Squash Hall of Fame Members
Inducted 2005, raised to Legend 2017
Raised to Legend
Bio not available.
Bio not available.
Raised to Legend
Raised to Legend
Inducted 2015
It would be fair to say, even though Roger Flynn was an outstanding squash player winning numerous events including the 1979 Victorian Men’s Amateur Championship, there is no doubt that it is his immense contribution via the coaching ranks over the past forty (40) years that places him at the pinnacle of our great sport in this country.
Roger has resided in Victoria, excepting from October 2006 to July 2015, when he was working in Scotland as the National Coach for Scottish Squash and Racketball, as well, from 2009 as their National Performance Director.
ROGER’S COACHING HISTORY
- From 1975 to 1983 he was the Club Manager and resident Head Squash Coach at the Northcote and Reservoir Squash Centres where he introduced and coached hundreds of youngsters in the sport of squash.
- From 1983 to1995 he was the resident Head Coach at several Squash Centres located in the Northern, Western and Eastern suburbs of Melbourne where he established or continued the success of club junior development and competition programs.
- From 1982 to 2006 he was the VSRA/VSF State Junior Coach.
- From 1990 to 1995 he was the Victorian Squash Federation’s Squash in Schools Skills Program Director which exposed in excess of 250,000 Victorian Primary and Secondary students to the sport of squash over that five (5) year period.
- From 1990 to 2006 he was the State Coaching Director for the Victorian Squash Federation.
- From 1995 to 2006 he was the Head Squash Coach at the Victorian Institute of Sport.
- From 1995 to 2006 he was Manager and Head Coach of the VIS/VSF High Performance Program.
- For each year over the past forty (40) years he has been planning an annual program of coaching, training and competition activities for hundreds of junior players of all standards, from 6 to 19 years of age.
- He has been heavily involved in designing and implementing athlete pathway plans which has greatly assisted Victorian/Australian Squash in the development of competition, support and coaching programs for junior players from beginner to elite.
- Spent an enormous amount of time in the training and mentoring of squash coaches not just in Victoria but worldwide.
- Has an outstanding history in the tutoring and presentation areas of squash coaching.
- Heavily involved in the designing of promotional and developmental materials (print, video and electronic) for young children, including Mini Squash, SWOT Squash and Totball.
Although Roger was heavily involved in the coaching of the sport’s elite including Sarah Fitz-Gerald, Carol Owens, Anthony Hill, Paul Price, John Williams etc., every player he taught was regarded by him as being special and he gave them as much of his time as the world champions and elite players.
He was able to see how players of all levels and ages had attributes that could contribute to the development of other players. As a result his training methods allowed these players of various ages and abilities to develop and learn from each other not only in their quests on court but in all aspects of their lives.
Every new player to his squads went through the same initiation process and then were welcomed in as an integral component of that group, training with the very best or players at the same level. It was Roger’s goal to get everyone to the highest level possible for them and to retain a long term passion for the sport, so it was a total team effort.
There is no doubt that Eddie French and Roger were opposites in a lot of ways, but they both had enormous respect for each other, working in unison on all things squash, which was a major reason for Victoria’s long running reign as Australia’s top Junior State, plus the enormous loyalty within the Victorian teams.
Throughout Roger’s career he has been actively involved with all facets of the squash community in growing the sport of Squash, assisting wherever, in schoolyard sessions,
squash centre junior programs, regional and state squads, special promotions at events in the public domain such as shopping centres or malls, expos etc.
From 2006 to 2015, Roger was replicating in Scotland, what he was doing in Australia for the previous thirty one (31) years with resounding success, holding numerous positions, including as the National Coach for Scottish Squash and Racketball, as well, as being their National Performance Director, and Head Coach of their Youth and Junior Academies.
There are a lot of squash people out there who have achieved their goals and success both as a player and life in general. as a result of their interaction with Roger Flynn.
Roger’s great legacy is not only the large number of the sport’s very best players he coached, but also the very high number of his pupils who moved in to the coaching ranks and amongst them several national and world renowned coaches.
Bio not available.
Inducted in 2020
Anthony started playing competitive squash at an early age and he knew that was the sport for him. He was trained by Roger Flynn for most of his playing career and spent 4 years at the Australian Institute of Sport under the guidance of Geoff Hunt and Heather McKay.
He spent over 14 years playing at the World Circuit PSA and reached a personal high ranking of 5 in the world in 1995 and stayed in the top 10 for the next 6 years. He’s won various titles throughout the World Circuit.
In 2001, he started his coaching career full time and he started working at the Heliopolis Sporting Club full time in Cairo, Egypt. He worked as Head Coach under various team directors over an 8 year period.
He worked with groups of children, where they had 6 courts and 250 children aged from 7 years to senior squash. Over the years at Heliopolis, he worked with Ramy Shour, Mohamed Reda, Nour El Taib, Kenzy Defawly and most have now gone to secure world senior titles. Those were the top players. Whilst they were away at tournaments, Anthony’s coaching went to bringing the next generation of children through, at times up to 16 children a week.
Privately, he has coached Marwon El Shorbagy, Heba and Nouron El Torky, Amr Khaled and Karim Aly. These kids are well on their way into the senior world rankings.
Lastly, Anthony is a Level 1 & 2 accredited coach and is currently, S&RV’s State Junior Head coach in which he played a pivotal role in the Victorian Juniors’ win at the 2023 Australian Junior Championships after a 34 year drought.
Raised to Legend
Bio not available.
Raised to Legend
Inducted 2016
Allen Minchington has provided over 40 years of service to the Victorian squash community as a player, coach, venue operator and administrator and was recognised for his contributions through Life Membership of Squash & Racquetball Victoria.
He was a Victorian Senior state team member, Junior and Senior State Team Coach and Team Manager on numerous occasions. A highly sought after coach, who wrote numerous articles on coaching and the sport for the media and squash magazines.
Allen was the Victorian State Match and Pennant Chairman for 10 years. For nearly 40 years owned and managed the very successful Oakleigh, Portman’s and Dromana Squash Centres, which boasted extremely large numbers of interclub players, the vast majority coached by Allen, who brought considerable success to these venues.
Throughout his period as a venue operator, he was heavily involved with the committees of the Southern Districts Squash Association, Southern Squash League and Victorian Squash Federation.
Bio not available.
Raised to Legend
Raised to Legend
Raised to Legend
Inducted 2024
John - known to many as Johnny - started his squash journey as a 5 year old under the guidance of his dad John Williams Snr – in 1978. Johnny’s more serious junior squash days began in 1980 with his first coach Eddie French. Throughout his formative years – the decade of the 80’s – Johnny’s influential figures in terms of coaching (alongside Eddie) were: Roger Flynn (Hall of Fame) – Vic State Junior Coach and later VIS Head Coach. John Larkin – Famous for the military styled Squash Camps on the Mornington Peninsula. As recently as August 2024, John Larkin and his wife visited Johnny in Switzerland for 3 weeks, touring through Europe as well as teaming up once again – this time running Johnny’s own squash camp in Zurich – edition No18! Throughout the 80’s Johnny’s rivals / friend’s in squash were players such as Billy Haddrell, Simon Baker and Michael Joint. Johnny also had close connections with Anthony Hill, Phil Larmer, Stephen Jones and Warren Miller - Warren was his most regular partner (Thursday afternoons), who would also scale the ‘Fire Break’ trail up Mt. Dandenong on a weekly basis. Johnny’s record of 11m45s remains the record (according to Warren!) Noteworthy mentions also to Lenny Steward and Garry McIntosh (Garry also became VIS Head Coach). In the late 90’s Johnny spent a lot of time training and travelling with his fellow Victorian and former World No4, British open Finalist and S&RV Hall of Fame member - Paul Price.
Junior Accomplishments TITLES:
Australian Junior Championships 4 times (U/15 -1987, U/17 - 1988 and 1989, U/19 in 1989) Vic Junior Championships u/15 - 1987, u/17-1989, u/19 1989 and1990 He represented Victoria in u/13 -1984, u/15-1986 and 1987, u/ 17 - 1988 and 1989, u/19 1987 to 1991. Senior accomplishments: Johnny went off on the professional (PSA) tour fresh out of high school at 18 years old, where he based himself between Europe and Australia for 3.5 years. From 1990-1993 Johnny was a Member of the AIS program under Legend Geoff Hunt’s tutelage. He achieved a highest ranking of World No 49 in May 1994 before approximately a 2-year set back due to chronic fatigue related virus after a glandular fever infection.
Johnny eventually recovered to enter the PSA tour again in May 1997 where he relocated back to Switzerland in Europe where he took a coaching job (in Basel). In 2000-2001 Johnny was back at the AIS on a part-time basis, getting invaluable advice from Rodney Martin – which helped him achieve his best level of squash from 2000-2003. Being able to combine coaching and playing, Johnny rose up the rankings again to reach his highest ranking: World No15 (April 2001) and was selected to play for Australia in the 2001 World Team Championships event in Melbourne - his team mates were David Palmer, Paul Price, Stewart Boswell with Rodney Martin as coach. Over Johnnys career he won 7 PSA titles, finalist in 4 PSA events, with another notable result of quarter finalist at the Esso Flanders Open in Belgium which is now classified as a Platinum event on the PSA Tour.
Johnny played in 27 countries around the world on the PSA Tour and still resides in Switzerland with his partner (Fabienne) and 5 year old child (Mischa). Johnny holds his World Squash Federation Level 3 coaching certification and Swiss Squash Trainer Certification.
He was Head Referee at the World Junior Championships held in 2008 in Zurich and Squash Player Magazine Panel Member in 2022. Currently he is Consultant Coach to Welsh Player Joel Makin World No8 and Spanish player Iker Pajares World No26 and runs his own squash academy in Zurich. He currently sits on the Swiss Squash Committee as the elite sport representative. Johnny started out as coach and professional player at Basel, Schaffhausen and Luzern from 1997-2004, Liechtenstein National Coach and player - winning Gold at Small Nations (Olympic Games of Europe) in 2003 in Malta.
From 2002 to 2023 Johnny was Swiss National Coach (playing coach from 2007-2013) Johnny’s main coaching position since 2007 has been at VITIS SportsCenter (Zurich). His role as Head Coach at the centre has also included: Junior Squash Programs, Club Organisation and Organiser of PSA Events (2009, 2015, 2016) as well as exhibition events bringing players such as Ramy Ashour, Nicol David, Jonathan Power, Greg Gaultier, Paul Coll, Diego Elias and James Willstrop to the venue. If any of you watch Squash TV - the living steaming for PSA - Johnnys has been employed as a commentator since 2017 and you will often hear his voice during all rounds of these major televised events.
A couple of his more notable commentating highlights were 2 x World Championships (2022 and 2024) as well as the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham. Johnny is still a Victorian boy through and through….he loves his football (avid Carlton supporter) and is still very connected to his Victorian and Australian friends and family. Johnny has an unbelievable memory and literally was a walking computer for stats and numbers for the AFL. He once memorized the PSA Men’s top 200 and their averages to 3 decimal places! These days he is more focused on keeping on top of all squash scores and past major winners.
Kara Jeffries accepting her brother John Williams Award
Inducted 2016
Fifty two years of service as a Player, Professional Coach, Venue Operator, Administrator, Referee and Publicity Officer.
Brendan started playing squash in 1961 coached by Hudson Pitt and played his first pennant match in F Reserve for Gardenvale then remained as a player for twenty-five (25) years rising to State 1 No1 for ten (10) years.
Affectionately known as ‘Arab’ and believes his toughest opponent was Chuck 1.
He became a Professional Coach in 1967 and did not stop coaching until 2013.
A member of the Tournament Committee which ran the inaugural World Men’s Amateur Squash
Championships in Melbourne in 1967.
In 1971 Brendan went to Darwin to conduct coaching clinics to help improve the numbers playing and their level of play, with one of his pupils being Steve Bowditch, who won the 1981 World Amateur Championship and was inducted into the Squash Australia Hall of Fame in 2015.
In 1972 and 73 coached the Victorian Junior Women’s squads.
In 1973 became Victoria’s first full time professional coach, coaching at up to eleven (11) centres.
From 1974‐1977 he conducted coaching clinics and courses for the Victorian Education Department’s Teaching Colleges at Monash and Melbourne Universities.
In 1975 appointed Publicity Officer for the SRAV.
In 1976 went into partnership with Ray Lewis at the Gardenvale Squash Centre, but still fulfilled his coaching commitments at other centres. He then went on to also lease the Malvern Squash Centre until its closure in 2013.
Brendan was President of the Southern Squash League for fifteen (15) years, and a Victorian Squash Federation Board member for five (5) years.
Raised to Legend
Raised to Legend
