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18-Mar: SOOOO RESTRICTED…  Yes,
I know, I very seldom write about negative things, because I always try
and get the positive out of any situation. But here, I’m sorry guys, but
I find it VERY difficult to work here…As you all well know, you don’t get into squash to earn money. And if you are, God help you. No, you get into squash because it’s probably the best sport in the world, and you stay in it because thanks to its specific structure, i.e. very approachable players/coaches/officials, you meet some fantastic people, all intense, dedicated, and driven by the same passion: squash. Now here, due to the enormity of the event, the strictest of rules have got to be established, and hence followed to the letter. And the way they (the Commonwealth Games structure, not this present organisation in particular) organised it is that you are strictly compartmented in your own field. So, if you are a photographer, you have the right to get pics in certain very restricted zones where you are the only one allowed, but can’t go much elsewhere. If you are a ref, you have access to the refs area, at the top of the outside courts gallery, for example. If you are a journalist, you have a press room, and zones in the main area where you have the right to be. But if you wish to speak to a player, you can’t access him normally. You have to be standing at the way out of the courts, in a corridor, waiting for at least 15 minutes every time, (which on a tournament of this intensity, is a lot of time wasted for each match). Then, the player has got to answer questions standing up, on his/her way to the shower room, in the draft. So the man/woman really doesn’t want to speak to you, he/she wants to go and get showered. Not to mention that both players come out at the same time, so you can’t ask one to wait while you are talking with the other… Oh, I can hear you, you can catch up with them later. No I can’t, because I’m not allowed anywhere near them for the rest of the day… And the same thing applies to the tournament organisers, the referees, the coaches, etc. Now, I thought that on the “traditional” courts, where there is a large area around the courts, I may have a chance to chat with people. But no, even there, you have barriers, and the only thing I see/photograph from the players/coaches, are… their backs!  Not to mention that you cannot sit anywhere on those courts, so we are all squashed behind the barrier, with VERY restricted view, standing up match after match after match…. And the minute you’ve got to leave your spot to go and wait for 15 minutes for the player passes you by, you come back, and zoom, a mountain of backs is again preventing you from seeing the match…. This is maybe a very convenient set up for more “traditional” journalists, who look at a match, have a 30 second conversation with one of the players, write a report, and go and have a beer. But for writers like me (actually, I’m the only squash only writer around here), who talk with everybody, small or big, players, refs, promoters, organisers, volunteers, coaches, who take pics, who get the feel of the event by establishing real relationships with the people that make the event, I basically CANNOT function. In other words, if all events were like this one, I would stop writing. Now, if you do stay on the main court, we are spoiled. Right at the top of the arena, we have power points, two ranks of tables with television screens that show the live broadcast, and the printed results as they virtually happen thanks to an army of volunteers that don’t know what to do to help you out. So, I keep fit, as I climb regularly up and down and up and down those stairs. As I don’t have a minute to take any regular exercise, that does me a hell of a good. So I think that, from now on, I’ll have to focus on the glass court, and purely and simply ignore the other courts. Otherwise I’m going to get more and more frustrated. And we don’t want that, do we… Framboise |
 
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