Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

108 Chapter Thirteen Hotelier of Wootton Court Squash rackets, to give the game its formal title, had its roots in the British public schools, spreading its tentacles to wherever the products of a privileged education found themselves engaged in later life. With the dimensions of the court standardised in 1923, the game began to flourish in the inter-war years in the gentlemen’s clubs of London, in the Services and in the outposts of the Empire, while many a country mansion was to be found with a court behind the stables. Always a competitive game, squash was an efficient way of letting off steam for 30 or 40 minutes; but it had never been a sport that attempted to attract spectators. In the 1960s there were no glass courts and only with matches played on the Bruce Court at the Lansdowne Club in London was any serious effort made to provide banked seating for those wishing to see the world’s best players in action. The leading professionals mostly earned a meagre living through coaching at London clubs. Their own competitions and the British Open, where they competed alongside amateurs, did little to swell their wallets. Despite this there was a steady influx of players from overseas, most notably a trio from Peshawar – two brothers and a distant cousin – who arrived in the 1950s and would all become champions. One of these, Roshan Khan, recalled landing in English snow with one shirt, one pair of trousers and wearing tennis shoes. He had no racket, and his first priority was to borrow an overcoat. A front-row seat to witness this sporting evacuee taking on the incomparable Hashim Khan, or Hashim’s brother Azam, was as easily obtained as a cinema ticket. All this was to change a decade later as a one-time playboy named Jonah Barrington got it into his head that he could become world champion. In December 1966 he turned his dream into reality, becoming the first home player since 1938 to win the British Open, the game’s premier tournament. A dour and disciplined player, Barrington owed his success to ensuring that no opponent would ever beat him for fitness. He drove himself as no player had before, but off the court he sparkled. His charismatic personality,