Roger Alton Roger Alton

Why squash deserves a place in the Olympics

If the Commonwealth Games didn't convince you, I'm not sure what will

Adrian Grant and Nick Matthew of England and David Palmer and Cameron Pilley of Australia compete for the gold medal Photo: Getty 
issue 09 August 2014

Thank god for the Commonwealth Games: at least they gave us a brief respite from football transfer stories. Instead of having to read about an 18-year-old defender being bought by Overambitious Wanderers for the GDP of a medium-sized African nation, we could delight in Norfolk Island beating South Africa at lawn bowls, Kiribati and Nauru winning medals in weightlifting or Sri Lanka sharing a rugby pitch with England and Australia. It was a reminder of the brotherhood (and sisterhood) of sport and made me nostalgic for the days before the money men took over football, rugby and cricket. (Yes, especially cricket: have you noticed we don’t have a drinks break any more but a Buxton hydration break, and tea is now the Yorkshire Tea interval?)

For anyone who has ever bashed a little ball around in a box, the treat in Glasgow was the final of the men’s squash, when Nick Matthew took on James Willstrop over five pulsating games.

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