The British National Squash Championships have been running since 1974, missing just one year since (there was no competition in 1990).
There have been some incredible finals and runs during that time, here’s a few random finals facts …
- The first 3 men’s finals all went to five games, but the last five-game men’s final was in 2011
- Lee Beachill made 6 finals in a row from 2003-2008, winning 3 of those
- Cassie Jackman (Campion/Thomas) holds the record for women’s titles, claiming 6 between 1993 and 2004 (and losing in two other finals)
- Nick Matthew has won the most titles, 10 from 2006 to 2018, and beat James Willstrop in 6 of those finals
- Before Joel Makin in 2021 the last non-English men’s winner was John White (Scotland) in 2004
- Before Tesni Evans won the first of her 2 consecutive titles in 2018 the last non-English winner was Martine Le Moignan (Guernsey) in 1991
- The most appearances in the final without winning one is just 2 (Stuart Courtney, Teresa Laws and Nick Taylor – Courtney lost the first two finals, both in 5 games)
- Manchester has hosted more finals than anywhere else (25 across 6 venues) with 7 other cities hosting at least one edition
- 23 Women’s and 21 Men’s finals have finished in 3 games, while 11 of each have gone the full distance to 5 games
- The first 23 men’s finals (up to ‘97) were played with HIHO to 9 scoring, the next 7 were PAR to 15, and all since then (from 2005) have been PAR to 11
- The Women’s finals were HIHO to 9 until 2007, and PAR to 11 since 2008
- The longest recent finals (we only have match durations from 2010) were the men’s in 2011 and 2012 (84 and 81 minutes) with the women’s in 2013 and 2015 taking 78 and 80 minutes
- The most memorable recent finals were the men’s of 2011 where Daryl Selby inflicted Nick Matthew’s only final defeat, and the women’s of 2015 when Sarah-Jane Perry beat hot favourite Laura Massaro, both in 5 games – stay tuned for brief reports on those two matches
Full records of the Nationals Finals
