New Zealand Squash History

Growth and Infrastructure

The Association's history has progressed from a small amateur body with a few club courts, as well as some pioneer ones at service bases, to one of the world leaders. And to a sport whose champions have been acknowledged throughout the sporting world where the game attracts millions of participants in virtually every corner of the globe.

Early explosive growth has naturally waned. However, progress has consolidated, especially in the last 10-15 years where, with modern initiatives, the Association and the sport is now well poised to head into the new millennium.

Major Participant Sport
Registered club members peaked in 1984 at just under 54,000. At the same time it was reliably estimated that a further 100,000 – 125,000 played the game casually at various commercial centres, and non-registered courts throughout the country including schools and community centres.

In the late 1980's the progress of club development and participation slowed and the dynamics of the sport began to change. As a result registered club membership (similar to most sports) has slipped back to a figure a little over 32,000 on the eve of the new millennium. However the number of affiliated clubs remains strong at 231, after peaking at 259 in 1989. The positive aspect of the registered membership is that a resurgence has emerged over the last three years, after dropping in 1996 to a low at half of the 1994 peak.

Current Hillary Commission figures show that of individual sports only Bowls, Golf and Tennis have more registered members than Squash. Latest survey figures (1997) by the Commission record 124,000 participating in the sport. Notwithstanding that nine team sports rate higher membership numbers, when the overall picture is taken into account Squash ranks as a major participant sport, with a very strong platform, developed over 70 years, to continue that way.

Courts Everywhere
Squash Courts and Clubs have sprung up virtually everywhere throughout the country over the years. From single courts on farms (viz Waikite and Maketu) to multi complexes such as city clubs Henderson, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Christchurch, Timaru and Invercargill. Most rural areas, small and large, boast courts and every sizeable town has at least one club. Schools have erected courts. Community centres have seen the value of incorporating courts into their facilities and the Service bases around the country have a long tradition of their own courts.

Sprung wooden floors and concrete block (or brick) walls have been the popular construction methods while some courts in the early days (eg Timaru) had wooden back walls. Some even had entry doors in the side wall! Solid concrete walls became popular from the seventies onwards as did glass insert back windows, and eventually all glass back walls became an everyday feature.

Already underway, the future will be with flexible courts providing moveable walls, both for doubles and multi-sport utilisation. Plain concrete and natural timber hues have in more recent cases been replaced with coloured floors and walls, adding vital ambience to the sport.

Gallery Courts
In the early years spectator viewing was very limited and in many cases non-existent. The progressive Hamilton Club changed this face of the sport when building it's revolutionary ‘bear pit' gallery court for the 1971 World Championships.

From the mid seventies numerous glass backed gallery courts sprung up throughout the country, especially where clubs were adding new courts. However the supreme complex would belong to Henderson, where on a new site in 1979, the club erected an ultra modern six court complex highlighted by a centrally positioned television court.

The eighties also saw the invention of all glass or perspex courts overseas and Squash New Zealand purchased its own perspex court in 1986. That has subsequently been erected in numerous strategic public facilities to make the viewing of the sport more accessible to the population at large.

Family and Social Sport
While squash inherited a somewhat ‘elitist' culture with its introduction from England, the advent of professional and business people into clubs in the early years established a very sound planning foundation for its subsequent growth. As new clubs sprung up the fabric of club membership eventually broadened, with the entry of women members, junior players and converts from many other sports, be it rugby, tennis or badminton.

Subsequently the sport has become very family orientated and multicultured. Clubs have also developed strong social histories, with most, famous for their “aftermatch” festivities. From the time women became more involved (late 50's onwards) in both the game and in club activities, female membership has remained constant and strong, at around 35% of  participants.

The sport also quickly became popular with “broken down” rugby players looking for a continuance of activity. The very nature of the sport has over the years suited the New Zealand personality and ‘psyche', where contact, while minimal, is of sufficient ‘presence' to be enjoyable, without being separated by a net as in other racket sports.

Timing during the sixties and seventies aided the sport, as Squash Clubs often came along into communities at the time when many football clubs and tennis clubs were struggling for interest after their earlier heyday years.

Commercial Squash
Unlike most other countries, especially Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, commercial squash centres have not flourished in any great numbers in New Zealand.

However most major cities have commercial centres in various capacities and in the peak of the eighties there were over 20 complexes, comprising around 100 courts in total.

John Reid, the legendary NZ cricketer, established the first commercial complex in Wellington in 1962 and SNZ purchased this 8 court facility in 1978, subsequently expanding to 12 courts. It now operates as Club Kelburn under the proactive management of Robbie Walker and continues to play a major part in the SNZ operation.

Junior Squash
While initially the sport was played by many ‘converts', the development of the family orientated clubs saw, in tandem, the impact of young people exposed to the sport early in their lives.

Subsequently junior squash became an integral part of club, district and national activity. Although the first junior national champion (Les Milne) was found in 1950, it was the early seventies before younger age group events became a regular feature, down to under 13. The sport owes a huge debt to the likes of Jack Tyler, Dawn Dryland, Colin & Lorna Brownlee, Doug Lawrie, (the late) Bruce Owen, Lois Smith, Marge Forrester and many others in clubs who pushed this vital aspect of the sport so strongly during the formative years.

Junior activity has carried on through ever since. Over the last 10-12 years, the Micro Court, initially developed by Butch Gifford and later modernised by Mark Devoy, has introduced literally thousands of youngsters to the sport, either through schools, shopping malls or other community facilities.

No Let!
One of the features in the development of the game has been the need to be a referee (of at least some nature!) to play. Some have taken it much further and a very active refereeing society has evolved over the years, under the auspices of Squash New Zealand.

Tireless work by a great number of people has been put into educating referees and developing the rules and refereeing programme to where there are approximately 300 qualified referees at various levels around the country. The movement became organised in the seventies headed by the late Derek Cook and followed by a number of dedicated personnel including Dennis Winch, Gavin Whyte, Peter Highsted and Joss Urbahn.

Undoubtedly the personality of this fraternity has been the much-travelled Chas Evans who has carved his own niche by becoming one of the worlds most competent and respected referees, as well as playing a major part in the national programme over the years.

Life Begins At 35
Squash initially had its ‘veterans' of the sport mainly as a hangover from its English roots and/or tennis structure. However in the early eighties, in conjunction with Australian counterparts, Masters squash evolved, banding various five year age groups. As a result the sport has been able to maintain significant numbers of older players and importantly club members. Masters represents close to half of current members.

Annual test battles with Australia have become a feature of the 35  ‘grey power brigade' as have masters tournaments which feature nationwide.

The enthusiasm of Kiwis and Australians to Masters squash saw the international body adopt age group squash for mature players officially in 1993 and more latterly world events have regularly taken place.

Personalities (for example John Wesney) have loomed large in the Masters field, none more so however than the two long-serving, effervescent, national directors Robin Roche and Gower Dallimore.

A Grade or F
Golf has its world-wide handicap system, cricket its batting and bowling averages and baseball its numerous batting and pitching statistics – but Squash New Zealand has its grading system. The system was introduced in the seventies by Wellington statistical boffins and eventually adopted nationally. It has proved itself by surviving the passage of time and has remained almost unique, even though a number of other countries have tried to adopt a similar system in some shape or form.

Computerization has enhanced the system and under the vigilant eye of the indefatigable Steve Scott every competitive player in the country is networked into the national programme. Club and district statisticians have become icons in their own areas and the popular system has retained its ‘human face' through manual adjustment at top player level. The system has, however, required strong analysis at all levels and two very hardworking and long time national directors over the years have been Mike Birch and Vivienne Brumby.

The Pursuit Of Excellence
The natural development of any sport leads to wanting to produce the best possible results, aimed at world achievement, along with a viable coaching and development programme. Organized coaches and coaching started to emerge in the fifties and picked up pace in the mid sixties, through a professional coaches body headed by Ken Mackwell and later by Peter Dibley. Other prominent coaches, at the time included Norm Coe and Doug Laurie in the South Island.

The expansion continued, particularly in the Dardir era, with Dardir himself the flag bearer for the professional coaches. The professional association however never quite evolved like some other sports and an amalgamation of the pro coaches with Squash New Zealand in the seventies came about. This saw Ken Mackwell, Colin Brownlee, Rob Crothall and Butch Gifford as respective national directors over the next 25 years. Dardir was the national coach during much of this period until he retired in the late eighties. (The late) Shane O'Dwyer was destined for the top echelon of coaching but tragically died soon after his engagement as national director in 1985. Top English  Coach Paul Wright was appointed National Coach in 1996, heading the programme for three years and remains closely associated with the high performance programme. Five Regional Coaches now operate nationwide and in total, including District and Club coaches, there are 970 active throughout the sport.

The association, with the backing of the New Zealand Sports Foundation and commercial sponsorship (at the time) established a High Performance Programme in 1990. This involved operating an Institute of Squash, with 25 inductees, based at the All Seasons Squash Centre in West Auckland. The programme produced a number of top juniors through the ensuing years but has been modified in recent times, due to the reduced number of opportunities for fulltime players overseas. High Performance, however, remains an integral part of Squash New Zealand operations.

Around The Table
Management, direction and the promotion of the sport nationally has rested with committees over the years, almost exclusively on a voluntary basis. More recently some of the larger clubs, most of the districts and certainly Squash New Zealand as the national body have employed part or full-time personnel to carry out the day to day requirements.

Employment however only became a feature from the early seventies as the demands of growth necessitated and now there would be an estimated 400  people earning remuneration in some shape of form. Nonetheless, there would also be between 5,000 and 8,000 people continuing to put voluntary time into promoting the sport on a daily basis.

The need for change over recent times has caused a number of clubs to establish boards to replace the more traditional committees. Some of the eleven districts (since their evolution in the seventies) have changed their structure also and at national level Squash New Zealand has seen major change.

From its first ‘home' when a Palmerston North based management ran the Association during the fifties, the sport progressed onto a national committee with district representatives. Then in 1992 it changed to a board of management comprising six elected directors, the President and the Chief Executive. The new position of Chairman of the Board was introduced and the President position altered to that of an advocate of clubs, until 1998 when the post was phased out.
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The national secretary position, previously voluntary, became a part-time job from 1971 to 1978 when a fulltime Executive Director was appointed. The post was then upgraded to the position of Chief Executive in 1989.

Warning Signals and Restructuring
From its earliest beginnings through to the mid-eighties when squash grew and expanded, facilities generally remained suitable to the membership, who in the main were active and competitive players. The latter half of the eighties however saw warning signs appear and for the first time clubs were faced with declining membership. New or potential members seemed not to be so attracted to the sport. Much of this could be attributed to changing lifestyles and the great upsurge of other recreational opportunities.

Squash New Zealand management decided in 1992 to undertake a comprehensive study of the sport and, early in the following year, Peter Crellin was commissioned to undertake the research. A market research programme was immediately put into place throughout the country and Peter Crellin prepared his evaluation of the situation to Squash New Zealand.
 
Essentially it found that the market had changed, in conjunction with the life styles of New Zealanders and concluded that the Association (Squash New Zealand and its member clubs) while having achieved many significant milestones had lost touch with the market, by being focussed on the game and not on the general players. At the same time member's facilities had aged and regular players were also ageing while new (younger) ones were not being retained.

In short, Peter Crellin reported that “the sport showed the classic signs of being at the end of a life cycle” and that Squash New Zealand needed in the future to be in the business of “fun and fitness”, promoting to the leisure and recreational market.

The findings represented a significant challenge to the Association and the Clubs in particular. Changes were set underway in late 1993 aimed at encouraging clubs to “buy in” to a new marketing thrust, and this has been ongoing through to the eve of the new millennium. A number of clubs are already underway with this reconstruction, the best example being the Ashburton Club in the South Island, headed by President Trevor Johnston. For his efforts he has been awarded the Squash New Zealand “Personality of the Year' Award.

National Squash Centre
In a major initiative plans are underway for a National Squash Centre envisaged to be operative from the year 2001. It is proposed to comprise 10 ASB designed courts and is a joint venture between Squash New Zealand, Auckland Squash and Unitec. This will act as the home to continue the national High Performance Programme and also as a headquarters for secondary school squash. It will further provide an alternative venue for major tournaments and will be available as a community facility. In a farsighted move Auckland Clubs have sanctioned investment capital for the proposed centre, not only to assist their own development but importantly the national programme.

Squash Dynamics
1999 has seen the introduction of Squash Dynamics, as a wholly-owned and limited liability business venture by Squash New Zealand. It has been established as the “marketing arm” of the association and as such is an agency to promote the European designed ASB variable court system. Its other vital function is to develop and promote the products and management systems needed in the modern leisure and recreational market that is facing clubs.

Squash Development Network
Through a joint investment with Districts, commenced in 1998, nine Squash Development Officers are now networked throughout the country focussing on assisting clubs with promotion and marketing of the game. This is aimed at helping clubs meet the changing environment identified from the earlier market research and subsequent Crellin report.

Acting as a “sales force” for the sport the Development Officers will eventually link closely with Squash Dynamics.