‘Messi of Squash’ Adam Murrills Talks to Beyond The Glass

Trick shot king Adam Murrills sat down with Beyond The Glass presenters Jenny Duncalf and Joey Barrington to talk about his Messi of Squash nickname, living in the British Virgin Islands and even showed off some of his skills to the camera.

You can watch the full episode of Beyond the Glass now on SQUASHTV with a FREE digital subscription.

Joey Barrington: “Adam, great to have you on. You know I love nicknames and you have been given the nickname ‘Messi of Squash’, it would be nice if you were possibly earning as much as Lionel Messi, that would be a bit of a result, but you’ve been a busy bee on the internet at the moment with your trickshot challenges. It has been pretty hardcore for you the lockdown, you have literally been in your flat in the British Virgin Islands?”

Adam Murrills: “Yeah, it’s been pretty hardcore in the BVI, I think because we are a such a small territory, we have got 30,000 people and the medical facilities just wouldn’t be able to cope if COVID-19 took hold. So, they had to be really strict in terms of guidelines, so we had a full lockdown. When people can’t saying ‘we’re in lockdown in England’ and they’re going out exercising, I was like ‘no, we’re in proper lockdown’ – you can’t leave the house, if you do you get a big fine or you get taken to prison. They’re not messing around and I live right next to the police station! We’ve been in lockdown for about four weeks where we got told about it and I had to do a massive shop to prepare, I’ve never done a shop more than two days in advance so to try and prepare was something a bit different.”

JB: “You obviously went pretty bonkers on the shopping with toilet rolls though because you’ve been using a lot of those in trick shots, haven’t you?”

AM: “My mum keeps seeing them and she keeps telling me not to waste them. I’m well stocked when it comes to toilet roll.

JB: “This has enhanced everything for you being at home and not being restricted to do stuff, you’ve always been putting stuff on before this happened but you’ve been releasing them every couple of days!”

Happy Monday… @305SQUASH @PSAWorldTour #team305 pic.twitter.com/kMIOID1P7W

— Adam Murrills (@ajmuzza1990) May 4, 2020

AM: “Yes, I’ve been trying to get one out every two or three days. I guess being stuck in lockdown, there isn’t a huge amount to do. I think Daryl was on here and said it’s genuinely enjoyable and quite cool trying to visualise a concept and then having the patience. I’m working on the skills to try and get it done.”

Jenny Duncalf: “Be honest though, are you a one take wonder?”

AM: “I might have stitched myself up, but I always say one take wonder.”

JD: “You’re obviously a bit of a handy footballer, what’s your footballing background?”

AM: “Nothing to shout home about, but I love football, played a lot when I was at school but cricket is actually my second sport. Just sport crazy, come from a sporting family and love a bit of football and realised I could do some kick-ups with a squash ball.”

JB: “I know you come from a sporting family because I played Yorkshire League in the same team as your brother. I’m not sure if he won any matches though, he was always there but I hope he’s keeping well!”

AM: “Yes, he’s keeping well. I think he’s actually working with England Squash these days in a part time role with them but yes, he’s keeping well and I’ll tell him to check this out after that shoutout from you, I’m sure he will be very happy that you’ve broadcast that to the squash world.”

JD: “Could I also apologise to him once again for thinking he was your dad and not your brother? I’m never going to live that down!”

AM: “I was pretty down in the dumps, well not too down in the dumps, I had actually played pretty well against Greg Lobban, lost 3-2 having a chat with my brother, or my dad, and then Jenny comes walking along and she’s like ‘well played’ and then “I’m not sure I’ve met you before, but you must be Adam’s dad’. There’s eight years difference between us, so not enough that you’re going to be calling him my dad!”

JD: “It’s your baby face looks Adam! You’re a long way from Manchester now in the British Virgin Islands, never been myself, open to an invitation – you’ve been heavily affected through this COVID crisis because you run a couple of PSA events there?”

AM: “That’s right. A BVI men’s open has been going for a few years, but last year we staged our first women’s PSA and then this year we were going for our highest prize money ever event, so a Challenger 10 and amazingly half an hour away on a ferry there is another island and they’ve just built two squash courts. I rang him and said would you fancy popping one on the week after, so we can provide the players with a little mini tour. Obviously it’s quite expensive for players coming here for just a one off tournament and given the prize money isn’t the biggest then it’s quite tough but if we can give them two tournaments then it makes it worthwhile. I’m gutted because it was going to be two weeks of squash, two tournaments back-to-back, all the players were the same for the two tournaments and all you had to do was hop on a ferry to get to another idyllic island, play another tournament. We had boat trips lined up for player parties.”

JB: “I’m thinking or rejoining the PSA World Tour…”

JD: “Wildcard please!”

JB: “Are you thinking to announce us there? We’ll come.”

AM: “We’ll get you in as the commentary team”

JB: “We’ll hold you to that, we’ve got you live now, so that’s recorded. I just wanted to ask you, you know in your videos the audio background there is something that happens quite regularly on it and I wanted to know if you have a pet cockerel?”

AM: “There’s more than one! The timezone here is, it’s 6:30am for me here now and I set my alarm for 5am, but there was never any doubt that I was not going to make the call, because there’s a bunch of them, always outside and always making a racket.”

JB: “I thought it might be a soundbite or something because every time you completed a challenge there was a massive noise!

“Keep them coming, all of these trickshots and improvisation are great for the youngsters and the squash community – so keep them going!”

187 for @ajmuzza1990

And of course done in style

How have all your efforts been going on the #FrameChallenge? #SquashedInside #StayHome pic.twitter.com/mJ0NYm96bl

— PSA World Tour (@PSAWorldTour) May 1, 2020