Antibes Squash & Fitness Club has 5 squash courts available to the public, open everyday.
ONCE UPON A TIME, SQUASH...
The origins of squash
The origins of squash date back to the early 19th century in England. As with tennis, badminton and pelota Basque, squash takes its origins from the famous "Jeu de Paume".
The "Jeu de Paume" was invented in France in the 13th century, although historians have also discovered variations of this game dating back to ancient times.
The first rackets
 Throughout the centuries "Jeu de Paume" has know various forms. For a long time, it was played barehanded or with gloves. Then, the first wooden bats made their appearance, but remained very rudimentary. It was only around 1505 that the first wood (ash tree) racket, fitted with a long handle and some sheep bowel strings, was created. It weighted around 400 grams and was 66 centimetres long. The face of the racket was spherical or square and was generally 16.2 centimetres wide and 16.5 centimetres long.
From Jeu de Paume to Squash…
Jeu de Paume reached England in the 16th century under the name Court Tennis. At first, the British played it with rackets. Then around 1850, they invented the game Racquets. This new game was played with several players, with the aid of a racket and a leather ball but on a larger court (18.21m - 9.08m), first outdoors and then indoors.
The fashion at the time, "racquets" was mostly played by the English aristocracy and amongst others, at the most prestigious London institution, Harrow School. It was against the walls of this great school that two pupils, waiting their turn to play "racquets", started hitting the ball against the walls. They invented the premise of squash.
It would still be necessary to wait for the creation of a hollow, soft rubber ball to shift from "racquets" to squash. The name "Squash" was then given as a reference to the sound of the ball being squash against the wall. (squashy = chewy, soft).
Squash in the World
In 1883, thanks to the creation of the first court, squash was recognized as a full and independent sport. Earning a note of nobility, squash spread not only in England but also in the rest of the world through the various English migrations.
In 1911, the codifications of the game’s rules and the standard court allowed for the standardisation of the various existing forms. Ignoring this standardisation of the rules, North America continued playing the American game, or Hard Ball, with a different scoring system and standards, as well as a harder and faster ball.
It was in 1928 that the first national federation was created in England:
The "Squash Racket Association" thus enabled the organisation of the first competitions, such as the British Open in 1930 and the appearance, in 1950, of the first professional players with the Pakistani trio: the Hashim, Azim Khan and Roshan Khan brothers.
In 1967, squash became a world phenomenon with the creation of the "International Squash Racket Federation", then composed of 7 members: England, Australia, India, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand and Egypt. In 1993, the "International Squash Racket federation" became the "World Squash Federation", uniting 118 countries and over 18 million players on around 50,000 courts.
On 22 April 1973, it was the turn of the "European Squash Rackets Federation" to be created. In 1974, the first glass walled court appeared in the Wembley Club
Squash in France
In December 1980, French squash, managed for the last 5 years by the French Tennis Federation, was liberated thanks to the creation of the French Federation of Squash-Racquets, which became the French Federation of Squash (F.F.Squash) in 1989. |
