Broadberry Sports

When you talk about the all-time greats, Khan is often the first name that comes to mind, but who beat JK in 1981 in the British Open? Who had 8 British Open titles, when 8 was the most ever? Yup it was Geoff.

So anyway I was watching the final of the U19s Dutch Junior Open (I took my nephew along to play in the U17s – watch out for Matt’s name in the future!) and we squeezed into the front row of the Franz Otten Stadion. This gate-crashing seemed to annoy some Australians sitting behind us so I thought I’d have a chat to them to say ‘hi’ and make friends. After their pupil won the U19s tournament, we talked about the excitement in the cricket (England needed 1 wicket to beat the Aussies in Nottingham and they needed just 16 runs!). The Aussie introduced himself as Stewart and after the banter I asked him if he’d played much himself. He said he had in the past, but was just coaching in the Middle East now. The penny dropped:

“How high up the World Rankings did you get?” I asked

“About No.4” he said casually.

“You wouldn’t be Stewart Boswell would you?” he was!

Just then another Aussie coach in their party said something to our new mate and a minute later Stewart relayed the news to me that ‘Geoff’ had just told him that Australia had lost their last wicket and so also lost the 1st Test Match by just 14 runs.

“Fling another shrimp on the barbie! That wouldn’t be Geoff Hunt would it?” I said slightly starstruck. It was! (didn’t really say the ‘shrimp bit!)

Well there was nothing more for it except for Matt to get a photo with Stewart and me to get a photo with the Geoff – errr sorry that’s Mr Hunt – MBE – squash legend!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Read more…

It was another great RASTA Racketball Tournament at the weekend as the Saltire Tour went to Dalgety Bay for Match Day 2.

A fabulous entry provided 32 players and a full 3 Divisions of 32 players. Neil Bennett of Dalgety Bay (pictured above left) won the Premier Division, Colin Cruikshank from Waverley in Edinburgh won Division 1 and Martin Buchan from Aberdeen won Division 2.

To see the tournament photos click here
To see the tournament results click here
To see the RASTA rankings click here

Many thanks to Durable Technologies (Specialist Court Lighting & Controls) for their sponsorship of such a great Event and thanks to all the Dalgety Bay members for putting on such a great Tournament

I’m now really looking forward to the next leg at Dumfries on the 1st Saturday of August. Hope to see you there.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Friday saw the Whitecraigs LT&SC End of Season Squash Championships and the 2013 winners were David Brennan in the Open age group and Steven Slater in the Under 13s.

David beat Oliver Millen in the Open Tournament and Steven beat Josh Reid in the Under 13s and both matches showed that the future could be very bright at Whitecraigs as these players get better and better.

Congratulations to all who played as there was some really good junior squash on show from all the competitors.

Roving reporter – Simon Pollock provides us with a report that is just vague enough to keep up the old adage “what goes on tour, stays on tour!”

Ballyearl – Northern Ireland June 2013 – A particularly tough tournament this year by all accounts! As I walked into the Ballyearl Bar the first member I met held out his hand saying “Are you the new guy? Good luck, I hope you make it!”. So it was straight into it with no hanging around as the first round was ordered.
As the Ballyearl virgin, I went on at 5 (pints) literally against a particularly handy, and crucially sober female and immediately discovered drunk squash is a dark art. After half an hour of playing “which ball should I hit” she said “why are you playing after 5 pints” to which I replied “I thought that was the rules”.
At 4 (foot) Stu Ward climbed out of my hand luggage raring to go. Didn’t see much of this one but must have been a tough game as he had to leave early muttering something about hitting a wall….

Read more…

 To see the Scotland Team for the WSF Men’s World Teams that start on Sunday (and all the other teams!) click here

You can also see how the teams have done in the past by clicking here