Norman backs ‘telesquash’

Press, 12 January 1987, Page 21

Norman backs ‘telesquash’

By

PETER O’HARA

of NZPA London The world champion, Ross Norman, thinks "telesquash” is a positive step for the game even though he and his fellow New Zealander, Stuart Davenport, bombed out of the inaugural Aberdeen tournament The New Zealand pair lost in the first round of an event where new rules shortened rallies with the aim of producing more attacking strokes for a television audience. Norman, aged 28, who relies on a long, grinding game,

was beaten 16-11, 14-16, 11-16, 9-16 by the lowlyranked Englishman, Ashley Naylor. Davenport, ranked third in the world behind Pakistan’s Jahangir Khan and Norman, adapted a little better to the concept but lost 12-16, 16-14, 14-16, 16-9, 9-16, in 67 minutes to the Australian, Rodney Martin. Norman said, "I think it is a positive step for squash, no matter how good or bad I am at adapting to it” The server wins a point if a rally goes past 15 strokes. The winner Of the rally takes a point regardless of whether

he or she is serving and the players have five serves in succession. Two Scots have developed the rules to try to make the game more attractive to television viewers. They said the long rallies of top players were boring. The Aberdeen organisers also said the aim was to make Norman as well known to British audiences as leading snooker or darts players. But it was not the New Zealander who featured in the 8.8. C.-televised final.

Naylor fought out a five-set final with a fellow Englishman, Bryan Beeson, the latter triumphing.