Disciplines · Squash Fact Sheet

Sue Bonavia, Anthony Bezzina, Gino Camilleri, Reggie Abela, Bryan Sullivan, John Lejman and John Muscat, founded the Squash Rackets Association in 1986. The first Chairman was Gino Camilleri, and was followed by Tony Bezzina. Mr. Mario Giacchino holds the post today.

There are six clubs affiliated to the SRA, the chief one being the Marsa Sports and Country Club. The others are Mistra Holiday Complex, Sunny Coast Complex, Holiday Inn, Malta Hilton and the Gozo Squash Association. There are fifteen squash courts scattered all over the island, with another two due to open by the end of September 2001, at the National Pool Complex. Gozo has only two courts so far.

Various tournaments are held throughout the year, namely the Marsa Open, a Ranking Tournament, a Handicap Tournament and the main event of the year, the Malta Open. From October till May a mixed squash league is played at the Marsa Sports Club. There are eleven divisions in this league, with between six and seven players in each division. This league is highly competitive and in every round, all the players do their utmost to be promoted to a higher division. During July and August there is a summer league, which is one again played at the Marsa Sports Club. The purpose of this league is to give the opportunity to those players who do not want to stop playing in summer, to continue doing so. We also intend holding an annual Juniour Tournament, which will give the youngsters a chance to develop their competitive spirit. The first tournament of its kind was held in May 2001.

A European Small Nations Squash Tournament has been held every year, for the past eleven years and Malta has participated in it almost every year. The ladies’ National Squash team has so far won six gold medals and one silver medal in this tournament, whilst the men’s National team won gold in 1993, when it was held in Malta for the first time, silver three times and bronze once. These games are due to be held in Malta once again this year, at the end of September 2001. The countries taking part are Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Cyprus, Iceland, Isle of Man and Malta. Squash was included, for the first time, in the Games of the Small States of Europe, in 1999. The Ladies’ Squash team won gold on this occasion and that same year, it was voted “Team Nazzjonali Malta tas-sena”.

The ladies’ National team participated for the first time in the European Club championships, in September 2000. This tournament gave the team, the opportunity to compete against the top world squash players. It is hoped that this experience can be repeated next July, when some of our players compete in the Commonwealth Games.

Pankaj Pandya was the Malta squash champion for a number of years during the seventies and eighties. He was in the National team until 1998. He still plays regularly and also coaches the juniors. The present men’s National team is made up of Bernard Bugeja, Stephen Schranz, Luke Giacchino, Mark Lupi, Jonathan Crockford, Ivan Balzan and Gordon Camilleri.

Theresa Camilleri is, and has been, the top female player for a number of years. Annabelle Diamantino is the only one who might be able to knock her off her number one position. The present ladies’ National team is made up of Theresa Camilleri, Annabelle Diamantino, Johanna Rizzo, Liz Said and Roberta Pace Grima.

top