Squash royalty will be descended on Cayman this weekend.
The Cayman Islands National Squash Association will be hosting Natalie Grainger, the current world No.4 player, this Friday and Saturday, 11 and12 April, at the South Sound Squash Club.
Grainger’s talent will be on display as she takes on three of the island’s premier players – Marlene West, Chantelle Day and Dean Watson – in best-of-three exhibition matches on Friday evening at 7pm.
But the excitement does not stop there, as Grainger along with former world No.7 Mark Chaloner will hold women’s and girls’ squash clinics on Saturday. The three hour clinics start at 9.15am.
Grainger credits her success to her mother, Jean, who was a British squash champion. In fact, her entire life seems to have evolved around squash, as her family owned a squash centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Grainger started squash before she was three. It may have been a while before she reached competition age, but when she did she secured title after title.
She reached the quarter-finals of the World Juniors in 1993 and 1995, on both occasions being beaten by New Zealander Jade Wilson, the 1995 winner.
Grainger won the Junior Scottish and British Under-16 titles as well as the South African Under-19 and Under-21 national titles five times. At 17, she was the youngest player to be selected for the South African senior side in 1994 and she also represented SA in 1998.
That year, at the Commonwealth Games she won bronze in the women’s and mixed doubles, partnered by Claire Nitch and Rodney Durbach, respectively. Having spent a few years based at Nottingham Squash Club in England, she moved to the United States.
Grainger held the No.1 spot in 2002. She is the current president of the Women’s International Squash Players Association.
Cayman’s top players include Marlene West, who has held several senior Women’s Caribbean Championship titles. She also won silver at the 2006 Central American Caribbean Games in the ladies doubles.
Chantelle Day has secured three junior Caribbean Championship titles.
Watson is currently the Youth Development Squash Coach and Club Manager at the club. He also has an impressive pedigree having been a British Open Finalist in 2006 and is also the current Cayman National Champion.
Chaloner was the driving force in getting Grainger to come to Cayman. Sports Department Women’s Coordinator Merta Day, who helped to organise the event, said she is pleased that a player of Grainger’s standing would be on island.
‘It is important that women and girls get the opportunity to see talent such as this in action,’ Day said. ‘No doubt she will inspire some people to reach beyond their limits when they see that a former No.1 player comes here and that she, like us all, is a mere mortal.
‘But hopefully through interactions with her, those who come to exhibition matches or the clinics will see that hard work and dedication does in fact pay off.’
Ian Patrick, president of CINSA thanks all the sponsors for their generous support.
Major sponsors of this event are: Touch of Elegance Beauty Salon, Welly’s Cool Spot and the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee. Other sponsors are A.L. Thompson’s Home Depot and the Department of Sports.
There is a charge for the exhibition matches on Friday – $10 for adults and $5 for children. All proceeds will go towards the development of junior squash. Clinics are free but as space is limited only invited players can participate.
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