and the cigarette company W.D. and H.O. Wills. All the money went through the New South Wales Association, who then arranged her travel and paid her an allowance; in the age of amateurism everything had to be arranged just so. It could not be seen that she was making money from her sport.

In 1962, Heather flew across to London, knowing virtually no-one and without even a hotel room booked for her first night, in order to have a tilt at the British title. Stepping off the plane, she asked herself 'Ok, what do I do now' - it was a scary sensation. Fortunately, she was met by the late Janet Shardley (Bisley at the time) a renowned British squash champion. In what would become a regular feature of her annual migration, she stayed with Janet and her first husband, Joe and then, after Joe died, her second husband Ambrose. As Heather said, Janet was really her 'second mum', and both Joe and Ambrose were great friends. They were all vitally important to creating the stability that underlay her success in Britain over the next sixteen years, including that first year. Staying with friends, being billeted out while playing in various lead up tournaments around the country, spending a lot of time alone during the day because everyone else was working ('I became a very good window shopper' claims Heather); the life of an amateur sportsperson in the 1960s was a far cry from the experience of today's professional sportspeople.

There were no managers ensuring you ate and slept well in comfortable hotels, there was no coach scheduling adequate warm up, cool down and recovery sessions. There were no media or sponsor commitments. And of course, there was no money. Not unreasonably, Heather wishes that she had the opportunity to make more money from the game than she did, and believes that some of the restrictions placed on amateurs were ridiculous. (The people who insisted that she be classified as a professional because she didn't pay for her half of the court where she practiced spring to mind as some of the most small minded!) Having said that, she still thinks that it was a great time to be playing the game. Precisely because their livelihood wasn't at stake, amateurs could leave it all on the court and establish very good friendships off the court, friends who you could go out and have a drink, or catch a movie, with; friends who you looked forward to seeing again when you all met up at the next major tournament. She looked forward to hard games with players such as the English women Fran Marshall and Anna Craven-Smith and the Australians Jenny Irving and Marion Jackman, but she also looked forward to good times with them off the court. Why was Heather McKay so good?

Apart from an extraordinary ability to stay fit and on the court, she was naturally athletic and very strong; she could get to balls that her opponents didn't think possible and she could hit the ball so hard and accurately they couldn't get it back. She was a technical perfectionist - 'good technique doesn't fall down when you are tired'. She played a conservative game, doing what she did well to the point that she virtually eliminated unforced errors from her game. She 'took no prisoners' on the court, but she did not 'wipe the court' with her opponents either, always preferring a good game to a whitewash. In the end, it was about fitness, technique and taking control of her own game. 'I learned what was good for myself, what I enjoyed doing and what worked for me'. Her amateur status and late arrival to the sport may also have contributed to her career longevity, and hence, her extraordinary run. Heather McKay never suffered from the soft tissue and repetitive strain injuries that many of the current players succumb to. She recalls only one significant injury - cracked ribs. She can't remember how she got them, but the impact on her game of having them was not serious enough to break her unbeaten run.

When asked to speculate on the reasons for her durability, she suggests that she was one of the first squash players to include strength training and stretching as part of her fitness regime, and that this probably had an impact. The fact that she cross-trained, continuing to run and play hockey, was important. Attention to good technique was also a factor - applying good technique inevitably meant that the body was less likely to suffer stress. Good genes, good luck and, quite possibly, picking up the game at the age of eighteen and not ten, may have all played their part as well. McKay believes she was at her strongest and best between the ages of 29-31, an age by which many current day players are feeling old, injured or burnt out. Professionalism means that potential champions get identified early and receive excellent coaching and support. It also means that, sometimes, youngsters are required to specialise too early - meaning that the opportunities to cross train, and therefore avoid repetitive stress, are diminished. Heather recognises that these days it would be close to impossible to do what she did (i.e.

pick up the game at seventeen and expect to become a world beater) but she does believe early specialisation does bring stress that needs to be managed carefully. Working as an assistant coach at the Australian Institute of Sport (1985-1999) gave her a lot of experience in managing this delicate balance. In the mid 1970s, however, Heather grew tired of the lack of financial support that accompanied her amateur status and turned professional. She and her husband moved to Toronto in 1975 where they were offered positions as club pros at the Toronto Squash Club, a huge, privately owned eighteen court centre that featured a gym, restaurant and pro shop; there was nothing like it in Australia. The McKay's stayed in Toronto for ten years, moving to positions in different clubs in that period, and seeing the standard of Canadian Squash rise significantly in that time. It was while she was living in Toronto that she became the official champion of the world in 1976 by winning the inaugural Women's World Squash Championship. This was a win with which she was very satisfied.

She worked extremely hard for it, played incredibly well and, despite protests from some British officials who, for technical reasons, claimed that it wasn't really an 'official' title, came away having achieved what she had set out to prove. She was the undisputed world champion. 'I've got the T-shirt saying I'm the first' - she received her second (and final) metaphoric t-shirt in 1979. At the age of thirty-eight, she decided that she didn't have the time or inclination to put in the work that was required to compete anymore at the highest level. Heather and her husband loved their time in North America, but never anticipated retiring there permanently. Family and friends were in Australia and after nearly ten years of them, they had just about enough of the Canadian winters. A 1985 offer to join Australian men's squash icon, Geoff Hunt, coaching at the A.I.S squash unit in Brisbane was just too good to refuse. She thoroughly enjoyed her position as senior coach, and learned a lot from Hunt, who was the unit's head coach, over the thirteen years she was there. In 1999, she retired from the AIS, and from any informal involvement in squash.

Heather still maintains a keen interest in the sport and is delighted to see the progress of world class players such as Sarah Fitz-gerald and the Grinham sisters, who went through the academy while she was there. She thinks Squash Australia is doing a great job promoting the sport, and maintains that it is one of the best 'social' games people can play, as well as one of the most efficient, in terms of the fitness benefits. 'Forty minutes on the court and you have had a very good workout,' she says. She still laments the lack of coverage the game receives, but puts this down to the difficulty of attracting large crowds to live matches and the problems of covering it for a T.V. audience. Four sided glass courts have helped, as have new peep-hole camera angles but, as Heather notes, 'It's very difficult for someone who has never played the game to sit and watch and appreciate the game fully. On TV you can lose the speed and the ball. People who've played can appreciate it, because they can appreciate what it takes to get to the ball.

But those who haven't don't understand the effort and skill involved.' Before Heather won her first Australian title, Pakistani champion Hashim Kahn, who Heather regards as one of the greatest players the game of squash has ever seen, observed for the benefit of the Canberra press that 'this girl could be very good'. Fourteen Australian and sixteen British titles along with two world championships have proven him to be a good judge of talent and a master of understatement! Hopefully, it isn't only squash players who can appreciate what it took for Heather McKay to achieve and maintain her extraordinary record. The world's greatest ever female player of one of the most popular participant sports on the globe deserves better. Events Rachael Grinham was coached by Heather McKay at the AIS as a junior. Archival resources National Library of Australia Oral History Collection Heather McKay interviewed by Nicola Henningham, 1941 - 2000, ORAL TRC 5743 ; National Library of Australia Oral History Collection. Details Published resources The Australian Women's Register Exhibitions Faith, Hope and Charity Australian Women and Imperial Honours: 1901-1989, Australian Women's Archives Project, March 2003, .

Details She's Game: Women Making Australian Sporting History, Australian Women's Archives Project, 2007, . Details From Lady Denman to Katy Gallagher: A Century of Women's Contributions to Canberra, Australian Women's Archives Project, February 2013, . Details Journal Articles Dobrez, Pat, 'Interview with Heather McKay (AM, MBE)', Kunapipi, vol. 23, no. 1, 2001, pp. 155-174. Details Online Resources Nick Matthew aims for second British Open victory in Manchester - Telegraph Squash Nick Matthew aims for second British Open victory in Manchester The International Olympic Committee may have scuppered hopes of being part of the 2016 Games, but squash officials will hope that the British Open will kick-start the sport to finally capture the global appeal and TV market it craves. Reward: Nick Matthew reached British Nationals final Photo: SQUASHPICS.COM Contender: World No 5 Nick Matthew hopes to repeeat his British Open victory of 2006 By Rod Gilmour in Manchester 7:00PM BST 09 Sep 2009 A tall order, maybe, but the sport is already rebuilding.

With the men’s world tour set for a revamp in 2010, the British Open, which starts today in Manchester, looks set to capture one of the 10 top-tier tournaments next year – despite a period of uncertainty over its future. Contested since 1922, the event was seen as the de facto world championship until the mid-Eighties. In the last decade it has twice come close to folding while there have been more ‘homes’ than the squash traditionalist would care for. However, ask the top players which tournaments they yearn to win and the British Open would be second behind the world title. The British Open includes an impressive array of past winners, too. Hasim, Azam, Jahangir and Jansher Khan won 27 times between 1951 and 1994 while the likes of Geoff Hunt and Peter Nicol (twice) strove to add the title to their career hauls. Nicol - playing under the Scottish flag before he switched allegiance to England in 2001 - finally ended a 16-year run by the Khan dynasty when he beat Jansher in 1998.

This year British interest will be led by world No 5 Nick Matthew, who made history in 2006 by becoming England’s first home-grown winner of the title for 67 years. After being out of action most of last year following shoulder surgery, Matthew, 29, crowned a remarkable return to form by lifting the World Games title in Chinese Taipei in July. Related Articles Darwish named top seed 21 Aug 2009 Matthew said: “When I won three years ago it was the highlight of my career. But I don’t want it to be seen as a flash in the pan and I’d like to win a handful of titles.” However Matthew is wary of the threat posed by the Egyptians - despite the fact that the hottest nation in squash has yet to lift the British Open in the modern era. He said: "The Egyptians are the ones to beat all round, individually and on a team level as well, especially with the World Team Championships coming up.” The Yorkshireman’s campaign will be supported by James Willstrop, last year's runner-up.

In the women’s event, Malaysia’s ‘billboard’ superstar Nicol David looks a sure bet to win her fourth title in five years, still some way short of Heather Mackay’s 16 consecutive titles up until 1977. However David is fast becoming one of the greatest players in the game and last week racked up her 41st consecutive month as world No 1 to go third on the all-time list. Legendary Kiwi Susan Devoy boasted 105 months at the top before her retirement in the early Nineties. British interest in the event will be led by Alison Waters, the in-form 25 year-old from London who reached the final of the Malaysian Open earlier this month. For the first time on the world tour, the British Open will feature a German as a non-national wildcard. Tournament organisers accepted Jens Schoor, Germany's emerging player, into the draw after an agreement with a financial backer which would see the 22 year-old awarded a first round berth.

German businessman Michael Zehe, who owns a motor oil company, is Schoor's sponsor and was contacted via an event partner to secure the British Open as a Super Series event next year by taking funding beyond the necessary $90,000. McKay, Heather Pamela, (AM, MBE) (1941-) - People and organisations - Trove People and organisations McKay, Heather Pamela, (AM, MBE) (1941-) Also known as Australian Women's Register Awarded the Australian Sports Medal on 30 August 2000, Heather McKay was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) on 26 January 1979 for her service to the sport of squash. She had previously been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 1 January 1969 for services to sport. An Australian representative in squash and hockey, McKay dominated ladies squash for two decades and lost only two squash matches in her career. Heather McKay (née Blundell) enjoyed a career of unparalleled dominance in her chosen sport and is one of Australia's greatest ever sportspeople.

During a playing career that lasted nearly twenty years, she won fourteen successive Australian Amateur titles in her sport (1960-73), sixteen British Amateur (later Open) titles (1962-77), the inaugural World Championship title (1976) and the World Championship again in 1979. She was named the ABC Sportsman (!) of the year in 1967. She lost two matches in all that time; one in 1960, the other in 1962. Even then, Heather McKay considered those losses to be steps towards later victories. The 1960 loss was to the late Yvonne West in the quarter final of the New South Wales Championship - a result she was tickled pink by considering it was the first time she'd played in the event after picking up the game the year before. She never lost an amateur title match in Australia again. The 1962 loss was to Fran Marshall, the reigning British Champion, in the final of the Scottish Championship. It was the last loss she would ever experience, and Heather was delighted with the result.

It was the first serious hit out she had in Britain before her first attempt at the British Amateur Championship, a title she took from Marshall a few weeks later. These achievements are unmatched by other Australian sporting heroes, yet more Australians will be familiar with the accomplishments of Pat Cash, Shane Warne or the Brisbane Lions Australian Football League team than they are with McKay's. She is a little frustrated by the lack of recognition, not because she needed it but because her sport could benefit from the publicity. Furthermore, she is confident the reason she has been overlooked has nothing to do with the fact that she is a woman and everything to do with her choice of sport. Heather McKay played squash. Despite there being a tradition of excellence in Australian squash at an elite level, and despite its popularity as a participant sport, squash in Australia has never had a high media profile, not even when an Australian woman was literally unbeatable. In fact, in a cruel paradox, the better she became, the less media coverage Heather McKay received. Her mother used to say to her, 'I knew if I didn't hear anything about you, that you had to be winning'. Clearly, if Mrs.

Blundell relied on the press for news of her daughter's achievements, she would be waiting a long time! Heather Blundell, born July 1941, was one of eleven children that grew up in Queanbeyan in New South Wales. Most of her brothers and sisters played sport regularly, some at a high level, in games like tennis, hockey, rugby and A.F.L. Her Dad was a champion country rugby league player and both parents played tennis. They actively encouraged all there children to live active lives and, as Heather says, 'it's just what you did in those days.' Given that both parents were incredibly busy (Heather's Dad worked as a baker by night and in his market garden by day, Heather's mum had eleven children to care for) the children, the children had to entertain themselves. Sport was a cheap, accessible form of entertainment. While she was adept at most sports she tried her hand at, as a young woman Heather excelled at tennis and hockey. In fact, it was in order to keep fit for hockey that she initially played squash.

After discovering the game when she was on holidays with a friend in Sydney, she came back to Canberra and, along with a group of other girls, made regular games at the 'Squash Bowl' in the city part of her training regime. It was pretty much hit and giggle stuff; they received no coaching, just a good cardio work out. Then one day when she was playing with a friend, Alan Netting, Alan told her that the New South Wales Country Championships were being held in Wollongong and suggested that they go down to them. After checking with Mum, who gave the plan the all clear, Heather and Alan joined the competition. She finished the tournament with victories in the Junior and Women's titles, a performance that caught the eye of the late Vin Napier, president of the Australian Squash Association. He suggested that she should attend the New South Wales championships in Sydney. With the help of her mother and her grandmother made it to the quarter final and won the junior tournament, without ever having received any formal coaching, and with the NSW Country tournament her only experience. It was at this point that Heather decided to switch her focus from tennis to squash.

This is not to say that she stopped playing other sports; on the contrary, she continued to play hockey throughout her squash career and well into her retirement from international competition. Indeed she was still playing good enough hockey to be named All Australian twice, in 1967 and 1971. But the fact that she never actually played representative hockey, because it clashed with her squash commitments, indicates where her priorities lay. After winning her first Australian title in 1960 (the first of fourteen straight), she was forced to make another choice; whether she was going to stay in Canberra and fiddle around, or further her career by moving to Sydney. Obviously, her meteoric rise in the sport suggested that she had the raw material to make the move worthwhile. The move was made easier because of the help of some good sponsors and friends. Spaldings (whose racquets she was using at the time) helped her to get a job at the Belleview Hill Squash courts, and Vin Napier put her touch with players and coaches who were generous with their time and advice. John Cheadle would have a hit with her once a week.

Keith Walker taught her to think a bit more about the game, rather than just 'hitting and hoping'. Heather spent her first year in Sydney listening, learning and playing a lot of squash. Having successfully taken on Australia twice, in 1961 and 1962, Heather thought it was time to take on the world. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the British Open was the unofficial world championship - an official world title did not come into being until 1976. Fortunately, she had an understanding employer, an enthusiastic and supportive state association and some helpful sponsors who regularly made it possible for her to find the time and money to take off to Britain for two months every year for sixteen years! She would play demonstration matches as fundraisers; the Australian Squash Association would provide some money, as would the Spalding Company and the cigarette company W.D. and H.O. Wills. All the money went through the New South Wales Association, who then arranged her travel and paid her an allowance; in the age of amateurism everything had to be arranged just so. It could not be seen that she was making money from her sport.

In 1962, Heather flew across to London, knowing virtually no-one and without even a hotel room booked for her first night, in order to have a tilt at the British title. Stepping off the plane, she asked herself 'Ok, what do I do now' - it was a scary sensation. Fortunately, she was met by the late Janet Shardley (Bisley at the time) a renowned British squash champion. In what would become a regular feature of her annual migration, she stayed with Janet and her first husband, Joe and then, after Joe died, her second husband Ambrose. As Heather said, Janet was really her 'second mum', and both Joe and Ambrose were great friends. They were all vitally important to creating the stability that underlay her success in Britain over the next sixteen years, including that first year. Staying with friends, being billeted out while playing in various lead up tournaments around the country, spending a lot of time alone during the day because everyone else was working ('I became a very good window shopper' claims Heather); the life of an amateur sportsperson in the 1960s was a far cry from the experience of today's professional sportspeople.

There were no managers ensuring you ate and slept well in comfortable hotels, there was no coach scheduling adequate warm up, cool down and recovery sessions. There were no media or sponsor commitments. And of course, there was no money. Not unreasonably, Heather wishes that she had the opportunity to make more money from the game than she did, and believes that some of the restrictions placed on amateurs were ridiculous. (The people who insisted that she be classified as a professional because she didn't pay for her half of the court where she practiced spring to mind as some of the most small minded!) Having said that, she still thinks that it was a great time to be playing the game. Precisely because their livelihood wasn't at stake, amateurs could leave it all on the court and establish very good friendships off the court, friends who you could go out and have a drink, or catch a movie, with; friends who you looked forward to seeing again when you all met up at the next major tournament. She looked forward to hard games with players such as the English women Fran Marshall and Anna Craven-Smith and the Australians Jenny Irving and Marion Jackman, but she also looked forward to good times with them off the court. Why was Heather McKay so good?

Apart from an extraordinary ability to stay fit and on the court, she was naturally athletic and very strong; she could get to balls that her opponents didn't think possible and she could hit the ball so hard and accurately they couldn't get it back. She was a technical perfectionist - 'good technique doesn't fall down when you are tired'. She played a conservative game, doing what she did well to the point that she virtually eliminated unforced errors from her game. She 'took no prisoners' on the court, but she did not 'wipe the court' with her opponents either, always preferring a good game to a whitewash. In the end, it was about fitness, technique and taking control of her own game. 'I learned what was good for myself, what I enjoyed doing and what worked for me'. Her amateur status and late arrival to the sport may also have contributed to her career longevity, and hence, her extraordinary run. Heather McKay never suffered from the soft tissue and repetitive strain injuries that many of the current players succumb to. She recalls only one significant injury - cracked ribs. She can't remember how she got them, but the impact on her game of having them was not serious enough to break her unbeaten run.

When asked to speculate on the reasons for her durability, she suggests that she was one of the first squash players to include strength training and stretching as part of her fitness regime, and that this probably had an impact. The fact that she cross-trained, continuing to run and play hockey, was important. Attention to good technique was also a factor - applying good technique inevitably meant that the body was less likely to suffer stress. Good genes, good luck and, quite possibly, picking up the game at the age of eighteen and not ten, may have all played their part as well. McKay believes she was at her strongest and best between the ages of 29-31, an age by which many current day players are feeling old, injured or burnt out. Professionalism means that potential champions get identified early and receive excellent coaching and support. It also means that, sometimes, youngsters are required to specialise too early - meaning that the opportunities to cross train, and therefore avoid repetitive stress, are diminished. Heather recognises that these days it would be close to impossible to do what she did (i.e.

pick up the game at seventeen and expect to become a world beater) but she does believe early specialisation does bring stress that needs to be managed carefully. Working as an assistant coach at the Australian Institute of Sport (1985-1999) gave her a lot of experience in managing this delicate balance. In the mid 1970s, however, Heather grew tired of the lack of financial support that accompanied her amateur status and turned professional. She and her husband moved to Toronto in 1975 where they were offered positions as club pros at the Toronto Squash Club, a huge, privately owned eighteen court centre that featured a gym, restaurant and pro shop; there was nothing like it in Australia. The McKay's stayed in Toronto for ten years, moving to positions in different clubs in that period, and seeing the standard of Canadian Squash rise significantly in that time. It was while she was living in Toronto that she became the official champion of the world in 1976 by winning the inaugural Women's World Squash Championship. This was a win with which she was very satisfied.

She worked extremely hard for it, played incredibly well and, despite protests from some British officials who, for technical reasons, claimed that it wasn't really an 'official' title, came away having achieved what she had set out to prove. She was the undisputed world champion. 'I've got the T-shirt saying I'm the first' - she received her second (and final) metaphoric t-shirt in 1979. At the age of thirty-eight, she decided that she didn't have the time or inclination to put in the work that was required to compete anymore at the highest level. Heather and her husband loved their time in North America, but never anticipated retiring there permanently. Family and friends were in Australia and after nearly ten years of them, they had just about enough of the Canadian winters. A 1985 offer to join Australian men's squash icon, Geoff Hunt, coaching at the A.I.S squash unit in Brisbane was just too good to refuse. She thoroughly enjoyed her position as senior coach, and learned a lot from Hunt, who was the unit's head coach, over the thirteen years she was there. In 1999, she retired from the AIS, and from any informal involvement in squash.

Heather still maintains a keen interest in the sport and is delighted to see the progress of world class players such as Sarah Fitz-gerald and the Grinham sisters, who went through the academy while she was there. She thinks Squash Australia is doing a great job promoting the sport, and maintains that it is one of the best 'social' games people can play, as well as one of the most efficient, in terms of the fitness benefits. 'Forty minutes on the court and you have had a very good workout,' she says. She still laments the lack of coverage the game receives, but puts this down to the difficulty of attracting large crowds to live matches and the problems of covering it for a T.V. audience. Four sided glass courts have helped, as have new peep-hole camera angles but, as Heather notes, 'It's very difficult for someone who has never played the game to sit and watch and appreciate the game fully. On TV you can lose the speed and the ball. People who've played can appreciate it, because they can appreciate what it takes to get to the ball.

But those who haven't don't understand the effort and skill involved.' Before Heather won her first Australian title, Pakistani champion Hashim Kahn, who Heather regards as one of the greatest players the game of squash has ever seen, observed for the benefit of the Canberra press that 'this girl could be very good'. Fourteen Australian and sixteen British titles along with two world championships have proven him to be a good judge of talent and a master of understatement! Hopefully, it isn't only squash players who can appreciate what it took for Heather McKay to achieve and maintain her extraordinary record. The world's greatest ever female player of one of the most popular participant sports on the globe deserves better.

Winner of the Australian Amateur Championships Winner of New South Wales Championships Winner of Victorian Championships Winner of the British Open Championships Married Brian H McKay Awarded ABC Sportsman of the Year Appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire Winner of the World Squash Championship Winner of the American Championship Winner of the American Amateur Racquetball Championship Winner of the World Squash Championship Awarded Member of the Order of Australia Winner of the Canadian Racquetball Championship Winner of the American Professional Racquetball Championships Winner of the Canadian Racquetball Championships Winner of the American Professional Racquetball Championship Squash Coach with the Australian Institute of Sport Awarded the Australian Sports Medal The ‘Babe’ the best: My top 20 sportswomen of all time | The Roar The ‘Babe’ the best: My top 20 sportswomen of all time + enlarge image 'Babe' Didrikson Zaharias (Image: From file) ‘Babe’ Didrikson Zaharias is my pick as the greatest sportswoman of all time in a photo-finish with Australian Heather McKay. These two were nothing short of phenomenal in what they achieved.

Didrickson (1911-1956) won two golds at the 1932 Olympics in the javelin and 80m hurdles, and a silver in the high jump holding world records in the hurdles and high jump, before turning her multi-skills to golf with three US Opens and 41 tournament victories on the USLGPA tour, as well as the US and British Amateur among another 41 victories. Just for good measure the Babe achieved All-American basketball status and shone in baseball, softball, diving, swimming, volleyball, handball, billiards, skating, and cycling. When asked was there anything she didn’t compete at or play with, she answered “Yeah – dolls”. Heather McKay (1941) lost only two squash matches between 1962 and 1981 on the way to winning 16 successive British Opens from 1962 to 1977, the sport’s premier tournament, and 14 successive Australian Amateur titles from 1960 to 1973.

She found time to be a Hockeyroo in 1967 and 1971, and was five times Canadian Racquetball champion in the early 80s. My bronze medal goes to American Wilma Rudolf, (1940-1994) in one of the greatest sporting stories ever. The 20th of 22 siblings, Wilma weighed only 2kgs at premature birth, was struck down with polio when she was four, and wore leg braces until she was nine. It’s impossible to believe Wilma went on to become the fastest woman track sprinter in the world, winning Olympic gold in the 100m, 200m, and 100m relay in Rome 1960. The other 17 in chronoligical order: Sonya Henje (1912-1969), the Norweigian skater, 10 times world champion from 1927 to 1936 who went onto become the bighest paid actress in Hollywood.

Fanny Blankers-Koen, the “Flying Dutchwoman” won four Olympic golds in London 1948 in the 100, 200, hurdles, and relay at 30 and a mother of two. Had the second World War not interfered with her career, there’s no telling what she could have achieved. Althea Gibson (1927-2003), the first African-American to win a Slam in 1956 with the French, and followed with capturing both the US and Wimbledon in 1957 and 1958. Marjorie Jackson (1931), Australia’s “Lithgow Flash” with Olympic track gold in Helsinki 1952 in the 100, 200, and relay, broke 10 world records during her short but spectacular career. Maureen Connolly (1934-1969), American “Little Mo” was the first woman’s tennis Grand Slammer in 1953 among nine Slams, and the youngest at 16 to capture the US.

Larisa Latynina (1934), Soviet gymnast with a record 18 Olympic medals that stood for 48 years until broken by American swimmer Michael Phelps with 22. Dawn Fraser (1937), won three successive Olympic golds in the 100 freestyle at the 1956, 1960, and 1964 Games, and would have won five straight had she not been unjustly suspended for allegedly nicking the Emperor’s flag in Tokyo. The first woman to crack the 60 seconds barrier. Betty Cuthbert (1938), the Australian “Golden Girl” of the 1956 Olympics with victory in the 100, 200, and relay, and a fourth gold eight years later in Tokyo 1964 over the 400.. During her spectacular career, Betty held world records in the 60m, 100, 200, 220 yards, and 440 yards.

Margaret Court (1942), Australia’s greatest woman tennis player, and the only one to win three Grand Slams, in the singles, and twice with mixed doubles. All up won 192 tournaments. Billie Jean King (1943), the American regarded as the matriarch of women’s pro tennis, herself a winner of 12 Slam singles titles, 16 doubles, and 11 mixed. Evonne Goolagong Cawley (1951), Australian aboriginal who made a record 17 Slam singles final in the 70s. In all won seven Slam singles titles, six doubles, and one mixed. Chris Evert (1954) American with 157 tournament victories, including 18 Slam singles, and three doubles. Martina Navratilova (1965), Czech-born American with 18 Slam singles, a record 31 doubles, and 10 nixed, among an Open Era record 177 titles.

Nadia Comaneci (1961), Romanian gymnast, the first to score a perfect 10 in the 1976 Olympics, a feat she achieved five times. Steffi Graf (1969), Germany’s favourite daughter, with 22 Slam singles to her credit, as well as Olympic gold in 1988 to go with the Australian, French, Wimbledon, and US for the ultimate Grand Slam, the only time it has ever been achieved. All up 107 tournament victories. Annika Sorenstam (1970), Swedish golfer, the only woman to shoot a 59 in tournament play, won 10 majors. Karrie Webb (1974), Australia’s greatest woman golfer with seven majors, and already inducted into the International Hall of Fame while still competing. What do you think Roarers? Will Serene Williams challenge for a spot? Ellyse Perry? Lauren Jackson? She's Game: Women Making Australian Sporting History - Heather McKay Women Making Australian Sporting History Heather McKay More information about Heather McKay can be found in the AWAP register.

Heather McKay (née Blundell) enjoyed a career of unparalleled dominance in her chosen sport and is one of Australia's greatest ever sportspeople. During a playing career that lasted nearly twenty years, she won fourteen successive Australian Amateur titles in her sport (1960-73), sixteen British Amateur (later Open) titles (1962-77), the inaugural World Championship title (1976) and the World Championship again in 1979. She was named the ABC Sportsman (!) of the year in 1967. She lost two matches in all that time; one in 1960, the other in 1962. Even then, Heather McKay considered those losses to be steps towards later victories. The 1960 loss was to the late Yvonne West in the quarter final of the New South Wales Championship - a result she was tickled pink by considering it was the first time she'd played in the event after picking up the game the year before. She never lost an amateur title match in Australia again. The 1962 loss was to Fran Marshall, the reigning British Champion, in the final of the Scottish Championship.

It was the last loss she would ever experience, and Heather was delighted with the result. It was the first serious hit out she had in Britain before her first attempt at the British Amateur Championship, a title she took from Marshall a few weeks later. These achievements are unmatched by other Australian sporting heroes, yet more Australians will be familiar with the accomplishments of Pat Cash, Shane Warne or the Brisbane Lions Australian Football League team than they are with McKay's. She is a little frustrated by the lack of recognition, not because she needed it but because her sport could benefit from the publicity. Furthermore, she is confident the reason she has been overlooked has nothing to do with the fact that she is a woman and everything to do with her choice of sport. Heather McKay played squash. Despite there being a tradition of excellence in Australian squash at an elite level, and despite its popularity as a participant sport, squash in Australia has never had a high media profile, not even when an Australian woman was literally unbeatable. In fact, in a cruel paradox, the better she became, the less media coverage Heather McKay received. Her mother used to say to her, 'I knew if I didn't hear anything about you, that you had to be winning'. Clearly, if Mrs.

Blundell relied on the press for news of her daughter's achievements, she would be waiting a long time! Heather Blundell, born July 1941, was one of eleven children that grew up in Queanbeyan in New South Wales. Most of her brothers and sisters played sport regularly, some at a high level, in games like tennis, hockey, rugby and A.F.L. Her Dad was a champion country rugby league player and both parents played tennis. They actively encouraged all there children to live active lives and, as Heather says, 'it's just what you did in those days.' Given that both parents were incredibly busy (Heather's Dad worked as a baker by night and in his market garden by day, Heather's mum had eleven children to care for) the children had to entertain themselves. Sport was a cheap, accessible form of entertainment. While she was adept at most sports she tried her hand at, as a young woman Heather excelled at tennis and hockey. In fact, it was in order to keep fit for hockey that she initially played squash.

After discovering the game when she was on holidays in Sydney with her sister and a friend, she returned home and, along with a group of other girls, made regular games at the 'Squash Bowl' in the city part of her training regime. It was pretty much hit and giggle stuff; they received no coaching, just a good cardio work out. Then one day when she was playing with a friend, Alan Netting, Alan told her that the New South Wales Country Championships were being held in Wollongong and suggested that they go down to them. After checking with Mum, who gave the plan the all clear, Heather and Alan joined the competition. She finished the tournament with victories in the Junior and Women's titles, a performance that caught the eye of the late Vin Napier, president of the Australian Squash Association. He suggested that she should attend the New South Wales championships in Sydney. With the help of her mother and her grandmother made it to the quarter final and won the junior tournament, without ever having received any formal coaching, and with the NSW Country tournament her only experience. It was at this point that Heather decided to switch her focus from tennis to squash.

This is not to say that she stopped playing other sports; on the contrary, she continued to play hockey throughout her squash career and well into her retirement from international competition. Indeed she was still playing good enough hockey to be named All Australian twice, in 1967 and 1971. But the fact that she never actually played representative hockey, because it clashed with her squash commitments, indicates where her priorities lay. After winning her first Australian title in 1960 (the first of fourteen straight), she was forced to make another choice; whether she was going to stay in Queanbeyan and fiddle around, or further her career by moving to Sydney. Obviously, her meteoric rise in the sport suggested that she had the raw material to make the move worthwhile. The move was made easier because of the help of some good sponsors and friends. Spaldings (whose racquets she was using at the time) helped her to get a job at the Belleview Hill Squash courts, and Vin Napier, her first coach in Sydney, put her touch with players and coaches who were generous with their time and advice. John Cheadle would have a hit with her once a week.

Keith Walker taught her to think a bit more about the game, rather than just 'hitting and hoping'. Heather spent her first year in Sydney listening, learning and playing a lot of squash. Having successfully taken on Australia twice, in 1961 and 1962, Heather thought it was time to take on the world. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the British Open was the unofficial world championship - an official world title did not come into being until 1976. Fortunately, she had an understanding employer, an enthusiastic and supportive state association and some helpful sponsors who regularly made it possible for her to find the time and money to take off to Britain for two months every year for sixteen years! She would play demonstration matches as fundraisers; the Australian Squash Association would provide some money, as would the Spalding Company and the cigarette company W.D. and H.O. Wills. All the money went through the New South Wales Association, who then arranged her travel and paid her an allowance; in the age of amateurism everything had to be arranged just so. It could not be seen that she was making money from her sport.

In 1962, Heather flew across to London, knowing virtually no-one and without even a hotel room booked for her first night, in order to have a tilt at the British title. Stepping off the plane, she asked herself 'Ok, what do I do now' - it was a scary sensation. Fortunately, she was met by the late Janet Shardley (Bisley at the time) a renowned British squash champion. In what would become a regular feature of her annual migration, she stayed with Janet and her first husband, Joe and then, after Joe died, her second husband Ambrose. As Heather said, Janet was really her 'second mum', and both Joe and Ambrose were great friends. They were all vitally important to creating the stability that underlay her success in Britain over the next sixteen years, including that first year. Staying with friends, being billeted out while playing in various lead up tournaments around the country, spending a lot of time alone during the day because everyone else was working ('I became a very good window shopper' claims Heather); the life of an amateur sportsperson in the 1960s was a far cry from the experience of today's professional sportspeople.

There were no managers ensuring you ate and slept well in comfortable hotels, there was no coach scheduling adequate warm up, cool down and recovery sessions. There were no media or sponsor commitments. And of course, there was no money. Not unreasonably, Heather wishes that she had the opportunity to make more money from the game than she did, and believes that some of the restrictions placed on amateurs were ridiculous. (The people who insisted that she be classified as a professional because she didn't pay for her half of the court where she practiced spring to mind as some of the most small minded!) Having said that, she still thinks that it was a great time to be playing the game. Precisely because their livelihood wasn't at stake, amateurs could leave it all on the court and establish very good friendships off the court, friends who you could go out and have a drink, or catch a movie, with; friends who you looked forward to seeing again when you all met up at the next major tournament. She looked forward to hard games with players such as the English women Fran Marshall and Anna Craven-Smith and the Australians Jenny Irving and Marion Jackman, but she also looked forward to good times with them off the court. Why was Heather McKay so good?

Apart from an extraordinary ability to stay fit and on the court, she was naturally athletic and very strong; she could get to balls that her opponents didn't think possible and she could hit the ball so hard and accurately they couldn't get it back. She was a technical perfectionist - 'good technique doesn't fall down when you are tired'. She played a conservative game, doing what she did well to the point that she virtually eliminated unforced errors from her game. She 'took no prisoners' on the court, but she did not 'wipe the court' with her opponents either, always preferring a good game to a whitewash. In the end, it was about fitness, technique and taking control of her own game. 'I learned what was good for myself, what I enjoyed doing and what worked for me'. Her amateur status and late arrival to the sport may also have contributed to her career longevity, and hence, her extraordinary run. Heather McKay never suffered from the soft tissue and repetitive strain injuries that many of the current players succumb to. She recalls only one significant injury - cracked ribs. She can't remember how she got them, but the impact on her game of having them was not serious enough to break her unbeaten run.

When asked to speculate on the reasons for her durability, she suggests that she was one of the first squash players to include strength training and stretching as part of her fitness regime, and that this probably had an impact. The fact that she cross-trained, continuing to run and play hockey, was important. Attention to good technique was also a factor - applying good technique inevitably meant that the body was less likely to suffer stress. Good genes, good luck and, quite possibly, picking up the game at the age of eighteen and not ten, may have all played their part as well. McKay believes she was at her strongest and best between the ages of 29-31, an age by which many current day players are feeling old, injured or burnt out. Professionalism means that potential champions get identified early and receive excellent coaching and support. It also means that, sometimes, youngsters are required to specialise too early - meaning that the opportunities to cross train, and therefore avoid repetitive stress, are diminished. Heather recognises that these days it would be close to impossible to do what she did (i.e.

pick up the game at seventeen and expect to become a world beater) but she does believe early specialisation does bring stress that needs to be managed carefully. Working as an assistant coach at the Australian Institute of Sport (1985-1999) gave her a lot of experience in managing this delicate balance. In the mid 1970s, however, Heather grew tired of the lack of financial support that accompanied her amateur status and turned professional. She and her husband moved to Toronto in 1975 where they were offered positions as club pros at the Toronto Squash Club, a huge, privately owned eighteen court centre that featured a gym, restaurant and pro shop; there was nothing like it in Australia. The McKay's stayed in Toronto for ten years, moving to positions in different clubs in that period, and seeing the standard of Canadian Squash rise significantly in that time. It was while she was living in Toronto that she became the official champion of the world in 1976 by winning the inaugural Women's World Squash Championship. This was a win with which she was very satisfied.

She worked extremely hard for it, played incredibly well and, despite protests from some British officials who, for technical reasons, claimed that it wasn't really an 'official' title, came away having achieved what she had set out to prove. She was the undisputed world champion. 'I've got the T-shirt saying I'm the first' - she received her second (and final) metaphoric t-shirt in 1979. At the age of thirty-eight, she decided that she didn't have the time or inclination to put in the work that was required to compete anymore at the highest level. Heather and her husband loved their time in North America, but never anticipated retiring there permanently. Family and friends were in Australia and after nearly ten years of them, they had just about enough of the Canadian winters. A 1985 offer to join Australian men's squash icon, Geoff Hunt, coaching at the A.I.S squash unit in Brisbane was just too good to refuse. She thoroughly enjoyed her position as senior coach, and learned a lot from Hunt, who was the unit's head coach, over the thirteen years she was there. In 1999, she retired from the AIS, and from any informal involvement in squash.

Heather still maintains a keen interest in the sport and is delighted to see the progress of many world class players such as Sarah Fitz-gerald, Michelle Martin, Rodney Martin and the Grinham sisters, who went through the academy while she was there. She thinks Squash Australia is doing a great job promoting the sport, and maintains that it is one of the best 'social' games people can play, as well as one of the most efficient, in terms of the fitness benefits. 'Forty minutes on the court and you have had a very good workout,' she says. She still laments the lack of coverage the game receives, but puts this down to the difficulty of attracting large crowds to live matches and the problems of covering it for a T.V. audience. Four sided glass courts have helped, as have new peep-hole camera angles but, as Heather notes, 'It's very difficult for someone who has never played the game to sit and watch and appreciate the game fully. On TV you can lose the speed and the ball. People who've played can appreciate it, because they can appreciate what it takes to get to the ball.

But those who haven't don't understand the effort and skill involved.' Before Heather won her first Australian title, Pakistani champion Hashim Kahn, who Heather regards as one of the greatest players the game of squash has ever seen, observed for the benefit of the Canberra press that 'this girl could be very good'. Fourteen Australian and sixteen British titles along with two world championships have proven him to be a good judge of talent and a master of understatement! Hopefully, it isn't only squash players who can appreciate what it took for Heather McKay to achieve and maintain her extraordinary record. The world's greatest ever female player of one of the most popular participant sports on the globe deserves better. Images AIS Squash Coach Heather McKay. Image reproduced courtesy of the Australian Sports Commission Heather McKay. Image courtesy of Squash Australia © Australian Women's Archives Project, 2007

Question: Heather Mackay was British Open Champion 16 times at which sport?
Answer: Squash