 14
years an amateur; in those days you could not accept a cent. Oh,
shoes and equipment, yes. But other than that, no money. I mean
going to England every year was extremely difficult raising the
money for that.
I never thought about being beaten. I mean once you start thinking
that, you should be out of the game, that's what I feel anyhow Mick.
I just felt that as long as I trained hard, prepared myself well,
then I was always in there with a very good chance of winning.
 |
 And
funnily enough when you play sport, if you win easily, I mean I won
a World Championship in 1978, and I ended up beating one of the
Pakistanis, Qamar Zaman, in 26 mins.
But I've got no real feeling; winning that didn't feel right because
I didn't feel like there was a contest. But winning this, my ex
British Open against Jahangir, this was something special, and
honestly, I had my father there to watch it, it means so much to me,
and that's the one I cherish and the one I remember probably most of
all.
 |
 I
grew up with a girl called Suzanne Wood, who at the same - well she
was about a year older than me, I promise you, she was twice my size
and already a woman, and I was just this skinny little girl, and I
notched up a win over her, I'd lost to her a couple of years in a
row, and then finally I got a win over her, and that's when I think
I started to understand that I had a chance to do well in this
sport.
I enjoyed the volley. Some people are natural volleyers, some are
more natural at trying to play drop shots at the front of the court.
But standing in the middle and volleying was definitely my strength.
 |
Squash is one of only two sports out of
190 that are affiliated with the Australian Sports Commission that
are privately owned. There is no government support at all, for
squash.
For example, I am guilty, I am sitting here in Perth, I own three
squash centres, I love my squash centres, they were my life; I sold
three squash centres and today they are blocks of flats. My family
also needed to eat, and when someone comes along with a big fat
cheque who wants the real estate, unfortunately I was at the age and
coming off the circuit, that I thought I'd won Lotto, so I sold.
 |
