I’m writing this in my 10th hotel room in my 6th hotel that I’ve stayed in during the month that I’ve been in Asia. I’ve packed and unpacked countless times so on Tuesday when I unpacked for the final time I was nearly able to do it in my sleep. My adventure this trip took me to 2 countries I’d never been to before – Taiwan and Singapore – and one that I always enjoy coming back to – Malaysia.

I’m playing in my 4th competition now in Kuala Lumpur, I’m due to play the semis later against the new local sensation Low Wee Wern so we’ll see what the game brings today. Usually 3 tournaments in a row is my limit, after which my head starts to explode (!), but having had the World Games at the start of this trip in Taiwan meant I could stay out here and do 3 WISPA events aswell. So far the results have been mixed – I qualified into the main draw in the KL Open, didn’t qualify in the Singapore Open so that by that flawless logic this tournament should mean good things for me!

I’m returning to Amsterdam tomorrow after a month on the road and while I’m looking forward to it I’ll definitely miss certain things about this part of the world: the crazy frightening thunderstorms you could set your watch by every afternoon that can drench you in 0.02 seconds flat, the bartering with stall owners while I try to convince them I’m a local so they won’t rip me off (but let’s be honest, being Irish and blessed(?!) with pale skin I’m not fooling anyone, am I….?). Will also miss the sun, for sure, I’ve a feeling I’m not going to need the factor 30 when I’m back in Amsterdam next week!

Right, off to practise now…

On arriving in this country, I always have to give myself half a day to get used to the driving and organized chaos of the traffic there. To drive in Egypt I’m convinced you have to be a fully competent driver with a taste for the fun side of life. Immediately on arrival one has to acclimatise to the hustle and bustle everywhere but the longer I’m there the near-death traffic experiences just become part of the daily grind. “Going native”, I’m unfazed as our taxi nearly side swipes a mini-bus on the way to practice!

Alexandria is a quieter place than Cairo, about 3-hours north of Cairo as the crow flies (and Egyptian drivers are pretty much the same!). It has a more bearable temperature than that of Cairo as it’s by the sea. The tournament itself is in its 4th year now and is extremely well run. Ahmed, the organiser, was on hand to help us and provided excellent hospitality with a poolside welcome dinner at Alexandria Sporting Club on Sunday evening.

My first match was against a young Egyptian player who had taken out two WISPA players in the qualifying rounds before drawing myself in the main draw. Obviously you can’t underestimate any of the younger Egyptian players and Nouran was no exception. Talented with the racket, fast around the court and loving any angles I gave her she pushed me to 4 games. Once I took the pace down and began playing more on my terms the game was easier to control. Next up was Omneya Abel Kawy, current world no. 7. We were the first of the quarter final matches on and I hadn’t played Omneya in a number of years so I was looking forward to this match. The first two games were all hers but I changed my game in the 3rd playing with more purpose and attacking a little more but unfortunately couldn’t sustain this in the face of her counter-attack in the 4th game. After I saved a few match balls in the 4th game, Omneya eventually took the final game 11-9.

As an aside, I returned to Amsterdam with a stubbed baby-toe from hitting it against the bed in our hotel room. Howling in pain for 5-minutes, bringing out my inner primadonna, my two roommates neglected to listen to my heartfelt cries–no sympathy there then. Still no sympathy 4-hours later and their care factor had decreased to zero the more air-time I gave the subject (admittedly, I did give progress reports on the hour and updates every half-hour). WISPA should take note–a short course in empathy might be suitable for certain professional players – I’ll mention no names, you know who you are!

Till my next trip….

Annelize, Nicol and Aisling in Amstelpark

While most of Amsterdam woke up to sun (at last!) and thoughts of the beach on Saturday morning, 3 of the Squash Stars (Nicol, Annelize and myself) and our webmaster Kid de Winter had more important things on their minds—World Squash Day and The Battle of the Sexes at Amstelpark—our tan-seeking would have to wait. Our orange-haired Dutch colleague Annelize is the head pro at Amstelpark and she organised a fun day of squash for all including King of the Court, Lightning Squash and several exhibitions with the ladies premier division team pitted against men of varying levels including past and present Dutch team members. To publicise the event our current World Champion Nicol even designed a poster for the day herself—is there any end to her talents one wonders?!

Battle of the sexes
Kid was among the first to play and after an outstanding first game decided to lull the guys into a false sense of security with their first win, losing in a narrow 4 setter to Martin Spijker. Team mate Annemarie however, managed to beat Julien Suzor in 4 games, so the score was even. Cigany Sierveld then put up a brave fight and kept her opponent Sander Bunck quite busy on the court. Despite some good squash and some close games, Cigany couldn’t win the match. Next up was Annelize against former member of the Dutch National team Eric Smit, who’s now a journalist here in Holland. After cruising to a 2-0 lead (after which Eric thought the game was over as he assumed it was a best of 3!) Annelize went down in 5 games. Another win for the men, oh dear.

The Troop in Amsterdam

Ever so close!
Meanwhile on the other court, I was playing a Rotterdam based Dutch player named Michael Ernst who I reckon was about 9-feet tall and hit the ball at approximately a hundred miles an hour (at least that’s what it felt like from where I was standing…). Michael and I battled it out for over an hour or so, again I was leading 2-0, was sure I had him on the ropes when he found some second and third winds to take the match 3-2. And I thought I was going out for a nice game of social Saturday squash, by the end of it I was calling for the stretcher he had me running around so much…

Nicol to save the day?
So our hope for a win and some salvaging of self-respect rested on Nicol’s shoulders. She took to the court against René Mijs who’s currently no. 4 on the Dutch mens’ team and took the first game in a close battle. She had the crowd enthralled with her lightning fast movement around the court and amazing retrieving as René used his holds and flicks to great effect. It was not to be our day however and despite some help from the ref (our very own Kid de Winter!) Nicol lost in 4 as well. However the show itself was worthy of the huge applause both players received after the match and I reckon overall us girls can walk away with our heads held high!

The crowd enjoyed the day, lots of club players were taking part in the other events held alongside the exhibition, so all in all a very successful World Squash Day here in Amsterdam.

Aisling

I’m just back from Texas after competing in the event that’s currently on there. Unfortunately I didn’t have the best result there losing to an English player, Emma Beddoes, but I did enjoy my stay there nonetheless. As Nicol is still playing and can talk you through the squash aspect I thought I’d take some time to blog about my stay there.

Having never been to Texas before I readily believed the stereotypes: 1) everything is big, big, big – food, cars and land and 2) cowboys roam the street in plaid shirts just like in the 80s Dallas TV series. So, touching down in Dallas Fort-Worth I was mildly disappointed that I wasn’t met on arrival by a troupe of Stetson wearing line-dancers with horses in tow. Putting that behind me was made easy when I met our promoter, Sanjeeb, who’s ran everything like clockwork, made sure we all felt at home and assured me there were some cowboys out there somewhere.

Usually, on tour in the States we tend to confine our travel to hotel, club and mall. Plano, Texas was no exception. However, the exception here was the luxury of these three new temporary homes. The Nylo Hotel was the first mod boutique-type hotel I’ve come across on tour, very trendy and cool. Likewise Lifetime Fitness where we played was this fantastic (and yes, huge!) centre which catered to basically everyone, climbing walls, basketball courts, treadmills as far as the eye could see and an extremely helpful staff. As for the mall, well, like most U.S. malls it was vast, complete with all the brand name goods and this one had the added bonus of having a Cheesecake Factory. This eatery is not for the faint-hearted. Thinking I was being healthy I ordered the Cobb Salad. What arrived on my plate ten minutes later could easily have kept a small family fed for a good 2 weeks I reckon….I declined their famous cheesecake, with those portions not even a tough 5 setter could burn off the calories in that!

So, an enjoyable if short stay in Texas but I’m sure I’ll be back. After all, I need to see some proper cowboys, Stetson and all!

Next stop for me is Egypt where I’m playing in Alexandria, a town a couple of hours north of Cairo. Until then I’m back training at my base in Amsterdam which I’m looking forward to having been on the road for a good while.

‘Til next time

Aisling