Three years ago, Scottish internationalist Chris Small was offered a squash coaching job in Italy. At the time, he had just bought a new flat, a new car and had a well-paid job in Edinburgh working in the accounts department for a building contractor. 

“I’d been invited over a couple of times to play for a club in the Italian league,” he explained. “One of the coaches had moved on, and I was offered the post. At first, I rejected it out of hand because I thought it was going to be total chaos to give up the security of my life in Scotland. 

“But, the day after I came home, I was stuck in traffic driving to work and I thought to myself ‘what am I doing?’ So I got back in touch, accepted the coaching job and I’ve never been happier.” 

Now, after a full couple of seasons in Florence, 31-year-old Small is fluent in Italian, has found himself a wife – he and Barbara (an Italian) get married next June – and, to top it all, he is set to make his debut for Scotland at the world team championships in Odense in Denmark this month. 

At last month’s trials, Chris finished third behind Alan Clyne and Stuart Crawford to clinch his place in a four man team that has been completed by teenager Lyall Paterson. 

Having already played in four European Team Championships, the world selection is the icing on the cake – even if he does feel the honour is eight years overdue.  

“I was very annoyed when I didn’t get into the world team (for Melbourne) in 2001,” he continued. “I had beaten a couple of people in the team several times, and then was asked to play-off for the final spot against Peter O’Hara.  I refused to play a one-off against someone I’d been beating regularly. 

That was in a different era for Scottish squash. Now, after a few years of problems, Chris reckons the Scottish set-up has never been better. National Performance Director Paul Frank and National coach Roger Flynn are both highly-respected Australians, and the sport has its own base at Heriot-Watt University. 

“The coaching programme is excellent, and having Heriot-Watt means that the players no longer have to go away from Scotland to train,” said Chris. “The only disappointment is that I don’t feel there are quite the same number of talented young players that were around in my day.  But if we do find the talent, then it is the perfect system. 

“At the worlds, I think we could force a few shocks, although a lot depends on the draw. Alan is doing exceptionally well on the professional circuit and is improving all the time.  All four of us are extremely fit so we won’t be fazed by having to pack in a lot of matches in a few days.”  

As a youngster, Chris was swept along in the surge of interest in the sport initially created by Scotland’s first world top ten player, Mark Maclean, and followed on by Peter Nicol (who reached No.1 in the world before defecting to England) and Martin Heath, and he himself played full-time for a few years. 

Now he is helping to popularise the sport in Italy.  “I do get strange looks when I tell Italians that I’m a squash coach, but the courts are busy and it is growing all the time,” he said. “But it’s so different from back home.  There is always a lot of noise around Italians. In Scotland, you play in silence. 

“But now that I’m working at the club in Florence, I have had more time to train and work on my own game and, at the trials, I felt I was playing better than I’ve ever done.” 

On his return for the intense, week-long trials, Chris, who hails from Dalgety Bay in Fife, managed to squeeze in a first Scottish holiday in Barbara’s company.  

“We did all the tourist things – Loch Lomond, the Cairngorms, the Highlands – but it was quite depressing because it rained every day,’ he said. “When I thought of the weather, the culture, the food and the fact that I had found a wife, it really did confirm that I made the right decision to move to Italy. I’m very, very happy.”

EB

© Copyright In The Winning Zone, MMIX, All Rights Reserved