Hosting a major international tournament always attracts the odd legend from the past. For a long time, it looked like the one great player on hand at the world juniors in Allston, Mass. was Vicki Cardwell. The coach for Australia, Cardwell won four British Opens and one World Open in the eighties.

And then one afternoon the doors blew open, literally, and in walked my old friend, mentor and step-sister Aggie Kurtz. Ag of course was there at the start of quite a lot of U.S. women’s squash history (the founding of the women intercollegiate singles and then teams; founding Dartmouth women’s squash; and playing on the last Wolfe-Noel squad and the first U.S. women’s professional tournament, the Bancroft Open in 1977).

In tow with Aggie was another legend, someone she was dropping off at the tournament after hosting in Hanover. She introduced herself as Sue King. Didn’t ring any bells. After a few minutes of chatting, it was clear this was a former British Open winner. I said, hesitatingly, “What was your maiden name?”

“Newman.”

Ah, that explained it. Sue got to the finals of the Bancroft Open, that inaugural pro event. And she’s the answer to the trivia question about who won the first British Open after Heather McKay retired. A feisty Aussie, Sue told me about her first club. I said, “Oh, the usual, right, two courts and a bar?” And she said, well, sort of: two courts that her father, a car mechanic, built above his garage.

Not too many British Open champions can claim that for their first courts.

Some good coverage of the world juniors:

Only a Game, the weekly radio show, had me in 2003 when I was in to talk about my book about squash. Host Bill Littlefield had dated Vic Niederhoffer’s sister and had some questions about the notorious champion. Now they are back and talking Egyptian:

http://onlyagame.wbur.org/2011/07/30/womens-squash-championship

Bloomberg checked in about the bounce a college program gets from hosting a world championship.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-20/harvard-squash-seeks-princeton-bump-in-recruiting-at-world-championships.html

I sat with Jack Wyant, the U.S. coach, during the finals of the world championship individuals up in Allston, Mass. After about four points, he murmured: “racquet preparation.” Both Nours are exceptional, for their age (El Sherbini is just fifteen) in this regard. A lot of it is the accumulation of hours. They’ve been playing forever. El Tayeb started playing tournaments more than a decade ago.

And they’ve been training under some serious coaches. Amir Wagih, the Egyptian national coach, told me after the Nours finished their final that this was his eighteenth world title as a coach, starting in 1999. Eighteen from men and women, adults and juniors, individual and teams. This all might change in the long run, in the post-Mubarek Egypt, but for now they know what they are doing.

And they are serious. I asked El Tayeb if she’d take a few weeks off when she got home, to socialize and see friends and just luxuriate in achieving her goal. She said, well, no. because the day they land in Cairo is the first day of Ramadan, so a month of fasting will be upon her. 

The death of George Wadsworth last month has led some to ponder the future of the Copa Wadsworth. The annual squash match between the U.S. and Mexico was started in 1990 and has become a wonderful fixture on the calendar, helping cement ties between the two nations and sending players all around North America. Anything that gets the U.S. ambassador to come and present trophies is a good thing.

George presided over the Copa as a gentle spirit, not as someone who managed every last detail. The tournament began as the brainchild of some Mexican squash players, including three ex-presidents of the Mexican squash association. Purdy Jordan, who played in the first Copa in 1990, helps greatly from behind the scenes and, stateside, Ken Stillman, who first got involved when he was the president of the USSRA, and Alan Fox, who has played in it since 1993, keep an eye on all things Copa.

This year’s was in Louisville, keeping to the general plan of moving the U.S. match to small, but vibrant squash locales (Atlantic City in 1991, Colorado Springs in 2001, Santa Fe in 1993 and 2003)—though it is often in the big city too. Next year it is in Mexico City.

With the demise of hardball singles and the increasing globalization of squash, the Copa is even more important to the health of the U.S. game, quite literally as important as its sister, the Lapham-Grant. And with a couple of doubles courts in Mexico City and one in Tijuana, it is also the route for expanding doubles to other countries besides the U.S. and Canada.

A friend recently mentioned seeing something in the Economist that would interest the many readers of RacquetSphere. I thought it might be “squash head” a new kind of high explosive munition.

http://www.economist.com/node/18750636

I couldn’t find anything in particular, though I did locate perhaps the best-titled piece of the year: “Your Mother Smells of Elderberries.” 

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/05/sport_and_social_networks

This piece discusses the taunts fans can now source from Facebook pages of players. Someday this social-media sharing will come back to haunt you.

Speaking of Hal Baker, another discussion point was the legendary story of Anil Nayar’s arrival at Harvard, about how coach Jack Barnaby did not know that the world’s #1 junior had applied and been accepted at Harvard, let alone arrived on campus in the fall of 1965. (The story appears on p.133 of my squash book—“I don’t have the red carpet here today, but I’ll have it tomorrow.”

It was the ultimate recruiting job, at least at Harvard: do nothing and you shall receive.

This story has been questioned by one person, since it seems so crazy. How was it possible that the coach didn’t know that such a great player was coming? But not only did both Jack and Anil corroborate the story with me, but it appeared in the Boston Globe in the 1970s.

After all this time, it was Hal Baker who supplied the motive. Hal said that Barnaby found out that his friends over in admissions kept Anil’s application secret, to play a joke on him. For the ebullient Barnaby, he must have roared with laughter when he got the admissions people on the phone.

The death of Charley Brinton reminded me of a conversation I had last winter with Hal Baker.

Harvard class of 1942 and still a full-time working lawyer, Hal had lent me some files, and I went to his office in Manhattan to return them. We got to talking about old tournaments, and he described how he used to come home for the Christmas holidays.

By day he would play in the annual intercollegiate tournament held at the University Club and by night he went out to black-tie debutante parties and balls that were the social fare at the time for many an undergraduate.

After being out all night, Hal would come in to the club, play a match and then, with George Cumming’s permission, take a long nap in the training room off to the side of the pro shop. This routine worked well and Hal ran through the draw of the 1942 tournament. In the semis he managed to outlast the great Charley Brinton. This was a huge victory, beating the national champion. But the toll of the social and squash whirlwind caught up and Hal lost in the finals.

The World Doubles was held again last month, this time in Toronto. The biennial tournament, which has been held on and off since 1981, featured a whiz-bang final. Damien Mudge & Ben Gould came back from 1-2 down to win in five over John Russell & Clive Leach. Mudge & Gould thus went undefeated this season, despite a few scares.

Afterwards, I emailed with Clive Caldwell and Bob French about the World Dubs. They helped start the original one in Toronto in 1981 (Clive won it with Mo Khan—now that is a team with personality). It was sponsored by Bata and had nifty posters.

Speaking of posters, for something to look forward to for the 2011-12 ISDA season, how about a pro tournament in Europe? For the first time ever, a proper pro squash doubles tournament will be held overseas. In late September the Scottish Cup will be at the Edinburgh Sports Club, where a regulation hardball court was built in the mid-1930s (two other standard ones and one non-standard were built in London at the same time, but these fell victim to Second World War bombings). Organized by Peter Nicol with a eye-catching poster, this promises to open a new chapter in the century-old history of squash doubles. 

Feels good just writing that. 

On Friday morning I had breakfast with Harry Sheehy, the new athletic director at Dartmouth. We talked about the Big Green squash program and about how there is renewed interest in athletic excellence at the College—the benchmark being winning the Ivy League title.

But over the weekend, Harry got a bit more than an Ivy title. The men won the 2011 USA Sevens Collegiate Rugby Championship. I got to watch it on NBC yesterday. Pretty cool.

There are many ways to think about rugby sevens and how to learn from its meteoric rise in popularity around the country and world in the past couple of years. The Olympics, I think, is as much an example of that popularity rather than a catalyst.

Two things strike me: one is the ease of the game compared to regular rugby, less rules, great flow. It makes sense—my wife, who had never watched rugby before, understood what was happening.

Two is the endemic sportsmanship and socializing that goes with rugby. It is just fun off the field. I mean, what other sport would you have the Princeton women’s rugby team, having clearly lost a bet, standing in the stands throughout another match clad only in their sports bras? See: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/123210078.html

The National League Finals just came off in Boston. I helped originate the idea a few years ago and was glad to see it finally come to fruition. Not enough teams this inaugural year, but it will come. I was disappointed that none of the teams from my old squash league in Washington made it—for years I was a part of a spirited scene down there that was very competitive on-court and social off.

League now for me is squash doubles. My doubles team at the Racquet Club of Philadelphia managed to win the Philadelphia SRA’s Super B league this past winter. Even though no one has adequately explained why there are B and a Super B leagues (I am guessing that it has do with bruised egos of former A players), the league was great fun. Doubles is inherently more social that singles, and a bunch of RCOP guys drove all the way down from Philly to Wilmington to watch our side take on Vicmead in the finals.

Now if only there were more districts than Philly and New York that had doubles leagues, we could start a National League Final doubles tournament. Maybe we should try that out anyway, with Toronto and Vancouver? Not sure there are any other cities that have bonafide leagues (Greenwich/Rye?) but four is enough to start.