To get an idea of how I became involved in professional squash tournament promotion it may help going back 10 years ago to when I first came to work in the US and landed the Head Pro position at the then largest health club in America, called Lakeshore Athletic Club in Chicago, which had 5 squash courts and a medium sized program. I had been playing squash for about 15 years by then and competed at a lower pro level whilst living in France, attaining a national ranking in the top 20 prior to moving Westwards across the Atlantic. I had played in many smaller pro events before but never been involved with organizing, promoting and directing one myself. Upon arrival in Chicago I was informed that part of my duties would be to raise about $10k to run a Professional Squash Association (PSA) tournament, which the coach before me (Phil Yarrow), had started about 3 years before. Phil gave me a very short explanation of what was involved with an emphasis on being prepared to unashamedly ask endless people, many almost strangers, for money and to hear mainly refusals. Endless hours of preparation and stress before, during and after the event coupled with not many rewards, from a personal point of view, were also an integral part of the process and it became clear to me why Phil was now pursuing a career in banking. I wondered why on earth he had started a pro event in the first place and he told me several club members had wanted to see some pro action on the courts and he knew many friends on the pro tour who he enjoyed catching up with for the week to watch play and share a few beers. Phil, it might be added, was a former high level junior player from England who won the US Nationals twice back in the early to mid 90's and has written a book called  'Steps to Success ' on beginner squash.

So that is how I started in pro tournament promotion - the first year, 1996, the gentlemen that helped put the US PSA Tour together forgot to register my event and so it ended up being an 8 man invitational that featured Damian Walker, Marty Clarke, Richard Chin, Tim Long, Eric Christianson and Friday Odeh along with 2 other players. The matches were not that great to watch or well contested and in the final Damian clinically took Marty apart in 3 games without much resistance, which I thought was not really what I wanted to see given all the work that had gone in to raising the money, organizing airport pick-ups and drop-off's, accommodation for the players and a special dinner function. Suffice to say it was the last time I went to the trouble of organizing an ' Invitational ' style event.

The following year, 1997, I personally made sure that I was fully registered with the PSA well in advance and was very impressed with the high level of competition from the qualification rounds onwards. The total prizemoney on offer was $6,000 but with other costs my budget was again $10k. In the final Nathan Dugan, who at that time was ranked about 100 in the world and un-seeded but obviously very good, came from two games down to beat the #1 seed John White, who many people may have heard of now but was at the time ranked #40 in the world. It was a fantastic match to watch, the packed gallery was enthralled and the sponsors happy which made me realize it was indeed all worthwhile, although I looked 5 years older and could hardly mutter 3 words by the end of the week. John hit the ball just as hard then as he does now - it was at this tournament that he spent a lot of time with his then American girlfriend who lived in the region and later became his wife.

In 1998 the final was between a very young Finnish player by the name of Olli Touminen who is now ranked #15 in the world and John Russell from England. I vividly remember John playing very well in the semis and having a grueling match with the Frenchman Stephane Galifi, who was a sublimely talented player (and still is), then partying with me and several other players until after 5 am that night. The next day he got up and took a sauna before his match to sweat out some of the alcohol in his system before playing a brutal match losing narrowly in 5 games. It was Olli's first win on the PSA tour and he vanished for about an hour missing the entire trophy presentation, which was not so good. A very young player by the name of Anthony Ricketts also played in the tournament that year, one of his first ever as a pro, accompanied by his coach the legend Geoff Hunt who came all the way from Australia and was only too happy to sleep on the couch of one of the hosts housing players.

I left Lakeshore in early 1999 and took up the position of Racquets' Sports Director at the Birmingham Athletic Club in Detroit. One of the first things I was asked in my interview was what I would try to bring to their existing program to make it stronger and whether I thought a pro event would be a possibility, as some people on the search committee had heard I had ran some good events in the past. This led to me starting the Motor City Open which offered $13k in prizemoney and attracted a much higher caliber of player then I had met before. What stands out in my mind was a first round qualification match between Anthony Ricketts and Peter Marshall , a former world #2 , who was returning from a long break and had called me from England to ask for a local spot. Anthony led 2 games to love before Peter came back winning 15-12 in the fifth, taking nearly 2 hours to play. From that point on Peter was not pushed that hard beating Paul Price, Lee Beachill, Graham Ryding and then David Palmer, who at the time was ranked #27 in the world, 3-0 in the final. Along with all of these players Rodney Eyles, the 1997 World Champion, was also in the main draw.

It was very hard to follow up on such a good tournament in 2000 but with a doubling of prizemoney on offer to $25k the draw was again stronger and I was getting to meet some players I had only ever heard or read about. The top seed was David Palmer who at the time was ranked #7 in the world and other players included John White, Ong Beng Hee, Joe Kneipp, Nick Matthew (who I had the pleasure of playing in the qualification draw) Alex Gough and Graham Ryding. David coasted through to the final where he found himself 0-2 down to Alex but at this point he dug deep, which he has done many times since and most recently a couple of nights ago to win the world championship for a second time, and came back to win 3-2. It was not a pretty match and no love was lost but it was hard to beat for pure effort and drama and the members and spectators lapped it up.

In 2001 I moved to become the Head Pro at Meadowmill Athletic Club in Baltimore which is the largest public squash facilty in America with 14 single and 2 doubles courts. The club had not held a pro event for several years and so I worked to raise some money from the membership and we hosted a $6k PSA event in 2002, which featured some tough matches and saw the arrival on the pro scene of a very young Dutchman called LJ Anjema, who had not played in that many  PSA events before. He made the final before losing to the #1 seed Liam Kenny and has since gone on to reach #23 in the world. It is a shame that I did not stay very long at MeadowMill because I felt there was enormous potential to host a much larger pro event if they had so wished and I know that the level of interest was quite high before I left rather suddenly.

For the past 3 and a half years I have been based at The Country Club of Virginia in Richmond. When I first started coaching and running the program here the club had 2 old beaten up 20ft racketball conversion courts and about 25 regular players. Over the period of about 6 months those numbers slowly increased and grew to about 60 at which point the club decided to build 3 new international courts and offer me a full-time position. The new courts were ready for play just before Christmas 2003 and we held a $10k PSA tournament (the Virginia Professional Squash Championship ) in January 2004 to celebrate the opening of the new squash facility. It was the first time the club had run a pro squash event although it has hosted a very popular collegiate tournament called the Price - Bullington Invitational (PBI) for over 30 years which was very well organized under the direction of the VSRA, and Ted Price in particular.

The 2004 tournament was a big success and helped create a lot of 'buzz' about the sport, not only at The CCV but throughout the city too, which was the main aim. There were some good matches but not as many as I had witnessed at other tournaments - Jan Koukal a young player from Czechoslavakia beat David Evans (a former world #4) 3-2  in the quarters in a tough and entertaining match before losing in the final 3-0 to Rodney Durbach from South Africa, who had played one of the toughest matches I have ever witnessed in the semi's the night before beating Shahier Razik 3-2. Shahier ended up after the match with 2 big bags of ice wrapped around his hamstrings and abductors which made for an interesting photo op.

In 2005 we moved up to a '2 star' level tournament offering $20k in total prizemoney. To be honest there were not that many really close matches although none were that easy and in the final Shahid Zaman from Pakistan beat Bradley Ball from England 3-1. The one thing that sticks in my mind about the tournament was talking to Bradley just before and after his first round match, which he narrowly won 3-2.  He had a very sore back and I had taken him for several massage appointments to try and help ease the pain. He honestly thought he would not be able to continue but still found the guts to push through and make the final, in the end only being beaten by a player with amazing racquet skills who just had too many shots at his disposal on the day.

Last year, 2006, was the biggest tournament I have ever been involved with, and also the best in my opinion after 10 years of directing numerous pro and amateur events. I might like to add that when I write about these tournaments it is by no means a one man show although it certainly helps to have a point person with some experience in pro tournament direction and planning. The Virginia Squash Racquets Association (VSRA)  has been very heavily involved with all the pro events held here in Richmond and over the past 3 years or so, more than 30 people have offered more than their fair share of time and energy to help make the events so successful. This,  along with the generosity of The CCV and University of Richmond in hosting the events and countless numbers of sponsors and patrons whose financial support makes it all possible.

Earlier this year we hosted a '3 star ' PSA tournament that offered $30,000 in total prizemoney, and the main draw was played on the McWill all glass portable show court erected at the University of Richmond. The court was staged in the student commons building over-looking a lake and I think was a fabulous setting although the side viewing was somewhat restricted. There was however viewing for over 250 spectators, of which only 75 were reserved for sponsors, and on many occasions people were literally balancing on a chair behind 4 rows of people watching high above the back wall, trying to get a glimpse of the action. The draw was quite strong and featured 11 players ranked in the worlds top 50 with John White, a former world #1 , being the #1 seed. Having the matches played on the show court in a great setting and with viewing for so many people made for a great atmosphere and the matches all lived up to their expectations. After some relatively fast and straight forward first round matches, which was to be expected, all the quarter finals except one went the full distance - John was the only player to proceed in less than an hour beating his opponent 3-1. The three other matches were incredible and featured numerous swings of momentum, exhausting rallies and breath-taking individual shots on view for over 4 hours of action. Adrian Grant was the last man standing beating Mohammed Abbas 3-2 after coming back from 2 love down, walking off the court at nearly mid-night in front of about a 20 die hard fans. The semis were also great to watch, with John winning 3-1 and Adrian once again coming from 2-1 down to win in a fifth game tie-breaker over another very talented Egyptian Wael El Hindi. After all his exertion from the previous 2 nights Adrian unfortunately did not have much left in the tank and John won the final 3-0, but it  still involved some incredible athleticism and trade-mark fast paced shots.

Immediately following the conclusion of this years event several sponsors approached me to say they were already keen to commit to another event in 2007 and wanted to ask how much more it would cost to offer prizemoney that might attract more of the worlds top 10 ranked players. After some consideration and discussion the VSRA decided to go with a ' 5 Star ' level tournament next year to played again on the portable glass court at the U of R, but with increased seating that should allow up to 300 people to watch each match - again less that 100 seats will be reserved for sponsors, the rest are free and open to the public. Along with the men's pro tournament there will be a women's pro exhibition event too which will be a great addition to the schedule. We have already secured local television and media coverage and hope that the event will again be a huge success and help to promote squash throughout the region.

It is great to know that so many local companies are interested and continue to support the tournament including Davenport and Company, Carmax, EverGreen Investments, Commonwealth Coal, Westhampton Partners and Gray and Gray Builders - it makes a huge difference when the CEO's or founders show up to watch, meet the players and get involved. Plans for the 2007 event started in February 2006 and have continued all year long - we are now getting towards the busy time of confirming sponsors and putting all the pieces together.

For a taste of what the 2006 tournament was like you can go to www.lyonsandtigers.com/SquashVA/ - thank-you to Patricia Lyons for putting this together. You can also go to www.squashsite.co.uk hit 'archives ' then look for 'Whitey is the Richmond Man' article in February. More information on the 2007 tournament along with any other events in the region are posted at www.va-squash.org which is soon to be updated.

The VSRA is a non-profit organization with any proceeds going towards youth development and all Board members are volunteers who help organize the pro tournament and many other events throughout the region because of their genuine interest in the sport. Ted Price is the main reason why squash is what it is today at The CCV and in Richmond - his love of the game, incredible support and boundless  energy is amazing and he is the one person responsible for its continued growth in the region over the past 35 years.

I would like to add that after 10 years of pro tournament experience, and many mistakes, it is never easy to always get it right and the only hope organizers have is if they plan well in advance, get a strong team around them to help and be prepared to ask for advice. Over the past 5 years I have regularly volunteered my time to help out at the Tournament of Champions in New York and the US Open in Boston run by the best promoter of pro squash in the world, John Nimick. John has allowed me to see how he does things, is always there if I have a question about something and is a unlimited source of knowledge. He runs tournaments as a business and he is very good at what he does because his livelihood depends on it and I suggest anyone thinking of running their own event should try and attend numerous pro events if possible and look behind the scenes and see what really goes on.

Having started this piece, asking why on earth someone went to the trouble of trying to raise money to hold a pro event, and then take on a lot of stress for no obvious return I can say that I honestly do sometimes ask myself the same questions at times. The answer is that it is great to see a truly big event come together involving many like minded people who share the same passion. It is also inspiring to see these phenomenal world class athletes do there thing right in front of you only a few feet away, and then have a chat or share a beer with them later that evening, and it is amazing to see not only squash enthusiasts, but people who may have never been on a court or seen a point played before in their lives, become transfixed by the level of raw athletic skill coupled with tremendous desire and sportsmanship that top class pro squash players exhibit day in and day out, for little real financial reward, but primarily due to their love of the game.

I am not sure who might read this, but I would like to thank a number of people who have been very instrumental and supportive in a great many ways over the past decade, helping me to bring these tournaments together in a manner that could be enjoyed by the pro players, sponsors and spectators alike - Mike Donio in Chicago, Peter Schmidt in Detroit, Nancy Wolfe and Nancy Cushman in Baltimore, Ted Price, Les Carter, David Lyons, Allison Purcell , Ned Sinnott, Bruce DeWet and Tom Wallace in Richmond, John Nimick in Boston and my wife Chrissy for her continued patience and unwavering belief in my capabilities over many years.