Squash will make it’s Olympic debut at the Los Angeles games in 2028. Long serving volunteer Dave Bott of the Cheltenham squash club hopes this will save the “declining” sport from irrelevancy.
The Cheltenham squash club volunteer spoke about the decline in the area for squash as a sport saying “We’re probably the third or fourth biggest as foreign dimensions concern. There’s a very big club called East Glos Club, which does tennis and squash, and they’re probably the biggest there’s lots and lots of teams.”
Bott’s continued “There’s a few other clubs, old pats and stray have got a club Riverside Gloucester, and I might be missing out a couple. But, you know, there are actually a few dotted around, I mean it’s also true to say that there aren’t as many as there were.”
A study done by Statista shows the number of people participating in Squash in England has fallen from 425,600 in 2016 to just 287,000 in 2023 with the lowest being during pandemic times of 105,000.
With these worrying numbers it is no surprise that squash is slowly disappearing from England, “I could name some clubs that have now sort of shut down in Star Club de la bare, which is now Ellenborough Park Hotel, used to be de la bare hotel, and it was a thriving squash club, lots of good teams, good players and coaching, yeah, but yeah. I mean, squash, sadly, is on the decline maybe it is going to get a boost as it is in the Olympics.” says a worried Bott.
Bott then went on to reflect on what made him play the sport of squash and why he is volunteering as a committee member ” it has always been an energetic game, gets you off the couch but because it’s indoors, when I played squash, it may be a bit cold on court, but it is social, it is competitive you find your level.”
“I find it that since it is a paired sport if you agree to play a game you don’t want to let the other person down so you turn up but is great for socialising we all play each other and we have arranged tournaments together so it has been great for socials” the Englishmen continued.
Bott’s role at the club can’t be understated “It’s a volunteer club with about 50 members. I am one of the volunteers on the committee, my main responsible are organizing tournaments and box leagues.”
“The box leagues are very popular and involve 20 or 25 members and gives people of all standards a chance to have a game, it’s good for new members who don’t know anyone.” on the topic of the box league Bott also talked to the social aspect of the game.
“I find it that since it is a paired sport if you agree to play a game you don’t want to let the other person down so you turn up but is great for socialising we all play each other and we have arranged tournaments together so it has been great for socials.” said Bott.
“We run a number of events, we have had the squash national/professional championships in Birmingham and Nottingham, we try to run four months of the year. The main aim of the club is those championships where the elite of the team get to shine and win it!
