Old-Fashioned Squash

Power v. Nicol in the Tournament of Champions Final

By James Zug

Photos by Randall Scott

Peter Nicol vs. Jonathon Power

2002 Tournament of Champions

Peter Nicol is one of the people John Houseman referred to in his Smith Barney commercials when he intoned: “They make money the old-fashioned way. They earn it.” Nicol works awfully hard. He is a perfect gentleman on court. He does nothing flashy or exclamatory. He earns his number one ranking.

In this post-dot-bomb, post-Enron world, however, such conventions are not the leading modus operandi. Instead, the model is Jonathon Power. He strikes like lightning: quick, lethal, inconsistent, with a loud thunderclap of scowls and protests presaging his arrival and destruction littering the ground upon his exit. He would be the equal of J. Khan (you pick) if he only got in shape, and yet you secretly know that he should not. He needs to be the bad boy. He needs the entourage of coach, manager, racquet representative, glamorous wife and often his father. He needs the unruly hair, the skullcap, the leather jacket, a tatterdemalion just off King's Road. He thrives on a wonderfully complete distaste for preparation. Instead of chanting mantras behind a screen or below the bleachers like other players, he has to stand in the milling crowd behind the court for 15 minutes before his match, soaking in the vibe of the evening. Instead of carefully taking off and folding his pre-game sweatsuit, he needs to step out like a boy hurrying to recess, without his hands, stomping, turning them inside-out.

(To find out who won and read about the road to the final, see Squash Magazine, March 2002.)