HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN RACQUETBALL - LAST UPDATED 10TH NOVEMBER 2016
In 1977, through the efforts of a small number of Victorian squash venue operators the sport of Australian Racquetball was conceived. Why- because at that time 10 – 15% of people who had a go at playing Squash could not hit the cold ball with the long handle of the squash racquet, so they were lost to the sport and to our venues.
The game was devised from facets of both American Racquetball and the International sport of Squash Rackets. Interestingly, around the same time but without our knowledge, a game spelt Racketball, also played on a squash court, was introduced into the UK at the height of their squash boom.
In Australia the game was officially launched in 1978 at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club in Melbourne, then later that evening on the then this country’s highest rating television program the ‘ Don Lane Show’, with Bert Newton hitting the first ball on a specially constructed full size portable squash court in the Channel Nine studio.
In the early days of the sport, a critical problem we faced was designing the right ball for our game, as the American ball was a 70+ ball, whereas, we required a ball virtually half the speed of theirs. After many months of testing, two manufacturers shone out; Merco (CSG) and Stellar. For a lengthy period we had both singles (blue) and doubles (green- slower than blue) balls. Stellar has supported racquetball from its infancy and remain by far the largest ball provider in Australia.
Another area for concern in the early days was to produce suitable rules for both singles and doubles play, which could be easily understood by the racquetball community and the general public, which was achieved in 1987 one of the game’s top players at that time, Gary Westbrook. To highlight the outstanding job Gary did with the rules, although there were annual revisions undertaken up to 1999, there were no substantive alterations made to the 1987 production.
In March 2000, the Victorian Racquetball Federation produced an updated version of the Rules of Racquetball, plus from that date invoked four year rule revisions, rather than annually.
The first venues to take to the sport were the Doncaster, Ferntree Gully, Upwey and Waverley Squash centres, with the initial country clubs being, Corio(Geelong), Ballarat and Colac. The four metro Melbourne venues met in mortal combat on a regular basis throughout 1978, with the inaugural interclub pennant competition (Ladies Daytime), commencing in 1979.
The lone interstate venue to take to the sport at this time was the Jindalee Tennis and Squash Centre, owned by Kent Ruffin and based in Brisbane. Kent was extremely supportive of racquetball and fiercely promoted it everywhere he went, eventually having around 500 players.
In July 1981, the Squash Court Owners Association of Victoria (SCOAV) commenced a Saturday Afternoon pennant, with a summer midweek pennant commencing in December 1981. Midweek autumn and spring pennants commenced in 1982, with the first Victorian Open Championships being conducted in 1983, over the Easter period, at the Riversdale Squash & Racquetball Centre.
In 1982 the Victorian Racquetball Association(VRA), later to become known as the Victorian Racquetball Federation, was formed and became the governing body for the sport, plus recognised by the State Government as the state parent body for Racquetball. The VRA was a joint partnership of squash venue operators and racquetball clubs, and in 1983 came under the umbrella of the then recently formed Squash Time Leisure Centres Pty. Ltd.(STLC). STLC was an amalgamation of 30 squash centres and 35 squash & racquetball clubs based within the eastern and southern suburbs of Melbourne, with its office based in Mount Waverley.
The General Manager of STLC was Paul Vear, previously the proprietor of the Ferntree Gully Squash and Racquetball Centre, President of the SCOAV and Finance Director of the Australian Squash Court Owners Association (ASCOA). Paul had also been the General Manager of the VRA since its inception, and continued in that role until his retirement in 2008. Paul believes that if it had not been for the financial, promotional /marketing and administrative support provided by the STLC court owners, the sport of Racquetball would not have survived to the extent that it has today.
The most successful racquetball clubs in Victoria over the past 30 years, have mainly been based in country Victoria, including Ballarat, Profile (Bairnsdale), Bairnsdale, Benalla, Colac, Corio, Lakes Entrance, Portland, Stawell, Wangaratta, Wodonga, plus Albury, who are also members of Squash & Racquetball Victoria (S&RV).
Successful metro Melbourne racquetball clubs over the same time have been- Berwick, Boronia, Burwood, Cranbourne, Croydon, Doncaster, Eastland, Eliza Village, Elsternwick, Ferntree Gully, Freeway, Highbury, Karingal, Knox Bayswater, Lilydale Squash and Fitness, Northern( in Broadmeadows), Upwey, Ringwood, Riversdale, Rosanna, Syndal, Templestowe(now Westerfolds), Templestowe Village, Wantirna and Waverley. Unfortunately, only five of these clubs remain.
For every year since 1980, the Victorian Racquetball Association/Federation, then since 2009, S&RV has conducted a Victorian Tournament Circuit comprising various Senior and Junior events, which incorporate event ranking’s points, to decide end of year grade winners.
In 2010 Victoria joined forces with South Australia to establish a National Grand Prix Tournament Circuit (to complement the Victorian Grand Prix Tournament Circuit), followed by Tasmania in 2013, then New South Wales in 2015, which is administered by Racquetball Australia.
