h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I could have sworn that Squash came about as a derivation from the game Rackets which is exactly similar except the courts are bigger and the balls harder ...

http://www.scottishsquash.org/history.html seems to say it all really.

I may be wrong but every where I look leads me to the same conclusion!

... also, I don't think Badminton is really a nearest cousin ... Rackets itself was its predecessor and while the number of rackets courts is vastly outnumbered by the number of squash courts - the two are almost identical - except of course if you think being hit with a squash ball is sore try being hit by a rackets ball which is not entirely disimilar to a golf ball in hardness!

I agree with Harrow, but my own research turned up several sources that mentioned the Fleet Prison with a pre-1830s date that then linked into the pursuit being taken up by the Harrow boys. I'm not denying a connection to Rackets... simply that the conditions of this sport found there at a certain time in a certain place.

TA

TA ... look what I found! Typed "fleet prison" squash into google and it came up with this:

http://www.commonwealthgames.com/Sports/Squash/Information/default.asp

Would seem that Fleet Prison invented rackets (ie harder ball, bigger court and would explain the height of the walls in a rackets court!) and Harrow adopted it (that's to say rackets) and then changed it to squash by adapting it ever so slightly!

You ever played rackets? Absolutely lethal - smacking a golf ball around a confined space - madness I tell you and I think I'm right in saying it's the fastest racket sport in the world ... but then I could have made that up

Hmmm, I've never heard of rackets but it's interesting to here other thories to the origin of squash.

>Smacking a golf ball around a confined space

Does sound pretty lethal. May I ask why you would partake in such an activity?

It's not a theory Wotchit ... it's fact! promise

It isn't really a golf ball you use just a ball that seems as hard as a golf ball, is about the same size as a golf ball and goes as fast as a well struck driver ... if you imagine squash as the junior version with a softer ball in a smaller court then that's what it's like ... it's damn fast and if you've played squash you should have a go - can't say where you're likely to find a court mind ... beyond fleet prison or harrow

Well looks like I won't get to have a go.

*goes off muttering about how he could have made such a mistake*

Well, at least I got the Harrow bit right.