Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2022

42 World Championships. Our Chairman then decided we would have a glass back wall at Abbeydale - the rst in the world - and we held the Championships again from 1972 -74 along with other major events. ● When Cardi pulled out of staging the European Championships in 1977 at a late stage Abbeydale stepped in and organised the whole tournament in three months! It was a huge logistical success, setting the blueprint for how an amateur game could present itself professionally. We received a glowing tribute in e Times and, as Tournament Director, it helped me towards further appointments. ● During one World Professional Championship a player dropped out at the last minute - with a crowd already there - and another player wanted a redraw, which I refused. Despite that he still turned up and started changing to play so we virtually ended up with three players going on court together! Only the intervention of a rather large, muscular competitor persuaded the protagonist to back down from trying to play - although he then tried to physically trash the club! ● Although I had a good reputation as a referee, and to be fair had very few bad games, I wasn’t immune from having the odd bad day. An example occurred in a high pro le encounter when I suppose, looking back and hearing respected feedback, I had a bad day. I should have realised at the time because a spectator sitting behind me handed me a copy of e Rules of Squash! ● A week before due to referee one of the most signi cant matches in the history of squash I was sitting refereeing in a high tennis style referee’s chair. I leant forward, fell out, landed awkwardly and broke my arm. How it made the Daily Telegraph I don’t know but I was still able to take the big match! ● Tournament Director for the European Championships in 1977. ● Consultant to the1978 European Championships in Amsterdam. ● Tournament Director for several British Championships. ● Refereeing the nal of the 1981 British Open between Jahangir Khan and Je Hunt, one of the seminal matches in squash history. ● Refereeing the longest match in squash history (2hrs 46 mins) between Gamal Awad & Jahangir Khan. HEADLINERS! ● I once had to send o the world number 2 for foul and abusive language. e Leicester Mercury wrote that, ‘It is a pity that there aren’t more Graham Dixons around, especially in tennis circles, but I suspect there won’t be’. Even though I hadn’t liked having to dismiss the player I had upheld traditional values, which was justi ed following several ignored warnings. It led to a change in the rules, from a referee having sole power to a system of progressive warnings before a dismissal. ● Abbeydale Squash Club was probably the leading Squash Club in the world in the late 1960s/early 70s. We had a really good proactive Chairman and held the British Open there in 1969 when it was the equivalent of the My nal match as a referee before retirement at the World Team Championships at the Royal Albert Hall in 1987. Norman Wilby (le ) is the marker.