Squash aims to bounce back

As a sport it was flying high in the 1980s, becoming the game of choice for executives the world over.

Twenty years on and squash is a mere shadow of its former self. But that is due to change.

Squash WA general manager Andrew Stanbury, a former London-based investment banker, hopes to change all of that.

He is trying to rebuild the image of the game and connect with the 30 somethings in the CBD who were exposed to the game in its heyday but have since fallen out of touch with it.

Part of that push is reopening the squash courts in the Hyatt Centre, which have remained disused for the past nine years.

Mr Standbury said the other challenge would be getting young people involved in the sport.

“It’s not like tennis where they can see their idols on television and be drawn to the game that way,” he said.

However, despite the lack of television profile, WA has a burgeoning junior squash program.

The State team came third in the nationals this year and also broke the world record for the longest recorded rally, notching up 2,067 shots in a tick over 51 minutes.

Squash became one of the casualties of booming real estate prices which proved too attractive for squash centre owners who signed their buildings over to developers.

This has stripped Perth of many of its old squash courts. For example, there is a squash court black hole from the Cambridge centre in Wembley to Hilton near Fremantle.

There are now 23 clubs in the metropolitan area and 36 in the country that are registered with Squash WA.

There was also the perception that squash was a game of injuries, particularly to the lower legs and eyes.

Mr Standbury said that perception was largely false and that a Forbes magazine study had billed squash as the healthiest game in the world for its benefits to fitness.

Squash WA has 3,000 registered players in the State but it is likely there are many more players than that.

An Australian Bureau of Statistics study three years ago put the number of people playing squash in Australia at more than 33,000.

Back in the 1980s Western Australia was also looming large on the world squash scene that was dominated by the Khan brothers from Pakistan, with local player Dean Williams reaching a number two ranking.

Mr Williams now runs Lords Sports Club in Subiaco.

WA female player Sue Hillier was also showing world-class promise in the 1980s but opted out of the professional level for family life in Perth.