I thought I’d take a short break from discussing the rules with respect to boasts. And, of course, my views regarding their implementation and the general understanding of the implication of those rules. So a wee bit of history. And, perhaps some musings regarding how the rules in squash are handled differntly that most other sports.
Competitive games have been a part of civilization for thousands of years. Balls have been kicked and tossed for eons. Sticks, bats, paddles, and strung equipment were introduced at various times over the millenia. Many of our games had their origins where kids played or when adults had way too much idle time on their hands. The games related to present day squash sprung up about 200 years ago. The key ingredients were a strung racquet, a small ball, and walls to bounce the ball off. England was the breeding ground for several squash like games. The 21x32’ court and soft ball which is now International Squash has its roots firmly in England.
Many North American sports arrived with immigrants. Some of those sports took hold unchanged and others changed to accomodate local tastes. Squash came to North America about 150 years ago and some adaptations were made. A bouncier ball and smaller court (18.5x32’) became the hard ball game. Hard ball singles did not spread beyond North America; while International Squash (singles) continued to spread worldwide. An unexpected transition happened in Canada and USA from about 1985 to 1995. The soft ball game began to be played on the narrow courts. More and more players joined the soft ball supporters. There was pressure to convert or build new 21’ wide courts. In many Canadian and USA cities now, there are no narrow courts except for a few relics and a few well maintained hard ball singles courts mainly in the east.
Doubles squash is the newest version of squash. Soft ball doubles is played on the singles court as well as on a slightly larger (25’x32’) court designed for doubles. In North America the doubles game grew from the hard ball singles game. The court is larger (25x45’) and the ceiling is higher (recommended 25’ or so).
There are remnants of many racquet sports scattered across North America but mostly in the east. The gigantic courts used for racquets (30x60’) and real tennis (96x32’) are amazing.
Today there are about 20 million players in about 185 countries. Soft ball outnumbers hard ball and singles outnumbers doubles.