Time can’t squash this club’s passion

ONCE upon a time, squash clubs could often be found on street corners but nowadays few standalone clubs remain.

Bendigo Squash Centre is unique in that it still resides in a 1960s era brick building on the corner of Barnard and Acacia streets.

It’s also one of few Squash clubs to be run by a club committee alongside a co-op with a board of directors, which includes lifetime member Ian Kirkby.

“When I came here in 1990, five years later I was asked to come onto the board and I’ve been here ever since,” he said.

The club currently has a core membership of up to 150 but has seen the popularity of the sport wane in recent years.

“Up until COVID the club wouldn’t close until 12 o’clock at night,” Mr Kirby said.

“You’d play and then we’d come out and have refreshments and that social side of it was quite strong but now it’s 10 o’clock and we’re shut.”

Centre manager Steve Roach is one of the newer arrivals to Bendigo Squash Centre and said leadership was hoping to reignite the social appeal of the club.

“We often talk about it, if you go to a gym you feel like you’re having a workout, whereas with squash you’re probably having an even better workout but you’re having the fun of a game,” he said.

With two courts a night available for social games, ladies’ nights, and the junior juggernauts program aimed at upper primary school age players, Mr Roach said the club is trying to appeal to a wider range of people.

“We try to be an inclusive club and bring everybody in,” he said.

The club’s core membership generates enough revenue for them to run competitions but makes maintenance challenging.

“When we do get money it goes on the courts, so the courts are good but it’s the sort of aesthetics of the place, it looks like it’s 1980,” Mr Roach said.

The charm of the building is only part of the appeal for members, with Mr Kirkby and Mr Roach in agreeing it’s also the social fun of the games that have kept them in the sport.

“The old-fashioned squash club that was on the corner is gone, but this is like that old fashioned squash club run by the squash club,” Mr Roach said.

“You come down here and it’s just very welcoming and everyone wants to see the numbers stay so that the club survives.”