Ikoyi Club

The Lagos Country Club is joining the squash fraternity across the world to commemorate the World Squash Day, with the biggest match in the history of the game.

The match which comes up Saturday, October 20, the World Squash Day, will have two teams playing in one global match to back the sport’s bid for a place in the 2020 Olympic Games.

According to Chairman of Lagos Country Club Squash Section, Taye Ige, the club is taking part in the match, dubbed 2020 Challenge Match, to swell the number and also attract new players to the sport.

He explained that “clubs are invited to field two teams of 20 players, with rival team members playing one game up to 20 points. The scores from every club will count towards an overall global result between Team Squash and Team 2020.”

Ige said World Squash Day organisers are hopeful that the total figure of competitors would run into hundreds of thousands which would enable them break a record of organising the biggest sports fixture as well as the biggest squash match in history.

He maintained that in addition to the match, the club would also be organising a number of development activities to attract new players to the exciting game that is fast gaining popularity across the world.

Forty players of the club will be taking part in the match.
Chief Executive of the World Squash Federation, Andrew Shelley,  said giving players the opportunity to compete in a single championship on over fifty thousand courts spread across the world would bring the world of squash together in an unprecedented way and would be remembered for long.

The UK Coordinator, Vicky Clark, who came up with the idea of the 2020 Challenge, said the aim is to get the event into the Guinness Book of Records. She expressed optimism that the kind of response it would generate would show a tremendous global support for squash and the Olympic bid.