SULLY



This is a story from John O'Sullivan about his Long Career on the Squash Courts of Queensland, John was the longest playing member of Boomerang/Gabba Squash club, and when the Gabba closed down like a lot of players back in those days, Sully had to move to several clubs as Courts closed down. John has not stopped playing fixtures since he started at Boomerang back in 1967. I am sure a lot of you who remember John will enjoy his story as it's in his own words, which of course is presented with some Sully Humor.







To all former Boomerang/Gabba Club Members, this is a story of the years I have spent playing Squash it's from memory only so some of the dates may not be spot on. By John O'Sullivan, "Sully".

My wonderful Squash Journey had its beginning in Sydney in 1964, where I had travelled to from Stanthorpe to represent Queensland at the Interstate Postal Institute Sporting Carnival in Billiards.

Whilst partaking of a dozen "Tooheys New" (or four), I had the good fortune to meet a rather rotund gentleman by the name of Joe Williams (in a Kings Cross Pub) Joe was representing Queensland in Squash at the carnival. He was adamant that I should start playing squash when I got back to Queensland, but I assured him that the only knowledge I had of the game was that the Khan Brothers from Pakistan were the world champions.

On retuning to Queensland, I was transferred to Kingaroy where I managed to play a few games of squash. In 1966 I travelled down to Brisbane one weekend and was pressured by Joe to come over to Boomerang on the Sunday morning and have a game at club practice, which was unbelievably popular in those days. Upon arriving at the courts, I witnessed Joe playing another member (I cannot recall the blokes name), unfortunately the player suffered a nasty injury, he ran into Joe's racket, as a consequence the player plus Joe, as well as "last Can Land"- that's Peter Land and myself made an immediate dash to the casualty section at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and were forced to spend in excess of 4 hours there, sadly that was the finish of Squash for the day and we adjourned to the Coronation Hotel to ease the pressure, and at the end of the day I had still not played a game at Boomerang.

In 1967 I was transferred from Kingaroy back to Brisbane, and Joe being the club Captain was able to squeeze me into the Brisbane competition in an E Grade team. It would be prudent of me to point out that the game was so popular and the club was going so well, that some people were not able to get a start at fixtures.

Because of the cross river rail link being built between Roma street and Grey street South Brisbane and consequently going through the middle of our courts, we were being forced to leave Hope Street and endeavour to find a new home, fortunately one of the clubs stalwarts Bill "Whisper" Crisp knew Brian Gaskell and Sam Trimble through his cricketing days and they were about to open an indoor cricket and Squash centre at the Gabba Cricket Ground.

After negotiations between the 2 parties were completed, the Boomerang Squash Club was transferred lock stock and barrel to the Gabba, and a new club was born in the Winter Season of 1975. The new club was a raging success with its intimate bar, and was recognized in squash circles for its friendly atmosphere, unfortunately when the Brisbane Bears decided to make the Gabba their home ground the writing was on the wall for our Squash Club, and as a consequence members started dispersing to other clubs and in the end there was only one team left at the Gabba. The team comprised of Ian "Polly" Polglase, Rod Hurst, Rob Smeaton and yours truly, we soldiered on for 3 years (6 seasons) with the same 4 players and during that time we enjoyed a great relationship with the Queensland Cricketers Club and their secretary-Manager Lou Cooper, their club seemed to be very proud of the fact that the Gabba Squash Club was still operational and they often showed their appreciation by feting us with free meals and drinks.

After those 3 years a decision had been made to demolish the grandstand with the courts underneath to make improvements to the Gabba Cricket Ground, I think that was in about 1995. So our four man team was forced to look for another home, we found one at Balmoral Squash Club, from a personal view-point this suited me ok, as not owning a car I was able to walk from my residence in Kent Street New Farm down to the cross river ferry which took me across to Norman Park, from where I walked a further half mile up to the courts. We really enjoyed playing there and the lady running the courts, whose name was Dot was a lovely person. At the end of 2 seasons there, we were told that the squash courts were being converted to a Health Works Centre, so yet again we were without a club.

The next obvious choice was Kangaroo Point, even though I had an aversion to playing there, after about 4 weeks playing fixtures at KSC we were advised that the complex was being replaced by Town Houses and the courts would be demolished at the end of the season. Undeterred, our 4 man team were able to find a new club at courts at Coopers Plains the name of the centre escapes me, whilst it was quite enjoyable playing out there it was a fair way to travel and was devoid of atmosphere, after spending 2 seasons there we were lucky enough to be slotted in as a team at Stones Corner.

By this stage it was becoming a little embarrassing re all our Club changing, in fact one night when we travelled to fixtures at Capalaba, the court owner there said, You are nice blokes but I hope you don't have any illusions about transferring to our club as we would like our courts to survive for a few more years yet.

After a few happy seasons at Stones Corner, we were stunned when we arrived at the club for practice one night only to find that we were locked out, there wasn't even a notice on the door. Apparently the owners who had a business next door had decided to dispense with the courts and once again we were forced to find a new home. This time 3 of our team (Rod Hurst excluded) ventured to Hibiscus Gardens and we played 2 seasons there, sadly all good things come to an end and because Polly had a major knee operation (ruling him out of squash) and Jan and I had decided to move up to Maryborough, this indeed had become the end of an era.

We moved to Maryborough in 2004 and I have continued to play fixtures at the Acacia Squash Centre, the sport up here is extremely vibrant with 2 Squash Centre’s in Mayborough plus one in Hervey Bay. There are quite a large number of players here and the standard for a country area is very strong indeed. Barry McDevitt, who I am sure some you would know recently won the Australian Masters Title for his age group, and is now preparing for an assault on the World Championships being held in Germany later on this year.

Joe informed me before I started putting this story together, which teams and grades I had been in successful Pennant winning teams at both Boomerang and the Gabba, and he said the records only go up to 1985 season. 1970 Winter Season E2, 1971 Winter D3, 1975 Winter D3, according to Bob McCormick this team was the first team to win a Pennant for the Gabba Club, as Bob still says that our team had won the Pennant 10 minutes before Joe and his A4 Team mates had clinched their Pennant, the H2 Team were also successful that season so it was a fairly good start for the New Club. I was again in the winning C1 Team that won the 1979 Winter Pennant.

From my own perspective, I feel very privileged that I have been playing fixtures in winter and summer since 1967, which equates to 43 years or 86 seasons, in conclusion I know that playing this great game of squash is the most magnificent and beneficial thing one can possibly do.

PS.. Once again I must confess that I would never have got involved in Squash if I had not met Joe Williams in the pub at Kings Cross way back in 1964 ... Regards to all ... Sully.