BSRA History - Squash in Bermuda

Prepared by Roger Sherratt

Bermuda Profile

One of the most isolated and beautiful places on earth, Bermuda is approximately 650 miles off the coast of North Carolina, and just over 3,000 miles from London, England. In travel time, we're just two hours from most East Coast gateways, two and a half hours from Toronto, and seven hours from the United Kingdom.

Bermuda had been on the map for over a century before it was finally settled. It was the near tragic wreck in 1609 of the ship "Sea Venture" on its way to rescue the struggling colony in Jamestown, Virginia, that led to the eventual colonization of Bermuda. In 1612 the first true settlers arrived. To some it seemed a paradise, and so it remained for more than 375 years.

Squash in Bermuda

Squash was first played in Bermuda around 1930 when two courts were built by the British Military: one at the Prospect Garrison (now Police Headquarters) in Devonshire, and one at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Somerset. These courts would have been used almost exclusively by members of the armed forces.

During the early 1950's a group of young Bermudians including Michael Darling, Hal Dale, Neville Conyers and Bill Cox vaguely remember playing at Prospect. The Prospect Garrison finally closed in 1957 and was taken over by the Bermuda Police Force. Several members of the Force took an interest in squash, and arrangements were made for non-Police players to join the Police Recreation Club so they could continue to use the court. In 1959 a group of these keen players met at the home of Mr. K. Brett at "Milford" in Paget, and decided to form the Bermuda Squash Racquets Association (BSRA) using the Prospect Court as their base. Informal tournaments were staged and a ladder contest was started.

The club's first adventure abroad was to Nassau, Bahamas, in February 1966 when a team of eight players did battle with Nassau's finest. It was decided that the top five players from each team would play in the deciding match. And in the closest possible finish, Bermuda managed to eke out a 3-2 victory. Perhaps setting the scene for Bermuda's international squash participation, these five matches were played while a cocktail party was being held in the viewing gallery. Please note that in keeping with this tradition our bar is situated as close as possible to the viewing gallery at Court No. 2.

A rematch was held locally in October 1966, when our team gave Nassau a 5 - 0 drubbing. The victorious Bermuda team hosted a magnificent banquet at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club at which a Rosebowl Trophy was presented to the winners. The name Rosebowl stuck and this tournament evolved into a keenly fought annual event between Bermuda, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Cayman, and played a major role in the development of squash in Bermuda and the Caribbean.

Our present clubhouse in Devonshire opened in 1968 with two courts - another two were added in 1974. One of the original courts was eventually replaced by a glass-backed court, seen as a major innovation at the time, and it proved ideal for exhibition matches, but no-one could then have foreseen that Bermuda would go on to become a veritable Mecca of international squash.

Bermuda's appetite for top class squash was whetted in 1970 by a series of superb exhibition matches put on by the Australian World Championship Team comprising Geoff Hunt, Ken Hiscoe, Cam Nancarrow and Dick Carter. Needless to say, our local players were most impressed by the speed, power and finesse of this fantastic squad. Several other outstanding international players, including the greatest ever female player, Heather McKay of Australia, and the legendary Jahangir Khan of Pakistan also put on exhibition matches and helped to stimulate interest in the game and improve the standard of our local players.

In 1979 Bermuda began to compete in the annual CARASRA tournaments against all the top teams in the Caribbean, and we remain active and competitive in the Caribbean to this day. So much so that in 2004 our men's team won the CASA championship without conceding a single match, and the singles final was a keenly fought duel between Bermuda's top two players.

However, a seminal moment for local squash took place in 1992 when Bermuda sent a team to the World Junior Team Championships in Hong Kong. The youthful Island side (including 11-year old Nick Kyme as reserve) may not have come close to winning a match. But the trip marked Bermuda's first proper foray onto the world squash scene and served notice, despite the Island's minute size, of our far-reaching ambitions.

1969 saw Bermuda host the first Bermuda Open Invitational, originally sponsored by Pan Am, and later by British Airways. This tournament is believed to have been the first major international "soft ball" tournament held on this side of the Atlantic and attracted a number of top players from North America including Henri Salaun (seven times former North American World Champion) who defeated a much younger top Canadian, Colin Adair (also a former NAWA Champion) in the first final.

The first Bermuda Open featuring Professional Squash Association (PSA) players was held in November 1989 and was sponsored initially by The Phoenix Stores. Over the years it grew in size and prestige beyond the wildest imagination of the original organisers, who could never have foreseen the day in September 2004 when the BSRA would conclude an historic agreement with the PSA for Bermuda to host the 2005 and 2006 PSA Masters, and the World Open in 2007 - the pinnacle of all squash tournaments. This was the largest contract ever signed by the PSA in the history of squash.

There is no doubt that Bermuda's exposure to world-class squash has greatly helped our young players and encouraged membership at the BSRA - now totaling over 550. Located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with a total population of just under 65,000, Bermuda cannot expect to compete with much larger countries. However, through our active participation in squash events world-wide, our thriving Junior Programme, and major PSA events bringing all of the world's top professional players to compete in Bermuda, we can honestly boast that squash is alive and well on our tiny Island.

December 2005

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