SQUASH LONGEVITY



Below are a few stories of ex members of Boomerang/Gabba who are still playing squash fixtures, some without a break since they started and some that have continued after a short break. I have asked Ray Kettley, who is another player who has played continuously until 2008, to send a record of his moves since the Boomerang days, and I have also asked Nick and Sue Jeffrey to put a few lines together as they are both still playing, in their cases there may not be that many moves, as they moved to the North Coast a few years ago. If there are any other ex members that are still playing, drop me a line to joebass@iinet.net.au and I will add to this story. Some people may be still playing but not fixtures; Richard Arnold is still having a practice hit.

This is a story about 4 of our ex Squash Club mates that have spent an incredible amount of years playing Squash fixtures without missing a season. The first member we will talk about is Ray Allan; he has played since 1963 and is still playing in 2008.

Ray Allan



Ray commenced playing fixtures for a Darwin club called Nomads in 1963, before moving to Brisbane in 1967 and joining Boomerang. Ray is not sure of the years he moved clubs until 1974, but in that time he played firstly at Boomerang for about 4 years then moved to Sunnybank and in 1974 joined Holland Park, playing there until 2001.

Ray then played at Rochdale until the club closed down, subsequently moving to Alpine and again moving when those courts also closed down. He then joined his present club of Daisy Hill; Ray is pretty sure that Daisy Hill wont be closing down for a long time yet.

Since 1974 Ray has played fixtures twice a week plus training but he doesn't say if that's one or more times a week training and as you will see later in this article, he has been involved in playing Masters Squash at weekends since it commenced in Queensland 31 years ago.

I calculated that Ray has played 90 seasons, and if you take into account that he started playing twice a week in 1974, that adds another 68 seasons. That adds up to a lot of time spent on squash courts over the years. No wonder Ray was not a drinker when I knew him; I am surprised that he found time to run a business.

Ray has been playing Masters for 31 years after Joe Shaw initiated the concept and Ray and his wife Estelle were the foundation Secretary and Treasurer for the Masters Group for 7 years after it was formed but now are just members of that very large group. There are now 280 members registered in the Queensland Masters Club. Recently there was a Masters Tournament in Nambour and there were 96 players who played in the event. It was a teams event and Rays team finished 2nd beaten by a very small margin of 1 point.

Ray said the trophy was a nice, embroidered towel which Estelle claimed as the colour was pink. Ray also tells me that at some of the events in Brisbane they receive around 120 entries and that there are only two centres in Brisbane big enough to hold those events, Acacia Ridge and Daisy Hill.

Ray and Estelle are travelling to Darwin in September for the Australian Masters Titles and then, in October, to Christchurch for the World Masters Squash event.

Kev Baisden



Kev Baisden is the second player in this group that has played continuous seasons since he began playing squash. Kev started playing competition squash in Port Moresby in May 1965 and played there until he had a job transfer to Brisbane in December 1967. Kev started playing for Boomerang because a colleague of his in the bank in Moresby advised him to ring Bob Finch, who he knew played fixtures in Brisbane, and he thought might have been able to get Kev into a team with the Bob's club.

Back in Brisbane, Kev rang Bob who told him that the season was half over, but he passed on Joe Williams phone number, told Kev to give Joe a ring and that there was a possibility that a team might need an extra member. Of course that was organised by Joe and Kev started in January 1968. He stayed at Boomerang until the move to the Gabba and kept playing there until he was again transferred, this time in 1979 to Dalby.

Kev played at the courts run by the Hedge Family, young Vicki Hedge was one of the top female players in Australia at that time. Kev played there until mid 1983, when he was transferred back to Brisbane. He then joined Sunnybank and remained there until the courts closed in 1995.

Kev then joined Acacia Ridge, which was being run Merv & Noreen Carlyon whom Kev knew from his Boomerang days. Kev is still playing at Acacia Ridge. Roughly that's about 86 seasons straight playing squash. Whichever way you look at its a bloody long time on the squash courts.

Ray Smith



The third player in this tale is Ray Smith. Ray is not sure of the years he made some of his moves to other clubs after the Gabba closed, but the main thing is that he has not missed a season. His moves are listed below in the order in which he made them.

Ray was introduced to Boomerang by a work mate, Mike Muirhead, in 1965 and is still playing in 2008. Ray played at Boomerang until the club moved to the Gabba in 1975 and played there until that club no longer had enough players to form teams in the higher grades. His next move was down the road to Kangaroo Point Club and he stayed there until the club closed down.

Most of the players from K.S.C were able to transfer as a club to the courts at QE2 but after a few years that club also closed.The next move was to the Institute of Sport courts and he played there for a few more seasons until that club also closed.

Ray then made his final move to Acacia Ridge. A couple of players that made the move to Acacia Ridge with Ray were Owen Sturgess, & Graham Moisey, who had made the same moves as Ray since their days at K.S.C.

When Ray moved to Acacia Ridge, he met up with a couple of players that he played with in his days at Boomerang and the Gabba, namely Kev Baisden and Harry Steinheur. The last time I communicated with Ray, he remarked what a great effort it was by Ray Allan to be still playing two different nights of fixtures since 1974, plus a practice night and also a lot of weekends playing Masters Squash. Ray just plays the fixture night each week and he also remarked how his after Squash activities have changed, over the years, from a few thirst quenchers under the Tree/Gabba Bar in the early days to his current habit of a couple of drinks to wind down a bit after he gets home.

Jacque McConnell



The next long playing record applaud is one of the fairer sex, Jacque McConnell; Jacque commenced playing fixtures at Boomerang in 1972. Jacque used to go down to Boomerang in those days when Russell went to Saturday afternoon practice and read a book while Russ was having his hits. She started to have a hit, and with encouragement and support from Lesley McMillian and Marilyn Brand she started playing fixtures and when Boomerang closed Jacque moved to the Gabba. When Carla (the first little McConnell) arrived in 1977, Jacque had a break for a couple of seasons and commenced again in 1978, playing Ladies daytime fixtures in 1978 on Fridays. From memory, when the Gabba first started Avon Trimble organised some Ladies teams to play Daytime fixtures, I think it used to fit in with Mums dropping off the kids to school and finished in time to pick the kids up from school.

Jacque had another break when Lauren was born in December 1979 and recommenced night and day fixtures in 1980, She had a break from day time squash Fixtures 1982 and decided to try tennis for a few months before Ian was born in October 1982. Jacque recommenced night fixtures in 1983 still at the Gabba, & restarted playing Day Time fixtures in 1984 for about 18 months, this time playing for Holland Park.

When the Gabba closed Jacque moved to Holland Park (to play night time fixtures there also) along with quite a few other Ladies from the Gabba. Numbers were dwindling everywhere but Holland Park was one of the bigger clubs for many years. When the changes occurred at Holland Park a few years ago, the emphasis became more on the Gym than Squash, numbers dwindled even more and the maintenance of the Squash Courts became non existent. Jacque left Holland Park in 2007 and moved to Acacia Ridge as ladies there included a number that she had met over the years. Quite a few of the ladies had moved to Acacia Ridge as other centres closed down in the past few years.

Jacque says she is not particularly keen on the change to mixed teams on all nights, She finds the fellows who play down in her grade are either much to strong and "Belt Hell" out of the ball or they slam the ball but are not particularly skilled and can be quite erratic and at times dangerous. Unfortunately, with the numbers still dwindling, having mixed teams seems to be the only way to have the numbers for enough teams for a draw. Sometimes after all these years of playing, Jacque thinks on her Squash Night "Oh no not Squash again tonight" but when she gets there still enjoys the night.

Jacque says she has not seen any of the ladies from her Gabba days still playing for a few years now and she is not too sure how much longer she will play. However, as there are two ladies in her club still playing in their 70's, Jacque says she may have a few years left in her yet.