Rhodes University Squash Club beat old Rhodians 15 to 13 in a match on Friday 9 August celebrating the club's 80th anniversary. Old Rhodians travelled from Cape Town, East London and Port Elizabeth.
Rhodes University Squash Club beat old Rhodians 15 to 13 in a match on Friday 9 August celebrating the club's 80th anniversary. Old Rhodians travelled from Cape Town, East London and Port Elizabeth.
The match was one in a tournament at the Alec Mullins Courts that included a doubles match against an East London combination. Current and former students made up the Rhodes doubles side.
Going into the final match, the Rhodes team was ahead by one point, Rhodes Squash chairperson Brendon Martens said. The final match between Emma Olley (Rhodes) and Roxy Fietza (Old Rhodians) would decide the winner. Olley was 0-2 down and just when it seemed Old Rhodians would take the trophy, Olley fought back to win 3-2 and give Rhodes the victory.
Martens said the club is the oldest university squash club in the country. The club was established in 1933 according to its newsletter: “… a little college in the town of Grahamstown, South Africa, established the Rhodes College Squash Raquets Club in 1933 with construction of the first open-air concrete floor court beginning on the 15th of May."
"This was the first university squash club in the country, the first in Grahamstown and the beginning of a legacy.” For the club's first match, a team of six Rhodes men travelled to Port Elizabeth."
They lost 6-0 in that historic match.
Club captain E Hindson wrote of the tournament, "Our losses in this respect were more than amply made up by the generous entertainment provided by our hosts, as certain members can ably testify!" At a subsequent return match, the fixture was tied.
The first club champion was G E Stent, in 1934.
The first match against a Grahamstown side was played in 1935 between Rhodes B and the newly established Albany Club, with Rhodes losing 4-2. It was in the 1980s, with the game of squash in full swing throughout the country, that the club established itself as a powerhouse of the game in the province.
Former player Alan Stapleton described this time as “the mystical days of the early 80s where EP squash was minnowed and Minnaard, twinned and Altered by the Cunnighamlish skills of touch, and the charm of a Chandler."
In 1989 the Rhodes women's team won the local league, the EP first league and the South African women's club championships. Martens said the Rhodes Squash Club had produced seven national representatives, three national champions (ML Melville, Doug Barrow, D Scott,) and one Masters World Champion (Brian Heath, 2003).
