Squash NZ Recognises Great Contributors

Squash NZ is saddened to report on the passing of two well-known squash personalities who were both instrumental to the development of squash - Alison Childs of Auckland, and Kevin Treloar of the Bay of Plenty.

Alison Childs

Alison Childs was instrumental in establishing not just one, but two major squash organisations in her time.

Alison, along with her husband Tom were a real driving force in Auckland Squash and particularly Henderson. In 1965 she was on the inaugural Management Committee that established the Auckland Squash Rackets Association (now known as Squash Auckland).

She then went on to represent NZ (along with Jenny Webster) at an international conference that was held in collaboration with the first World Women's Open in 1976 which establashed the Women's International Squash Rackets Federation.

During her time in administration, one of Childs' major achievements was assisting to introduce a national grading list in 1966, with national statistician at the time, Alan Ward. This system replaced the problematic and time-consuming handicap system that pre-dated the introduction of the Grading List.

Childs was involved in many areas of squash, and was the manager of the World Women's teams in 1976 (Australia) and 1978 (England and Sweden).

Squash NZ Life Member Michael Sumpter says "Alison was a stalwart in the early days of both New Zealand and more particularly Auckland Squash."

Kevin Treloar

Kevin Treloar was a Life member of Squash BOP and was well known by many former elite players of NZ. Kevin formed a steering committee to build a Squash Club in Te Puke which was officially opened on Saturday 20 May 1972. But prior to that, he built his own squash court which was certainly well used.

Kevin, a farmer from Maketu, five miles from Te Puke, along with his wife Lorna built a squash court for their five sons, one daughter and friends to enjoy. Mr Treloar first played squash in Japan when, as a member of the New Zealand Occupation Force,  was coerced into a game at the 2nd World War Japanese Kamikaze Air Base, where the Japanese pilots spent their last two or three weeks before their last suicide flight.

When writing the Squash history book "Long or Shot? The Story of NZ Squash", Joseph Romanos spoke with Kevin who said "When I got back to NZ, I got busy with my life, but squash stayed in my mind and when I had the opportunity years later I had one built on our farm".

Maketu Squash club became a well known club both nationally and internationally. Roy Haddon, the NZ Squash secretary at the time, and Bryden Clarke, a NZ Executive Officer, came from Palmerston North to see what a “cow cocky” at Maketu was doing.

Trevor Johnson, Don Burmester, Butch Issacs and Peter Dibley, who were the top four players in NZ at the time, regularly visited and stayed in the cottage beside the main house. The New Zealand team, who competed in the world squash championships in England, of Johnson, D Burmeister, P Dibley, B Isaacs and national coach M Dardir, played exhibition matches at Maketu and used the facility for a week to ten days as a training camp.

Besides the NZ Men and Women’s teams that came to play and stay at Maketu, were the men’s teams from Pakistan, India and Egypt and women’s teams from England and Australia.

Kevin was also amongst a core group of people who pushed for Bay of Plenty to become a separate association from Waikato.