After a couple of years based in Leeds, a return home in August proved to be the perfect stimulus for Scotland’s Stuart Crawford.  Last month, he achieved a huge breakthrough by winning his first professional title at the Palasprint Open in Parma, Italy. 

“It had been a long time coming, but I was delighted to get the first win,” said the 27-year-old, who has been a full-time player for the past four seasons. “I moved to Leeds with the hope of improving my game, but came back in the summer and I am now working with Roger Flynn (Scotland’s National coach).

“Unfortunately, Roger came to Scotland from Australia just at the same time I headed south. But he’s now making a huge difference to my game. I’m really pleased to be back in Scotland and feel my game has improved a lot over the past few months.”

Flynn, who worked with a number of the world’s best Australians including Paul Price and former world No.1 Sarah Fitz-Gerald, is based at the Scottish National Squash Centre at Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, and works in cooperation fellow-Aussie Paul Frank, who is Scottish Squash National Performance Director.

As with the rest of the Scottish team, Crawford suffered a big blow this month when the World Doubles Championships in Chennai were postponed due to the uncertainty in India following the Mumbai terrorist attacks.   

But he is hopeful that it will just be a temporary delay. “We have worked really hard on doubles and Roger hoped we could have been pushing for medals,” continued the former Scottish Champion who had been due to team up with Shetlander Jamie Macaulay. 

“It is a huge disappointment that the Championships have been postponed. We have worked really hard and, at the moment, it feels as though it has all been a wasted effort. 

“But we have heard that there is a chance that the Championships could be rescheduled for very early in the new year.”

Crawford’s next Professional Squash Association tournament is set to be in either Holland or Spain next month, while his main target for 2009 will be the European Championships in the spring.

Looking further ahead, he has his sights set on a place in the Scottish team for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. “That’s the big one,” he confirmed. “Again, we will be hopeful of getting medals in the doubles.”

Scotland built a great squash reputation over the recent past with Peter Nicol (before he defected to England!) and John White both reaching No.1 in the world, while Oban’s Martin Heath was also a world top ten player. 

With Alan Clyne, who won a PSA event in America in September and has just turned full-time, also making huge strides, Crawford is hopeful that squash can again make an impression on Scotland’s sporting landscape. 

“I’m training with Alan and that is a help to both of us, and there are one or two really good juniors ready to make the breakthrough,” he suggested. “It is great to have Roger and Paul here in Scotland and I think the future is looking very promising.”

EB
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