Australians enthuse about Manchester squash court

16 April 2002

"World class, state-of-the-art," rave the Aussies in Manchester.

Australian and South African players move on to the court

Having defeated South African pair Rodney Durbach and Adrian Hansen by two games to one in the opening game of the men’s doubles in the British Squash Open in Manchester, Australia’s Stewart Boswell and Anthony Ricketts spoke enthusiastically about the facilities at the Manchester Squash Centre.

“It’s great,” said twenty-three-year old Ricketts, who is visiting Manchester for the first time, “with the movable glass court and the courts at the back and the stands, it’s a good place for the Commonwealth Games.”

The Sydney-based player is hoping to return to the Games this summer. As he says: “Yeah, that’d be a dream if I was here in Manchester later this year competing in the Commonwealth Games, definitely.”

With the Games 100 days off there and this tournament not due to finish until later this week, there is still some way to go and he adds: “We’ve got a big tournament in Qatar next week and from there we go back to Australia and prepare for the Commonwealth Games.”

Australian and South African players between games

Stewart Boswell, who is also twenty-three and comes from Canberra, was equally enthusiastic of the new facility, saying: “Yeah, I agree with Anthony; with moveable walls for the singles and doubles which we’re going to be playing in the Commonwealth Games, it is excellent really. It’s one of the few centres in Europe that can do that.”

Unlike his doubles partner, Boswell has already visited Manchester several times although he has never played in a tournament here before. He too hopes to be back for this summer’s Games: “They haven’t picked the team yet, but hopefully, I should get into it and I’m looking forward to it. It should be good.”

The two coaches over here with the squash players are Roger Flynn and a famous squash name, Geoff Hunt. Flynn is clearly pleased with the progress of the players in his charge and their high rankings when he says: “Stewy Boswell is the current number five in the world and Anthony Ricketts is currently number 12 in the world.”

Victorious doubles Anthony Rickets and Stewart Boswell

Looking towards the Commonwealth Games he says: “Overall, as far as the squash is concerned, there’ll be a ten-man team and three officials and there’ll be quite a few spectators coming over as well.”

He too is equally impressed by the squash centre’s facilities and he describes the centre court as a, “world class, state-of-the-art court.”

He goes further, adding, “that court is absolutely brilliant and we’d like to get one out in Australia. We have a permanent court in Melbourne, but that’s the only one in Australia. The technology is nowhere near that involved in this one, with its movable walls, and I understand it uses a hovercraft of some sort to move. For a training facility after the Games it’s going to be magnificent for English squash.”