The Squash Racquet

The interweb is awesome, it's full of stuff that's really useful if you want to run a race that is longer than a marathon. There's this thing called 'runners world', another called 'ultramarathon running.com' along with a whole bunch of others. But you'll have to ask google for those as I really want to talk about my latest investment. It's nearly a metre long and about 20 centimetres wide. It has a really neat handle; And I've called her Beryl. A lovely name for a lovely girl. Now, even though she may be pre-loved and a little worn around the grips, I think we'll get along just fine. I found her on the interweb, the idea to search her out also came from that magical thing. I had been looking to find some information on how to train for running a very long way and most of the information I could find said that running as training was fine and dandy, in fact it was actively encouraged, but it was important to do things that weren't just running. Now the game that comes to my mind when you talk about keeping or gaining fitness is squash. It might be surprising to find that a game played in a relatively small room would be so good for your, and hopefully my, fitness levels.

The secret, I believe, lies in the ball. A small piece of rubber, hollow of course, that is about 25 grams in weight. These rubber missiles are fired, with the aid of the racquet, towards a wall at the other end of the room by the serving player, the receiving player must then hit it back at the aforementioned wall. There is a line on the wall that the balls must hit above. The pace of the ball when it bounces back requires the players to move fast to return the ball to the wall. I have never played squash, and so am looking forward to playing. I do however have one small problem that I need to solve before I can begin. I have nobody to play with. In the words of the incomparable Kim Jong-il 'I'm so ronery'. So, if you would like a game of squash seek me out. Or, alternatively, just leave me a message here. Perhaps you might be able to teach me how to play. Unfortunately Beryl is an only child at this stage, so you would need your own equipment.