Squash at 37

Last Saturday was a one-day squash tournament at the local club. After a few months of lessons from the world-ranked player / coach at our club I thought I'd chance my arm. He's brought me back to the basics. Keep still, follow through, accuracy. The stuff you get taught at lesson 2. It's given me more confidence if nothing else.

On Saturday morning I felt fit and ready to play. 10:15 was my first match. There were about 30 people in the draw: a 'B' level event according the official Dutch classification of squash players. I didn't really know what to expect about the standards, but it was clear after a minute of knocking up that the first opponent wasn't going to provide any problems. I beat him 9-0, 9-0, 9-0 even though, as I found out later, the first rounds were best of three.

Match two was at 11:15. A more stylish opponent, but with no real tactics. This time it was 9-2, 9-4. That meant I was through to the quarter-final and would have to play against my team-mate, Arjan, who plays on the number one spot (I play at two). 12:45 was our scheduled game. I decided to play low and fast to try and avoid Arjan's volleys into the nick from high balls. And it worked! I won 9-5, 9-7. I was in the semi-final.

The day before (Friday) I had watched Tim Henman lose in 4 sets to Coria in the French open semi-final. He'd played superbly to take the first set, then run out of steam for two and half sets, and then put in a late surge to almost claim the fourth set. Although it was an exciting match, he lost. My semi-final followed a similar pattern. My opponent, who looked a bit like a cross between a whippet and a chicken, was the number 1 seed from Utrecht.

The first game went fine, I hit a high tempo and he couldn't keep up. I came off court thinking this might be easy. Then I began to get tired, and Utrecht-man kept running, and running, and running. The second game he one 10-8, the third, after some poor refereeing decisions (I must have been tired because I started arguing with the referee in Dutch) he won 9-7, and the forth again 9-7. I lost the match 3-1. I came off court exhausted, feeling like I'd given everything.

In a way it was a nice feeling to be completely tired out after having performed quite well. I certainly think the lessons are having an effect. The number one seed went on to lose the final, I like to think I tired him out, but I'm not sure if that's true.