Gisborne 60-year-old plays part in history-making NZ teams squash victory

Surf City Squash Club member Mike Low, 60, competed at an estimated 20 B Grade national teams championships before getting his hands on the winning trophy.

Mike Low gave up serious squash for three years to go kitesurfing, and timed his return to the courts perfectly.

Low, 60, was in the Surf City Squash men’s B Grade team who brought home the Davis Trophy as winners of their National SuperChamps tournament in Whangārei. It was the club’s first men’s national B Grade title.

Squash New Zealand holds National SuperChamps week annually. District champion teams in five grades – B, C, D, E and F/J – gather at five centres throughout the country to find the national men’s and women’s champions.

Low was the oldest member of the Surf City B Grade team “by a long way” and had plenty of history in the club’s quest for national supremacy in that division.

He started playing competitive squash – “I don’t play socially” – 32 years ago and has been to “at least 20″ B Grade tournaments.

“I absolutely love it,” Low said. “We came runners-up maybe four times. I love the chase [of tournament play].”

But now the club has won that elusive B Grade title, Low is rethinking his position on social squash.

“To finally get there ... I can put that to rest, and I think it will be mainly social squash for me from now on. But who knows.”

Low, a self-employed plumber who started in the trade at 18, has led a physically active life. Four years ago, he decided to give up squash to get to grips with kitesurfing.

“Even in the years I didn’t play, it was sitting in the back of my mind, like an itch I wasn’t scratching. I think I missed it every day, but I knew I couldn’t do both. To learn kitesurfing at an older age took a lot more concentration and determination to sort of get it.

“I did three years of kitesurfing and thought, ‘I’m ready to get back into squash’.”

That was a year ago.

“I still kitesurf. I had this winter off, mainly for squash, and it’s been nice not being in the water in the middle of winter.”

Low takes his leisure seriously. “I love competition.”

He was introduced to squash by two mates from his schooldays, Dene Moleta and Kevin Ford.

The police used the Gisborne Boys’ High School squash courts for fitness training and Ford, then in the police, had a key.

Low took to the game with vigour.

“I’m always happy when I’m moving,” he said.

“Because squash is so full of movement, there’s very little downtime. A rally finishes and the next one starts within 15 seconds. It’s basically continuous movement. I feel good mentally and physically when I’m doing it. That’s not to say there aren’t aches and pains, but they disappear when I’m on the court.”

In the build-up to tournament play this year he would be on the court “maybe four days a week”. At his peak, he would play six days a week.

“There’s no way my body would handle that now. From here on in, it will probably be two or three times a week.”

Low said he “didn’t contribute a hell of a lot” to the team’s success.

“I won one game, lost one and pulled a hamstring in the third, but it was fun to be part of a group of awesome young men.”