There was no stopping World Squash Day 2020, in light of a global pandemic – the day did certainly celebrate the sport in a big way.
Across the world, a strong number of Squash clubs opened their doors to the local community to celebrate the sport in a community way.
For some Squash clubs, it was a chance to relaunch their venues after 4 months of no business, because of the pandemic – but stuck to COVID-19 guidelines to ensure the wellbeing of both players and staff are safe.
Oddly enough, World Squash Day coincided with World Mental Day; thus, it was a chance to show why sport has positive mental health benefits, notably the best sport for fun, fitness, and social.
So why this World Squash Day was the best? Here are some of our favourites that made the day special:
Welcome media coverage boost by BBC
Photo credit: BBC SouthEast and World Squash Facebook
Without boasting, it seems our campaigning for media coverage of Squash must have reached someone at the BBC, as the BBC South East Today programme did special report on World Squash Day with Alan Thatcher (the founder of World Squash Day), along with a discussion on how the sport is coping with the pandemic:
Watch the report on BBC South East via this link.
We reckon this is brilliant PR for Squash and most importantly a great way to get residents in the Home Counties to visit their local Squash club.
Squash players take Squash to the heart of Lichfield
Lichfield is famous for many things, hence Squash players from the great city 16 miles from our second favourite city of Birmingham decided to do a bit of guerrilla marketing in promoting World Squash Day 2020 with an outdoor event at the most landmark of the city, due to social distancing restrictions.
Photo credit: Visit Lichfield
To promote the event, there was a mock-up image of the World Squash Day banner on the spires of the city’s landmark Cathedral.
Jahangir Khan and UNSQUASHABLE team up to help clubs and organisations bounce back
Photo credit: Twitter World Squash (@WorldSquash)
A week before World Squash Day 2020, Jahangir Khan, Squash legend and multiple British Open champion; teamed with UNSQUASHABLE to launch a project to help clubs and organisations to recover from the global pandemic with a promotion of £100 off the brand’s best-selling pro player rackets when they trade in their old racket.
Jahangir and UNSQUASHABLE have a long history together, in fact, as he used UNSQUASHABLE rackets throughout his record-breaking career.
Friendly Showdown of England greats
Laura Massora and Nick Matthew
We are all for a friendly competitor, in aid of World Squash Day England’s greatest Squash players of the modern era Nick Matthew (Team Nick) and Laura Massora (Team Laura), went head-to-head in a showdown with a star-studded line-up.
Unlike any showdown, members of the public are able to take part alongside their Squash heroes.
The initiative is the brainchild of England Squash with support from Squash Levels and aims to re-engage all players of playing ability.
The event runs until November, for more details visit the England Squash website.
#WhyIloveSquash – players explain their love for the sport.
Our friends Sportageous launched a social media campaign with 10 Squash players sharing their love and appreciation for the sport on World Squash Day with visuals on social media:
The social media campaign featured the current leading senior Squash players on the PSA circuit, notably Farida Mohamed, Anna Serma, Darryl Selby, Catalina Pelaez, Ramit Tandon, Jenny Duncalf, Saurav Ghosal, and Millie Tomlinson.
For more details about the campaign visit – Sportageous.
All roads lead to 2020/2021 Squash season
These types of activities have illustrated that Squash can overcome the odds to show the world why it is the greatest and healthiest sport on the planet.
Despite us not having our own World Squash Day event, we were happy to spread the word and show our appreciation for the sport across our social media channels.
Unlike most sports, Squash will continue to make a difference in local communities and will continue to do so with support from local sports development groups.
Let us hope people follow local social distancing restriction rules and keep venues open, thus more participants for the sport.
