Shayle Pringle

Shayle began her squash journey at Richmond Working Men’s Club in Christchurch at the age of eight, following in the footsteps of her father, who had played there for many years. Like many young players, her early days were spent learning the basics, supported by the patience and encouragement of junior coach Tony Murray. It wasn’t long before her enthusiasm for the game began to shine through.

From 1996, Shayle represented Canterbury at junior level, winning several Canterbury Junior Age Group titles and claiming a South Island Junior Championship. She later progressed to the Canterbury Senior Team and enjoyed considerable success at senior level, winning the Canterbury Open in 2006, 2007 and 2008, as well as the South Island Senior Championships in 2008. In recognition of her contribution and sportsmanship, she was named Canterbury Senior Personality of the Year in 2008. More recently, Shayle has continued to compete successfully in Masters squash, winning New Zealand Women’s Masters titles in the 35+ division in 2017 and the 40+ division in 2023.

Away from competition, Shayle remains deeply involved in the squash community. She is a mother of three young girls, all of whom enjoy spending time on court, and she is a familiar face on the sidelines supporting their growing sporting interests. At Richmond Squash Club, Shayle has made a significant contribution to junior development, helping grow the junior membership from seven players to more than thirty, and providing coaching and guidance to both junior and senior members.

Shayle continues to give back to the sport that has shaped so much of her life. Through her involvement at Richmond Squash Club, she supports and encourages the next generation of players, sharing her knowledge, experience and love of the game. Squash has also given Shayle lifelong friendships, and she greatly values the opportunity to reconnect on court whenever time allows.

Don and Nancy Wasley

When Don and Nancy arrived in Christchurch from Paraparaumu in 1967, squash opportunities in the city were limited. With only the Christchurch Club courts available in the city centre, they often found themselves playing at the Recreation Centre near Christchurch Airport, having previously been members of the Kāpiti squash community.

In 1969, Don and Nancy became founding members of Burnside Squash Club. From the very beginning, Nancy played a leading role, being elected Ladies Club Captain at the club’s inaugural AGM. Both Don and Nancy went on to give many years of dedicated service to the club through committee roles and leadership positions. Nancy served as Ladies Club Captain on five occasions and Club Secretary twice, while Don was Club President twice and Men’s Club Captain three times. Their commitment to Burnside became a true family legacy, with their daughter Susan contributing more than 20 years of service to the club, including four and a half years as Club President.

In recognition of their exceptional contribution, both Don and Nancy were made Life Members of Burnside Squash Club. Nancy also shares the role of Club Patron with Barry Gardiner.

A significant part of Don and Nancy’s legacy lies in tournament organisation. They devoted many years to running the well-known Burnside C Grade Tournament, which later evolved into the Burnside Open, along with supporting numerous internal and district events.

Beyond the club, Nancy made an outstanding contribution to squash in Canterbury. She served as Statistician for Canterbury Squash, was a Canterbury Junior Selector and Team Manager, and represented Canterbury herself in both Senior and Masters teams.

Don was deeply committed to the integrity of the game. As a member of the ‘Canterbury Rules and Referees Committee’, he was passionate about ensuring players understood and respected the rules, becoming particularly well known for his sharp eye on foot faults.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Burnside Squash Club was regarded as one of the strongest junior clubs in New Zealand. This success was built on the coaching, guidance and encouragement provided by Don and Nancy, alongside many other dedicated parents. Juniors from this era included Stu and Paul Davenport, Mark Crosbie, and Chris and Sue Wasley.

Nancy is also fondly remembered for her dry sense of humour, once remarking that John Key was “the worst Treasurer Burnside ever had”.

Don and Nancy are proud parents of Chris and Sue, both of whom have represented Canterbury at Junior, Senior and Masters levels, as well as New Zealand. Chris competed in the New Zealand Colts team and was a National Teams Champion, while Sue represented New Zealand in two Junior teams and was a New Zealand Under-19 Champion.

Their contribution to squash – at club, district and national level – has left a lasting legacy, built on service, integrity and a genuine love of the game.

Rod Hayes

Rod Hayes started playing squash when he started high school at Shirley Boys High. He soon became good friends with some others there who played squash and they played frequently on the school courts. Thanks to some coaching from local coaches, and inspiration from both the National Coach, Dardir, and his book, Rod soon started improving and rose up through the ranks.

He won junior age-group events in Canterbury, and then at National level both the Junior Open and U/23 championships twice each. Later on he won at Masters level in the O/35, O/40, O/45 sections. He was Canterbury Open champion six times and represented Canterbury at the National teams’ events at junior, senior and masters level on numerous occasions. He has managed the Canterbury Men’s team, and, recently, the Canterbury Women’s team. He was a Men’s selector for the first time in 2019.

Rod travelled to Britain on squash expeditions during our summers three times. On his first trip he flatted with Ross Norman ( 3 years his junior), the next with his good mate from high school and Canterbury teams, Paul McFadzien, and lastly with his (new) wife Adrianne, previously Canterbury Netball captain and Silver Fern ( as Adrianne Prattley). Following the third trip he was selected in the NZ Men’s team for the 1983 World Championships held in Auckland. He cites his match in the Team’s event, playing at number 1 for New Zealand against Jahangir Khan, as his proudest moment in squash. (Team #1, Stuart Davenport, was resting for that tie). A close second was winning the NZ Junior Open for the first time – that came as a big surprise.

Being a High School teacher was always Rod’s career ambition. After two years as a full-time player leading up to the 1983 World Champs he returned to teaching. Firstly at Nga Tapuwae College, Mangere, then at Cashmere High in Christchurch, and latterly at Shirley Boys High where his squash started. He retired from there as Guidance Counsellor in 2014. During these teaching years he had several years away from competitive squash for various reasons, but he generally continued coaching individuals, school pupil groups, and occasionally squads. These include the NZ Junior girls team for a while whilst living in Auckland, Canterbury junior squads and senior squads as well. Several individuals who benefitted from his input went on to NZ titles – Marie Pearson (U/23), Sarah Cook, Phillipa Beams, Michael Penman (U/23) – and a number represented Canterbury.

Rod joined the Christchurch Squash Rackets Club committee aged about 18, and served on it at various times, including Club President for a year in the ’90s. He is currently the Club Patron, and very proud of, and happy to be more involved in, their new squash facility, the Don Preston Squash Centre. He has been a member of the Canterbury Squash Foundation board for several years and is particularly enthusiastic for their initiative of recognising the Legends of Canterbury squash.

Nowadays Rod enjoys playing golf, coaching squash and trying to keep fit in a gym. He and Adrianne have three grown-up daughters who no longer live in Christchurch. They were once little blondies that he dragged to squash, but now he has to travel to visit, and two live in Australia, However they are all good at returning back to their long-time family home in St Albans. Rod realises that most of his best mates are people he played squash with over many years, and many of those together in Canterbury teams.

Barry Gardiner

• Barry Gardiner was 22 years old before discovering the fascinating process of running an opponent into submission while squashed inside a big white concrete box away from the Greymouth weather.
• How Barry added Squash to his repertoire of multi-sporting successes is indeed the stuff of Legends. Most of the Canterbury squash fraternity was very interested when Barry competed in the Coast to Coast One-Day event at age 60 (several others had done it too – but when much younger!) The Legend just expanded once more.
• His various Squash activities, while based in Canterbury, have also been National and World wide.
• Barry has served for 32 years on the Burnside Club committee including 9 years as Chairman.
• Burnside Club honoured him with a Life Membership and he also serves as patron.
• Following his contributions as a player and team Manager at nationals and eleven years as their Administration Manager for seniors, Squash Canterbury awarded Barry Life Membership.
• At national Level, Barry served for 2 years as President of NZ Squash, 7 years as Convenor of Selectors and was on the selection panel of the Hall of Fame.
• His chairmanship of the 2008 world Masters Squash Champs held in CHCH coincided with Burnside Club raising $210,000 necessary to improve the Club facilities for the tournament.
• Barry has estimated that since 1957 he has attended 763 committee meetings. Should anyone be considering contesting that total he is willing to quote from the minutes of each meeting [but not tonight].
• Between meetings Barry has fitted in playing some Squash. He started playing 58 years ago and has played interclub continuously for 51 years.
• He was the number 1 player for Southern Districts, playing against Canterbury on occasions, and played for many years at the National Championships in the open grade.
• He had six years as Canterbury Masters representative, won 9 individual national Masters titles, and was a NZ Masters representative against Australia in 26 tests on 11 occasions.
• Shortly after his 80th birthday at the end of 2017 Barry had a knee replacement operation. However this did not stop him playing in the recent Burnside Open tournament.
• He was winner of World Masters over 50 – Auckland 1991 World Masters over 60 – Sheffield UK 2001 World Masters over 70 – Christchurch 2008 No doubt Barry is now in training for the next over- 80s event.

Doug Lawrie

• These days aged 84 Doug is the senior member of the CSF board. He is also on the NZ Squash Hall of Fame board, and one of their Hall of Fame selectors. This has led us to the CSF Legends concept, and it should be noted that Doug has all along staunchly said that no CSF Board member should be inducted as a Legend. However as you will soon hear he is a Legend, and one we feel should be recognised tonight.
• Doug started his squash life when he joined the Oamaru Squash Club at age 15. He later became Club Champion, or runner up, of that club 13 times. He was also a North Otago junior representative at cricket and tennis.
• Doug was a member of the Oamaru Club’s winning Cousin’s Shield teams in 1956 and 1957. This is the national inter-club competition. He was Southland Provincial Champion for 2 years.
• In the Oamaru Squash Club Doug held all offices including secretary, president and vice- president over the years. Prior to his transfer to Christchurch he was Vice-president of Southern Districts Squash Association.
• Upon arriving in Christchurch Doug served on the Canterbury Squash Association for 11 years. He held positions as Junior and Under 23 convenors, coaching convenor, and was the manager of Junior and Senior teams to the NZ Championships for many years where his calm demeanour and tactical appreciation was of enormous assistance to players such as Joanne Williams, Stuart Davenport, Rod Hayes, Paul McFadzien and Lawrence Skurr.
• He is a Life Member of Squash Canterbury, and was President for 3 years around 1979.
• Doug was the inaugural chairman of the NZ Squash Juniors advisory committee. He has served as a NZ Juniors selector and as NZSRA Convenor of Coaching. He is both a NZ qualified coach and a qualified referee.
• He has been Team manager of New Zealand Junior Boys and Girls teams to Australia, and also the New Zealand Men’s and Women’s Teams to play in the Australian Interstate championships.
• After leaving Christchurch and moving to Timaru Doug was on the Midlands Squash management committee for 24 years, serving as Convenor of both Seniors and Coaching. During that time he was the manager/coach of both Senior and Junior teams over a 10 year period.
• While living in Timaru Doug worked as Squash Coach for the Otago Institute of Sport, commuting to Dunedin during term time. Some of those players were very competitive in tournaments around the country.
• Doug still commutes to Christchurch for the Squash Foundation’s monthly evening meetings, and thinks nothing of the drive home afterwards.

Murray Withers

Murray Ian Withers started playing squash on a more serious fashion following a serious knee injury in 1973, however had previously played as a secondary activity both at Shirley Boys High School, (the fondest memory being losing to Paul Salt a then promising 13 year old in the final of school champs myself being a 7th former ) and in the early University days at Canterbury University playing interclub for YWCA in Division 13 or thereabouts with one Ian Brooks. Playing senior rugby at 19 following a stint in the Shirley Boys High School first fifteen, the knee injury meant rugby was no longer an option.

Murray then joined Richmond Workingman Club and worked through the grades. He achieved a B grading, won the Richmond Club championship 16 times including 13 years consecutively. During his time at Richmond Murray had a brief stint at Christchurch Football. To try and better himself he moved to Lancaster Park and played Div. one and while at that club had many open grade matches. From there he moved to Cashmere as he lived adjacent and won the club champs of one occasion. Murray won many local graded tournaments and did win the Gore open. He also attended and played in the national graded champs and several occasions. Murray retired from squash as his bones could not sustain the intensity of higher-grade squash and as he was not prepared to slip down the grades, Murray never played the sport for fun. He has since had both knees and both hips replaced.

Murray involvement in squash administration was extensive. Never one to sit on the side-line and let others do the work, at Richmond he started his involvement as Statistician. Those were the days where there was no computer-generated results or grading list. He recalls attending Squash Canterbury and Statistician meetings. He then became Canterbury Statistician for 6 years and as such was a member of the Canterbury Squash committee. From Statistician at Richmond he then had a four-year stint as club captain. He joined the committee at Richmond was vice president and then president of the club for 10 years. He was initially a delegate to Canterbury Squash but then became a committee member and very quickly chairman of Canterbury Squash and remained chairman for over 10 years. As part of that process he was a delegate to New Zealand Squash for 6 years and then as part of a voted process became a committee member and both vice chairman and a stint as chairman of New Zealand squash. That latter role having a finite two-year term.
Perhaps his greatest achievement was creating the computerised interclub system and developing in conjunction with his brother Ross a program to allocate times and courts for all interclub matched from recollection 22 men’s grades and 14 women’s grade with 12 teams in each and a home and away basis and early and late games. It was often remarked that while this interclub program was running the tickets at a local airline used to be very slow in being processed. The program often would take over 16 hours to run and then required checking and manual adjustment.

Murray was nominated and achieved Reginal recognition as Sport Canterbury Hadlee sports Administrator of the year and also was Chairman of the Committee that hosted and ran the 1993 World Juniors an event that was recognised by the Sports Canterbury Hadlee awards as sports event of the year. In addition, Murray was Canterbury Squash personality of the year of two occasions and was awarded life membership. Further he was Tournament Director of the World Masters Squash Championship held in Christchurch.

With Murray’s injuries came his retirement and not one to linger and with a son launching a rugby career Murray moved into Coaching Rugby at Sydenham Rugby and coached from under 14 through to Colts in all about 7 years. During this time, he was nominated to the Metropolitan Rugby Committee the committee that administered club rugby and within 2 years became chairman of that committee a role he held for 12 years. During this time, he was also chairman of the disciplinary committee and in that role was citing commissioner for Super Rugby and All Black tests in Christchurch.

Following the earthquakes. Murray was a trustee of the Canterbury Rugby Earthquake Recovery Trust and Canterbury Squash Foundation.
Murray also had various other community-based activities including BEING a member of rotary for over 30-years and was chairman of Lifeline for 6 years. Various school committees and coaching roles including coaching touch rugby side at Villa Maria.

Murray now plays golf and is still a Rotarian and a trustee of several trusts including Sydenham rugby Trust and Canterbury Squash Foundation.

Ann Harliwich

Ann is Mt Pleasant Squash – through her active involvement both as a committee member and player she has made a lasting and significant difference to both the squash community and the club.

• Has been a committee member of the Mt Pleasant Squash club for 38 years soon after joining 1980 after being introduced to the game by neighbour Kay Goodman.
• Ann has held every position on the club committee including President from 1990-1993 along with doing cleaning, gardening coaching and introducing new members.
• She has also representing the Squash club on the Mt Pleasant Community Centre Association for the last 15 years.
• She has also carried out Squash Canterbury roles being on the executive committee, managing the Canterbury Ladies and selector for Canterbury Ladies.
  While contributing to the club Ann also has a very rich playing history
• She won the Ladies club champs for the first time in 1985 – is the current club champ and has held the title 26 times in between.
• She was part of the very first Canterbury Womans team to play in the mens’ competitions in the mid 1980’s
• Ann’s rise though the ranks was very quick. In 1981 she was part of Mt Pleasant teams that won Div 5 Ladies, 1984, Div 1 Ladies and in 1996 she was part of the team that won the Ladies Open grade. As well as a number of other wins in both ladies and mens divisions throughout the years.
• She has also played in the national graded teams events (B grade) for Lancaster Park and Christchurch Football.
• Ann has been a member of the Canterbury ladies team and Canterbury Masters teams.

Don Preston

• Don Preston passed away in April 2007 after a battle with cancer. Just like he never gave in on the squash court, this was a battle that Don fought hard. After treatment for a initial episode Don returned to playing squash at a high level, and living his normally busy life to the fullest, before a return of the disease proved unbeatable.
  Upon Don’s death the Masters squash community in Canterbury, and many others, mourned the passing of a Legend of Canterbury squash.
• …pause..
• Over many years Don had a major impact on squash in Canterbury both as a player and an administrator.
• He was the vice president of the Canterbury Squash Association in 1973 & 74, and again in 1992 & 93. He was a Senior selector for 3 years, and the Under 23 coordinator for 4 years, over a 7 year stint in the late 80s and early 90s.
• Don was the dominant player in Christchurch in the early 1970s. One former impressionable junior remembers ” you just knew Don was going to win in the end – no matter how the match started”. Despite this he never won the Canterbury Championships. He was runner-up twice in a period of 10 years during which it was won by a succession of NZ Champions , North Island stars, and one Australian.
• But it was at the Christchurch Squash Club where Don really left his mark. He was Club Champion there 7 times over a 17 year period between 1965 and 1981, including 5 in a row in the early 70s. During that time he lived overseas or in Greymouth for 8 years, so potentially he would have won far more often.
• Having served on the Club Committee in 1964 & 65 he was President in 1973 & 74 before heading across to live in Greymouth for 4 years.. (where he was also President). Upon his return to Christchurch he was the junior night organiser and on the committee for a period of 9 years. Then in 1997, when the club was struggling after the 1994 World Junior Championships effort, Don became president again, in a term that lasted 7 years. During this time he is remembered as a very calm and steadying influence that got the club back on a sound financial, and emotional footing after near disaster.
• Don was an engineer, and his knowledge and understanding was of great benefit to the club. During his time he designed the original spiral staircase, and managed it’s later replacement and the moving of both the men’s and lady’s changing rooms and replacement of the outdated old water heating system.
• The South Island Championship was arguably the third most important event on the NZ calendar during the 1960s and 70s. Don won this event 3 times.
• In the 1970 New Zealand Champs Don reached the semi finals, and this had him selected in the NZ Men’s team that played Australia. The following year he was the reserve for the New Zealand team for the World Teams event.
• In 1999, 2000 and 2001 Don won the NZ Over 60s championship, and he was in the 2001 New Zealand Masters Team.
• Don was made a Life Member of Squash Canterbury in 2007
• The soon-to-be-built post-earthquake replacement of the Christchurch Squash Club will be named “The Don Preston Squash Centre”.

Sylvia Wesney

• The Wesney family of Sylvia, John and Tim has a place near to the heart for our generation of squash players. Nelson became the ‘Mecca’ of squash for many of us as we went to summer and winter tournaments with devoted regularity. For some there was even some serious squash played. Central to this was the constant of Sylvia Wesney, always present, always involved and forever visionary about the future of our game.
• Sylvia’s association with Squash commenced with her joining the Nelson Club in 1964, serving in many capacities and becoming an honoured life member in 1982.
• Her services in Nelson Club included Secretary and first woman President of the Club from 1982-1985. She was president when the club opened it’s two new courts.
• Reaching a C1 grading, Sylvia represented the club, both as a player and team manager at the national finals of team events. Coaching, organising club Squash for women and introducing school students were her special passions.
• An unusual aspect of becoming the Nelson club 40+ Champion was having to wait for 3 years until there was an opponent who had reached veteran age. To compensate for the wait she won the titles from 1977-81.
• With her wide playing and administration experience Sylvia was the ideal choice to be appointed as Tournament Director for several very successful major National events staged in Nelson.
• Having fulfilled a wide variety of administrative positions Sylvia was honoured as the Nelson Mail Newspaper sponsored, Administrator of the Year in 1992.
• In the same year, Sylvia Wesney created history by being voted in to become the first woman President of New Zealand Squash, being President from 1992-1994, in a very male run organisation. She was elected in a two-way race against another Legend of Canterbury squash – Don Preston.
• Sylvia was also liaison person on the Wellington Association for 13 clubs throughout the Nelson and Marlborough area.
• Winning the 2004 Nelson Bays Club Volunteer of the Year award was acknowledgement of the massive and varied contribution Sylvia has made to squash at the club, regional and national levels. On call for any assistance and wisdom needed at any time, Sylvia continued to demonstrate why, in her quiet, efficient way she was such a valued member of her club.
• The Nelson Club is fortunate to have a historical record dating from day 1. Full details of members, office bearers and notable events are attributable to Sylvia’s dedication and extensive research. This project though time consuming, was considered by Sylvia to be most satisfying. The historian in Sylvia extends to many other aspect of Nelson’s community and in researching some of Sylvia’s involvements one wonders when the commitment and energy will ever diminish.
• In 2016 Sylvia received a Lifetime Achievement in Squash Award at the Nelson Sports Awards in recognition of her commitment in so many ways over the last 55 years

Sue Wasley

Sue Wasley’s squash background began by watching her very active parents play and she officially joined the Burnside Squash Club in 1977 at the age of 13. She has been continuously involved with the club, on and off the court, including playing men’s and women’s interclub and many years on the Committee. Her services included being committee member, Coaching Co-ordinator, Vice President and 4 years as Club President.

During that time she co-directed a multitude of tournaments held at the Burnside club, including 5 x PSA and WISPA tournaments, NZ Junior Individual and Teams events, National Graded Champion of Champions and E Grade Super champs. Sue has assisted with coaching throughout Canterbury over many years and is currently a Canterbury Masters Selector.

Successful as a junior player, Sue held most of Burnside, Canterbury and South Island titles and won the NZ Junior Under 19 Age group title. She represented NZ on two occasions, with a 3 test series in NZ against Australia and again playing Australia in a test series in Perth during the Women’s World Champs. Sue is a long standing and proud representative of Burnside Open Ladies team and has represented Canterbury at Junior, Senior and Masters level for many years.

Outside of squash Sue enjoys family time, forever entertaining at home and playing golf.

Tim Dunbar

Tim Dunbar – Christchurch

• Tim Dunbar started playing Squash very casually, aged 15 at Christ’s College in the mid-1960s.
• He joined CHCH Squash Club, quietly satisfied with progressing through inter club from Division 13 up to Div 7, playing in several winning teams.
• Tim managed a CHCH team at the 1991 national E-Grade tournament in Whanganui. Included in the team was John Watson, the then current world jet boat champion. Considering Tim’s chosen profession, STRANGELY no results on or off the court were recorded.
• Tim covered Squash for the Press newspaper in CHCH for over 30 years, both at Tuesday night inter-club and even the Canterbury Association monthly meetings for a while. He believed that Squash Identities, Pat Leopold, Don Preston, Viv Hargreaves and Les Milne were already local Legends.
• He also covered provincial and national events regularly raising the profile of Squash. It is revealing to compare today’s sparse coverage by newspapers with the 120+ articles published in CHCH between 1975-78. The comparison shows just how much Tim’s contribution meant to Squash’s profile in Canterbury. Over a long period, Tim’s consistent insightful reporting was respected by players and administrators alike.
• Tim well remembers a precocious, weedy-looking 14 -year-old local player cheekily demanding write-ups – particularly after a win over Rod Hayes at inter-club. Not too many years later, Stuart [Hercules] Davenport was British under-19 Champion and later world ranked number 3. By then, Tim was the one chasing interviews. Stuart had also grown from a 5-foot nothing to a 6-foot plenty.
• Inter views with world champions occurred. These included phoning Toulouse, France in the early hours where Ross Norman was still celebrating winning the World Title by ending Pakistani’s Jahangir Khan’s incredible 5 ½ -year unbeaten run.
• Other encounters with world champions featured in Tim’s career. Notable were an interview with Heather McKay, 16 times British Open Champion and watching Dame Susan Devoy win a world title at home in 1987, and, on another occasion, being told off by her for talking in the CHCH Squash Club Gallery, leaving him red-faced.
• It is believed that Tim has the distinction of being the only known Canterbury player of his grading to be matched on court playing the great Geoff Hunt, [7-times World Champion].

Wendy Dann

• Wendy and husband Murray joined the CSRC in 1968 when the annual Husband and Wife membership fee was $33, rackets cost $3.25 and balls 55 cents.
• Initially Wendy only played with her husband, and as they had 4 kids the opportunities were quite restricted. The changing room for females was a shared storeroom/broom cupboard at the back of what is now court 3 at Christchurch SRC. (No glassback courts in those days either).
• When her children were older Wendy started playing in local tournaments, and that led to travelling to others in Ashburton, Timaru and Oamaru, often with club-mate Agnes Huriwai. She recalls it was not unusual to have a match scheduled for 11.30pm only to find you started at 12.30 or 1am because the courts were behind schedule
• Wendy played in the Graded Teams events, and this fostered a pride in the Christchurch SRC and a love for the game. She was helped a lot, as were many others, by Pat Leopold who was a strong advocate for the improvement of women players.
• During the 80s & 90s Wendy attended several different coaching courses so that she could help those in the club who wanted to improve. If the lower graded teams wanted her help she was readily available – payment ? – “no thankyou”, but they became a contact to call upon when help was needed in the kitchen during tournaments.
• Wendy served on the Christchurch SRC committee several times and became the first ever Female Club Captain.
• Former club President Lindsay Cotton recalls that Wendy always helped out at working bees and was regularly involved in the fundraising effort of delivering telephone books – organising, packing , and on-the -road delivering too.
• Wendy (now “about 70”) was still playing interclub in 2017. She still enjoys the burst of physical activity and the companionship after. She got a new knee at the end of 2017, and in March 2018 joined Club Coach Tim’s training squad on Fridays for a few weeks. Grade – D1.
• Wendy is still regularly helping out at the Club Junior Night, and goes to watch the junior teams playing interclub at times too
• Christchurch Club Coach Tim Mc Vie, when asked to talk about Wendy’s input, said quite unprompted ” Wendy’s a bit of a legend really”.

Gary Hutchison

• Gary started playing squash about age 18 as a sport to keep fit between rugby seasons, back when he played for Suburbs Rugby Club. He began to play regularly and this led to interclub alongside guys like Alan Dunlop. He moved to the Burnside squash club in the 1980s when he shifted house.
• Gary’s squash playing took him as far as C Grade, the National Graded finals representing Burnside SRC and Canterbury, and interclub Division 4. In this grade he had to play against members of the Canterbury Women’s team – he managed to win as far as he can recall!
• However it was as a referee that Gary went the distance in squash. In the 1980s, although not a qualified referee, he was critical of the refereeing standard. He was challenged to do something about it, and was invited to join the Canterbury Squash Administration as Refereeing Convenor.
• He was flown around New Zealand tournaments by the NZSRA to get exposure to A-Grade players, and after 6 months of tournaments almost every weekend in a row he qualified as a National Referee.
• One of Gary’s first tasks was to identify prospective new referees. He managed to get a small group together and then within a limited budget he would fly them around the country to tournaments to gain experience and qualify. In latter years Gary was one of the NZSRA referee assessor team for 10 years.
• In the early 1990s Gary’s refereeing CV led to him being appointed Tournament Referee for the 1994 World Junior Men’s Championship, held in Christchurch. Gary had 27 referees from NZ and around the world under his watch.
• Gary believed in communication with the players, and would often talk to them after a match. This sometimes involved explaining or teaching, and the occasional apology.
• Gary’s advice to aspiring referees was “Calls should be loud, quick, and correct”.
• In 1989 Gary received the Derek Cook Memorial Trophy – The NZSRA award for services to refereeing. Sometime later he became one of the “unofficial selectors” for this award along with Chas Evans from Wellington.
• Gary was twice nominated by Squash Canterbury for the Outstanding Sports Official award at the Sport Canterbury awards night.
• He retired from refereeing involvement in 2004 after 27 years.

Mike Keenan

• As a youngster Mike was a sporting all rounder, playing as a West Coast representative in soccer, cricket, tennis, table tennis and junior rugby.
• Started playing as an 18 year old in 1967 in Hokitika. He took it up to get fitter for table tennis. This was a result of West Coast Table Tennis not nominating him for a NZ training camp as they said he was not fit enough. He found that the older squash group wouldn’t play him as he was an “18 year old runner” so he played with all the fit “non-squashies” – runners and rugby players etc. He played a lot with Ken Beams, a West Coast rugby rep who was very quick.
• He loved chasing the ball around the court, but learned a lot by watching Trevor Dimmick (ex Timaru, who knew how the play the game “from the Tee” ) and reading Hashim Khan’s book on squash.
• Soon learned to play better and better, winning Hokitika club titles 18 times from 1968 – 1993, and 11 West Coast closed titles. Played interclub, which on the Coast meant matches against Greymouth and Westport.
• Played tournaments all over the South Island. In 1972 was runner-up in the South Island Champs B grade and the Ashburton B grade.
• Won the 1984 Southern Districts B grade in Oamaru and the 1985 High School Old Boys B grade in Chrictchurch.
• Mike got to play against the World Womens champion when Susan Devoy visited Hokitika in 1986.
• Mike was on the Hokitika Squash Club committee for many years including stints as both Club Captain and Chairman. This included being involved in all the activities clubs have from working bees through to organising interclub teams and running club ladders.
• Mike nearly ended up owning the Hokitika squash club once. When the club expanded from 1 to 2 courts it was quite stretched financially. Ken Beams proposed that he and Mike would buy the squash club. This caused a real stir, and the result was that the members got in behind things and raised enough to carry things through.
• He has been involved in coaching squash at most West Coast squash clubs from Hari Hari to Westport.
• Mike has been made a Life Member of the Hokitika Lawn Tennis and Squash Club.
• Mike also has been recognised in other parts of his community. He
  is a Life Member of the Lake Kaniere Triathlon Featured in a 2008 TV1 Mucking In programme was a Local Hero in the 2011 New Zealander of the Year awards was appointed 2017 Westland Ambassador to the Chinese Community

Sarah Cook

Sarah Cook was a slightly built young junior who had parents, Tim and Lynne Cook, who played squash. She often found herself competing against bigger girls in the early junior ranks, and she had to learn to play clever squash with a full range of shots if she was to win. She did both these very well, and soon became a frequent winner in the juniors, winning National titles in every age-group level as she grew older. She also won the Australian Under 17 and U/19 titles.

While still mid-teens she worked out how to beat many of the local seniors as well and she soon made the Canterbury Women’s team.

In the NZ Junior team she travelled to the World Junior Champs in Malaysia where she finished runner-up in 1993. This would have been the best result of a NZ female at that time.

Following on from this she won the NZ Women’s Championship three times in 1996, “99 and 2000. She was runner-up on three occasions as well. Her win in 1996 over Jade Wilson was particularly memorable for its score that ended 10/9 in the 5th game.

She represented New Zealand in the Women’s World Championship on three occasions (over 6 years) when the team finished 3rd each time.

Sarah also played in the New Zealand Team at the  Commonwealth Games in 1998 where she won a bronze medal in the mixed doubles with Glenn Wilson.

Sarah was ranked in the NZ Top 10 from 1991 – 2004, and usually in the top three. The only exception was the year she had her son, Taylor.

Following her time at the top of NZ squash she worked as a Firewoman, and more recently is training to be a Police bomb-dog handler.

Paul McFadzien

Paul McFadzien (known as “Fudge” to many) began playing squash way back in 1970 when he attended Shirley Boys’ High School. Students there  were fortunate to have two courts on site, so squash was a regular interval and lunch time recreation for a group of them. Paul played for Canterbury in the Juniors and then moved on to the senior team before his teaching career took him around the country, representing Southern Districts, Waikato, Midlands and finally back to Canterbury.

He had the privilege of being in the NZ Universities team to tour Australia, and also went to Pakistan to play in the Hashim Khan Trophy Tournament. He played in England, while on the traditional OE that was the norm for twenties Kiwis.

He began coaching when he started teaching in Thames in 1980 and has continued ever since. He had five years as the South Island Regional Coach, a role that took him around the Island advising coaches and establishing coaching programmes. He has coached squash at schools for forty years and, while still playing, although not so competitively, he really enjoys the coaching he does for those keen to learn. A highlight was taking a team to the Oceania Championships in Australia.

His teaching career has been his true passion in life, with 40 years of real enjoyment as a high school teacher in a wide range of secondary school types; country area schools, single sex boys’, and girls’ schools, and 20 years at a large co-ed school in Christchurch, where he spent the last 15 years as a Deputy Principal.

He says “in summary, teaching and squash, and the friendships that have grown out of them, have been a central pillar of my life for the last fifty years.”