Marley in Eqyptian Squash Heaven

My wife, Marnie, &I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Egypt last month and while I was looking forward to Cairo, the Pyramids, the Nile &Sharm El Sheikh, a resort on the Red Sea, I had no idea I would enjoy a taste of squash heaven.

But a little background first.

Egypt had been on our travel radar for some time and I finally asked Cairo born, and Canada's #1 squash player, Shahier Razik, who has played in Evergreen's PSA event three of the last four years, if he had any travel agent contacts in Egypt. He immediately offered his Mother's services as she is associated with one of the largest travel agencies in Egypt, Gezira Travel. She set up an authentic Egyptian holiday for us, and within two months, we were on our way to Cairo.

Upon arrival we were hosted to two fabulous dinners by former World Junior Champions, Tarek Momen, who has played four times at our Evergreen PSA event, and Omar Mosaad, who has played twice. It was a great introduction to Egypt and it was a treat to spend some time with them on their own turf.

The rest of Egypt exceeded our expectations. Cairo was fascinating and bustling, the Pyramids were awe inspiring, the Nile Cruise gave us access to an incredible array of historical sites and Sharm El Sheikh was very relaxing.

Now here comes the good part for the squash enthusiasts in the group.

We arrived back in Cairo for our final few days at the same time as the Egyptian ‟squash league” was conducting its season ending squash team championships. All the major squash clubs in Egypt enter five person teams into the league, each with three men and two women. And because the players are financially compensated for their participation, all the top players in Egypt are involved.

I was very keen to be a spectator for this action 舒 Marnie was less excited but still willing. So, at 6:00pm on Sunday evening, Tarek picked us up at our hotel for the one hour plus journey to the squash venue. Tarek, in addition to being a PSA player ranked # 25 in the World, is a fourth year engineering student at the highly regarded American University in Cairo. One of his teammates also joined us on this trip and he is a dentistry student in his final year and he hopes to take his Masters in Canada. Quite an accomplished pair of young men!!

Tarek is the number one player at his club, the Gezira Sporting Club, which is the largest multi sport complex in Egypt and was built in the 1920's by the British. This is also where Shahier learned his squash prior to moving to Canada at age ten. It has 60,000 members and includes a racetrack, a golf course, a soccer pitch, multiple swimming pools and tennis courts along with a sixteen court squash complex.

What got Tarek really excited was that he was scheduled to play Ramy Ashour, who is not only Egypt's #1 but the World #1.

My excitement level rose a notch or two when I realized that all the top Egyptians would be participating that night. As you probably realize, three of the top four players in the world are Egyptians so I knew we were in for some serious squash action.

In addition to these top players, I also saw all five Egyptians, who have participated in our previous Evergreen PSA events.

For Marnie &I, the most interesting match was Tarek's game against Ramy. #1 in the World vs #25 in the world looked like a mismatch, but Tarek put up a great effort in going down 3-0; 11-6;11-9;11-9. Ramy was simply too quick, consistently had Tarek on the defensive and showed a dazzling array of flicks to the nick that were virtually impossible to track down.

To top off the evening, World #2, Amr Shabana, coasted to victory in his match as did World #4, Karim Darwish.

So you see what I mean about a taste of squash heaven!!!!

But I couldn't help thinking how the British Columbia squash community would react if all these top players played in our annual Evergreen PSA event. I've always believed that we can handle such an event as we have the organizational ability, gained through our past six successful PSA events, the crucially important volunteer base, the venue (+300 seating capacity) and the contacts with these top Egyptian players.

All we need is a major title sponsor to enable us to offer the approximate $75,000 prize pool necessary to attract these players.

Any suggestions????

Now wouldn't that be a slice of heaven!!!!

Paul Marley
April 2010