The Mile High Factor

By Brett Erasmus

Are you enjoying watching the Soccer World Cup? I certainly am, irrespective of the fact that the hosts bombed out.

Did you know that there are five South American teams in the Soccer World Cup and they lead every group they are in (five out of eight groups in the competition)? So far they have played thirteen matches, having not lost once (won ten and drawn three). Between them, they have scored twenty-one times and only conceded four goals in the tournament thus far. I think that is very interesting indeed. And, besides for the fact that they are very good at soccer (!), there must be other reasons for it. Allow me to speculate (further than I previously have)..

Squash and Soccer

By Brett Erasmus
The Soccer World Cup started today and I watched the first ever match played in my country of birth. Was very excited about it, more because it will be a great spectacle for South Africa, less because I fancy my team’s chances. But we held Mexico to a draw, so you never know..

The home team normally fares very well actually. I looked it up. Did you know that in 8 out of 18 previous World Cups the home team has reached the finals? And in 6 out of 8 finals, the home team has won the World Cup. So if a miracle happens and South Africa makes it to the final then we will be favorites to win (!). We'll see what happens.

Time for a Break?

By Tracy Gates

A few weeks ago, a friend told me he was taking the summer off from squash. I thought he was crazy.

A week later, I walked into my gym at prime time and no one was playing. I thought, where is everybody?

And then a week after that I competed in the Hyder—four matches in two days. I played squash, scored squash, and watched squash. At the end of the weekend, I was tired of squash. Not to mention that my elbow sorely needed a break. I thought, time to do something else for a while. . . . But that brought me to the big question: What??

For Queen and Country

By Brett Erasmus

Just imagine you play a sport that your country pretty much invented and the pinnacle of achievement in that sport is the national championship. And your homeland has the most depth out of any nation worldwide and boasts more of the top professionals than any other. But, for some reason, your players struggle to win the national championship. In fact nobody on the home team has won it since before the Second World War. Then, by sheer grit and determination you get to the finals of the event and play the man who was world number one for all of the previous year. He is not from your country. You are not favored to win. But you do.

Razik wins Hyder

Shahier Razik beat Scott Arnold 3-0, to win the 42nd annual MSRA Hyder Trophy Tournament. Read Rob Dinerman's match write up on Squashtalk.com:
http://www.squashtalk.com/html2/news10/may/news10-05-212.htm













Photos: Rob White Photography (www.robwhitephotography.com)

How to Have a Happy Hyder

By Brett Erasmus

What is the ideal recipe for a successful squash tournament? Perhaps the ingredients are as follows. Take 180 avid amateur squash players and a team of dedicated MSRA organizers. Add one great facility with 5 singles courts where the division finals can all be played consecutively (thank you Eddie Kapur and Sports Club LA). Then go and invite some of the best professional squash players in North America. Finally, throw a party on the Saturday night with free drinks and walaa, what do you have, if not a weekend of pure Hyder happiness.

Canadian number one, Shahier Razik, won the pro event. In the amateurs, I am very happy to report that many juniors got to final rounds of the tournament. As far as the women’s draws went, there were teens in each of the 4.0, 4.5, 5.0 and 5.5 consolation finals, as well as in the 5.5 final. And we had a junior player, Mawa Balla, from the StreetSquash program in Harlem (http://www.streetsquash.org/) win the Women’s 3.0 consolation draw. I wonder if that has ever happened before? The first of many victories, in more ways than one.

Hyder Pro Draw Matches - Recap

Check out Rob Dinerman's squashtalk.com write-ups from the Hyder:

http://www.squashtalk.com/html2/news10/may/news10-05-201.htm

http://www.squashtalk.com/html2/news10/may/news10-05-206.htm

The 6 Things EVERY Tournament Player Needs to Do

Here are the five things that every tournament player can do this weekend to make the tournament run smoothly (and make your tournament directors happy):

1. Be on time to matches, as a match may be defaulted if a player is more than 10 minutes late. Call venue coordinators as early as possible if you suspect you will not be able to make your match.

2. Losing player must referee the next match. This has been the official US Squash rule for two years. Please budget the necessary time to referee the following match.

The Hyder at T-minus One Week

By Corey Modeste


The last week of planning a tournament is all about damage control. There is not a lot that can be done to make the tournament better or bigger, but many things can be mismanaged to make for a confusing weekend.

The biggest issue is dropouts and the last two days are when we seem to get most dropouts. Between people who were sick or injured all week (and could have dropped out) to those who had a schedule conflict (and could have notified us) to those with legitimate last minute excuses, we have had as much as 20 dropouts in the last two days.
Thankfully, there are also last minute signups that will (hopefully) balance the equation

An Awesome Effort

By Brett Erasmus 

Last Saturday ten teams of fund raisers gathered in Harlem to play in the 2nd annual StreetSquash Cup (www.streetsquash.org/cup). 

Each team fielded one pro and one StreetSquasher in their line up of 6 players. The games went on for many hours with each team playing 6 ties. The Williams Alumni and the Racquet and Tennis Club finished on top. They had some good players. Afterward there was an exhibition game featuring Chris Walker. It was a lot of fun and was a great day for squash in New York.