fabric of the Cootamundra Squash Association for as long as they care to remember and have clashed on court literally hundreds of times.

For John Finkle and Kerry Malone, the local squash club has given them plenty of fond

memories over the years, however neither have been as excited as they are heading into the weekend.

The club they have dedicated so much time and effort towards will celebrate 50 years of existence tomorrow and the men commonly referred to as ‘Fink’ and ‘The King’ can’t wait.

“The weekend is a celebration of the club and everyone who has been part of it over the past five decades,” Malone said.

“It is a huge achievement for Cootamundra squash as the club is fully self sufficient and has been run by hundreds of volunteers over the years.”

Finkle, a long serving committee member who was afforded Life Membership of the club has been there literally from the start and recalls the days when squash was one of the most popular sports in town.

“At one stage we had close to 700 financial members on the books which equated to almost 10 per cent of the population of the town,” Finkle said.

“To accommodate for the

numbers we played on every night of the week except for Saturday, while the ladies also had a Monday morning housewives’ comp.”

Ploughing through the archives ahead of the

weekend celebrations, Finkle stumbled upon a team list from the early 1980s.

“I think it was the summer comp of 1980/81 and there were 12 teams of six in Division two alone,” he said.

“That’s 72 players at the courts on the one night.”

Kick starting the weekend celebrations is an open day at the Ursula Street courts between 10am and 5pm.

“We’re encouraging as many local residents as possible, especially those who may have played squash in the past, to come down and have a look at the mounds of memorabilia we have dug up,” Malone said.

“There’s plenty of old paper clippings and photos, not only of the players themselves but also the many fun nights we used to have.