Squash South Africa
Associations in Johannesburg

Louw, who successfully defended the title she won in 2016, was in dominant form throughout the week and did not drop a game on her way to the final. The Open Championship is taking place for the first time since Malaysia’s eight-time women’s world squash champion Nicol David is bidding to win a record fourth World Games gold medal when the 2017 event takes place in Poland next month. Nicol David won gold in the 2005 Games in Duisburg, Germany, then the 2009 event in Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei, before retaining the title in the Cali Games in 2013 in Colombia. Gawad was taken to Potchefstroom where the SACD and Festival championships are being played. He will play an exhibition this week at the Wanderers, Johannesburg and at the Pretoria Country Club, Pretoria. These courts were wider and longer than the modern ones and were used for the old fashioned game known as fives or racket ball. Squash rackets as it was known, was played mainly as an elitist sport at private schools and clubs but grew in popularity from In 1930 the court at the Johannesburg Country Club, which had been an open air one, was fitted with a roof and at the same time reduced to the conventional size court, as we now know them. Shortly thereafter, similar sized courts were built in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg. In 1910 South Africa became the first country in the World to form a national controlling body. A National body was required to control and co-ordinate tours, tournaments, coaching and to promote the game. In 1974 on the recommendation of the Department of Sport and Recreation the women’s association became a fully fledged association with Mrs Shirley Leonard as the first chairperson. The federation’s membership was concentrated in the Transvaal, Western Province and Natal. In the sixties it was decided that world squash required a controlling body and thus South Africa together with Australia, Great Britain, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, and the United Arab Republic became the founder members of the International Squash Rackets Federation in Although the South African administration issued a statement of non-racialism, the only competition from 1982 was on an unofficial basis until after Unity in There was now more movement amongst the international players, who apart from playing in the British Open Championships, began visiting South Africa.