IG07 Sports

Squash has not been selected as one of the 14 sports featuring in the 2007 Rhodes Island Games.

Who thought it up?

The pupils discovered that a punctured Rackets ball, which 'squashed' on impact with the wall, produced a game with a greater variety of shots and required much more effort on the part of the players, who could not simply wait for the ball to bounce back to them as with Rackets.

The variant proved popular and in 1864 the first four Squash courts were constructed at the school and Squash was officially founded as a sport in its own right.

By the 1920s, squash was no longer an obscure pastime for schoolboys, having national championships and league play and standard rules. International play started in 1922 and then a dramatic rise in popularity came after the Second World War.

Indeed, Squash has grown incredibly in the last thirty years, and is now played in 130 countries, on some 47,000 courts.

Shetland 2005

The first ever Guernsey Squash team to play in an Island Games came back with six medals.

Women's Doubles Dunk K - Strobridge A Guernsey Gold 

Mixed Doubles Simpson C - Dunk K Guernsey Bronze 

In the first day of the team event in Squash, Guernsey took on Shetland, Gibraltar and the Isle of Man beating them all 5-0 putting them top of the group table with 9 points. But on day two Guernsey had to settle for silver in the team event after losing out on the gold to Jersey.

It was Gold for Guernsey Chris Simpson in the Men's Singles. He beat Jersey's Michael Hopkins in 3 straight sets.

Women's Singles - Alison Strobridge met Jersey's Ronnie Jubb in the women's final. The Jersey woman overpowered Alison in three straight sets, taking gold but silver was still a great result for Strobridge. Team mate Karen Dunk took the bronze.

Both players also earnt another medal as they partnered up in the Squash Women's Doubles. After beating the Isle of Man's Maryke Burger and Isabell Klose 2-0 in the final Alison Strobridge and Karen Dunk walked away with the gold.

In the Squash Mixed Doubles Guernsey's Chris Simpson and Karen Dunk won the Bronze Medal Play Offs against Isabell Klose and David Norman from the Isle of Man.