Colets EN BREF ... Issue #3           Main Page

INDECISIVE… I’m sure you are aware that the favourite game of the spectators is always to judge referee's decisions. And as usual, ideas and comments fuse out of the crowd. “That was a let,” “NO WAY”, “well, it HAS to be a let, surely”, you know what I mean… But then came a decision that was really difficult. A great silence in the audience. But the answer came, lethal. “Well, I’d say that was a toss-up”… I’m learning about refereeing by the minute…	A PEOPLE’S PERSON… I like Dave Peck. He is one of those club pros that just love their team, their players, you know the kind, who bites his nails while his club is playing a competition, who is helping organising this, taking his players there, and participating in all the events under the sun or rain of South London and beyond… But like a lot of people ask me, why does he do it? What drives him to do so much for Colets, I wondered. “Well, I’m first and foremost a people’s person, I just love people, and I love organising and making sure that everything runs smoothly. And I like doing things for people, and yes it’s my job, but I like it and do it with passion,” smiles my 40 year old Dave. “I started coaching squash at 17, and I never did anything else. When I was young, I was semi pro at football at Swindon Town, but I was also a County Player at squash. And at that time, I was not the most forthcoming at school, and I was looking at a way of earning money, and I thought that coaching squash would be a perfect way of doing so. But I would have never imagined that I would still be coaching squash 23 years later!” As far as organising a BSPA, last year, I was at the National Club Championships, and Tim Garner suggested that we could run one. At the time, we didn’t have the glass courts, and I thought we wouldn’t qualify. But Tim said it would be ok, and we ran it last year, and again this year. We are even thinking about starting a PSL team, not this year, but maybe the following one. I think that events like the BSPA are doing a great deal to raise the club profile around the world, with the help of sites like yours actually.” Dave’s name has been associated with Colets for a very long time, and he just loves the club. “Well, for 12 years now, I've been doing the same job, coaching a lot of the same people, and they still come back for more… They must be mad!!!!” No, Dave, not mad, they just know how to recognise a good deal when they see it. And he is a bit of a perfectionist, our Dave is… “I love to do things the best I can, and I love to win. I don’t mind losing, but I’ll do everything to win, in the right spirit, of course. And I just want to make sure that I’ve done everything I can to help people out…” A man to my heart…
OLD BOYS… After Parkie won his remarkable match against Adrian, he was laughing about the fact he was going to play his old mate Alex Gough yet again. And Dave Peck, him again, added, “yes, tomorrow, I’ll introduce the you as the over 35s Open Final”. And like a shot, Sir Simon corrected “Over 30s, Over 30s” … Those prima donnas ... they are soooo touchy about their age, aren’t they???
LAST ORDERS… Like I told you several times, I just wonder what I’ll do when young Alex Gough decides to retire, as he is my favourite source of inspiration… And today, he served up one that I never heard before… Here he was, up in the fourth game against Scott, but really hurting, white as a sheet, and about to die on court really. And as he spotted Dave Peck standing behind the glass, he turned round and shouted “You couldn’t get us a can of coke, could you?” The whole gallery collapsed laughing, while the lovely Scott, feeling left out, shouted, “Yeah, and get me a lager, will you…” And you know what, Dave did, bless him…

CHARLEY IS ABOUT… Yes, I know, I can’t help it, I’ve got to talk about the players’ babies. But come on, they are so cute! Here is Charley Ross. I introduced him to you during the Saudi Qualifiers at St Georges about 6 months ago. Charley is a big boy now, will be 18 months in a few days, and according to dad “behaving himself very well. “The minute I’m on court I forget that they are here, but the minute I get out, it’s so nice to have Debbie and Charlie around”…

COME ON DAD Hi, the first time you saw me was in Nottingham, I was watching my dad play in the Masters (and he won all his matches, thank you for remembering). But now, I’m hitting the ball pretty well. Actually, I was training with Simon Parke just before his quarter finals match, well, you’ve got to help out when you can, don’t you. And he told me that I was pretty solid, and that I could hit the ball pretty well. That’s why I’ve decided to keep on working hard. Watch out world, you’ll see me on court soon. And the name is Clarke. Rudi Clarke....

Colets EN BREF ... Issue #2           Main Page

LOVE IS IN THE AIR… Sorry, call me stupid, but I just love stories that end well, and I’m a sucker for romance. And I’m glad to report that Jane Massarella and Simon Parke are at last moving home together. “Well, since Simon has moved to Leeds, and I’m still working in Doncaster, we’ve spent our life on the road. So we decided to find a place in the middle, and we have now moved into a converted barn in Badsworth, near Pontefract. It’s in a small village, and it’s absolutely lovely”. I was wondering where that smile on Parkie’s face was coming from…

NOT HELPING… I know, the first round of BSPA is never a walk in the park, but it reached a need for cloning when, after having matches played on four courts, and still being behind, Dave Peck had to start Joey/Shahid’s match on a fifth court. Yes, that made my life MUCH easier, thanks, Dave…

MIND THAT RACQUET… During his match against Stacey, Tom Richards was getting increasingly frustrated with himself, as more and more of his shots were finding the tin. And after a particular easy shot that ended in another unforced error, he violently hit the floor with the head of his racquet. A smile from Stacey, and suddenly, a very worried Tom. “Did I break it”, he seemed to say looking at his racquet from all angles. So from that moment on, he decided to hit his right foot instead. Well I tell you, I could feel the pain and the poor foot will be blue like ink by tonight…

NEW GLASS COURTS That is the best move Colets management could have done to make its club more competition friendly. Before the mega refurbishment works, the Club had only traditional courts, you know, the one you can only look at from a gallery at the top. But now, 3 of the 6 courts have a glass backwall, which allows spectators/players to be much more at ease. We can sit down, take pictures of faces, chat, gossip… In a word, I just love it. So thanks to who ever picked up the bill, that was ever so kind of you to do all those works just to make writers’ life easier…

SOMEBODY HAS TO DO IT ... Another case of being “at the wrong place at the wrong time!”, as Steve Meads put it himself! “I arrived early for my match, there was nobody there, and Dave Peck came up to me “Tell me mate, you couldn’t do me a favour, could you?”. “And the next thing I knew, I found myself marking a ladies’ match. Mind you, I don’t think he really minded… They were rather Gorgeous…. Oh well, it’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it…

Colets EN BREF ... Issue #1

I JUST CAME HERE FOR FUN… There are nights you’d better stay away from squash clubs, one of them being when a BSPA tournament is played there… Poor Jonathan Liles, who plays for Colets fourth team came to his club to see one of his mates play, Alan Thomson. Next thing he knew, he found himself with a note pad and marking the Matthews/Kamara game. But in the middle of what seemed a pretty onesided match, hell broke loose, as Issa suffered back spasms, and neither of those two knew much about the three minute rules for self inflicted injury. “This is too much stress”, complained quietly the club player, “I just came here to have a few beers and watch Alan play, and I never thought I would get to referee!”… But just for you to know, Jon, you are pretty good at it. There were a few tricky decisions there, and as far as I can tell, you got them all right. So, I would strongly advise you to start thinking getting into refereeing. You’ve got the knack for it…

IMPROVING MY ENGLISH… One player had worked so hard during a rally, we are talking retrieving from hell, visiting the four corners, throwing himself on the floor, you see the kind of rally, all that to end up playing the ball on himself….. The comment from one of the spectators fused out : “You lemon”… And that’s how I extend my vocabulary….

LUCKY LOSER… There are some matches you regret to have lost, but today, we had the case of a match you shouldn’t have won! In the Lee/Truswell match, the loser got to play Alex Stait, that’s not exactly an easy game, I grant you that, but the winner (as in Joe Lee) got to play seed number two Alex Gough. Lucky loser, you can say that again…