PSA50: Facing McKay

Three generations of challengers failed to find an answer to the prowess of the peerless Antipodean Heather McKay, as she strung together an amazing 16 year sequence of British Open successes together between 1962 and 1977 – while remaining unbeaten for a staggering 19 years.

A succession of rivals, ranging from Fran Marshall who appeared in four of those first eight British Open finals spanning the period from 1962 to 1970, and another Englishwoman Anna Craven-Smith – who was left disappointed on three occasions at the final hurdle – found Heather had provided their ‘Becher’s Brook’.

One player who she met in a string of major finals at our game’s greatest tournaments, including the final of the first Women’s World Championship played in Brisbane in 1976, was another Aussie great in Marion Jackman.

Perhaps, given it’s now unique status as the inaugural World Championship final, not surprisingly it was an unforgettable experience for both – for different reasons.

For McKay it is one title she cherishes among the greatest moments of her garlanded career and she recalled: “The first world championship was in ‘76 when I beat Marion Jackman in Brisbane and I believe it has now been recognised as a world championship and the first in the women’s game. It has certainly been a contentious talking point.

“There is no doubt that winning that first World Championships was among the top three highlights of my career.

“Winning the British for 16 years and winning that first one, well the British had always been regarded as the World Championship.

“The Australian I won for the first time in 1960 by beating Dot Deacon, that also meant a lot and of course winning my first British against Fran (Marshall) and then of course Brisbane in ‘76.

“But to be the first official Women’s World Champion was very high on my agenda! It was special.”

With McKay administering a decisive 9-2, 9-2, 9-0 defeat on her opponent for Jackman, who had a year earlier lost the British Open final to McKay, it provides a painful memory with one overriding positive 

“It was awful,” said Jackman. “Heather beat me very easily and produced an almost error free game while I had come through another tough semi with Sue Newman and when the final came I felt like I wasn’t even there.

“So Heather had an easy match but I was happy to make the first ever Women’s World Championship final. I was disappointed in my game but Heather was just immaculate for the full three games and she just shut me out.”

By the time that fabled sizzling summer of ’76 had come around Jackman had already been enduring her own personal drought against McKay, having previously lost five Australian Open finals to her nemesis in 1966, ‘67, ‘68, ‘71, ‘73, before she finally won her home Open in 74.

So what were the challenges Heather posed when you faced her in court?

“I played Heather over 10 years and she was very consistent, it was pretty much the same all the time, so it was like trying to stop the tide,” admitted Marion.

“She hit the ball very hard, in fact harder than anyone else and that meant it gave you less time to play your shots. She was also very good at finishing off anything you played that wasn’t perfect, so you pretty much had to produce immaculate length all the time. Heather was like playing a steamroller.

“In many ways that was a complement as you knew that when you played Heather, she would produce her best against anyone who was on the other side of the court.

“She gave nothing to anybody, so if you won a point or even a game, then you really earned it.

“Heather was also very fit and really she was the complete package. People have asked me: ‘What made Heather so good?’ The best way I could answer that was that Heather was pretty much 10/10 every time and with everyone else you may have an 8/10 or a seven and nobody really got close to her,” shared Marion.

“It did happen a few times and I managed it on a couple of occasions and so did Sue Cogswell later on in her career. But mainly Heather won 3-0 every time she played.”

In terms of her own perspective on why she was so tough to beat, McKay had no doubt her dominance lay in her superior fitness and she said: “I was all about power to start with and at the beginning I was definitely the fittest women player at that stage and I trained very hard and also worked very hard on my technique and shot making.

“It was always a challenge and I challenged myself all the time to be the best I could be, the fittest I could be and to prepare myself for any major tournament coming up to the best of my ability. Also my husband Brian certainly made sure I did that! I also did do some interval training but not 400metres.

“But in my training I always made sure that when I went into a tournament I was confident in my fitness, that was my foundation.

“So, I did train for squash and probably in terms of how serious I was about fitness I was the first to really pursue that with real dedication. I was definitely the first woman to incorporate weight training in my preparation, I always stretched, and I ran on the track.

“Brian always made sure I had an off season to prepare and he would always tell me “If you’ve not done the training don’t do the complaining” and throughout my career I did everything I could to make sure I was in the best shape I could be when I walked on to a squash court.

“I knew that if I was in a humdinger of a match and I was feeling it then I had every confidence my opponent was in a worse state and when you have the inner confidence in your conditioning that gives you, it takes pressure off your game and it builds belief. That really counts when you have to dig deep at key moments in any big match.”

Yet McKay was also renowned for her power play and likened by former World No.5 Alexia Clonda to Jahangir Khan and she recalled: “I also think one of my biggest assets was that I had power but also accuracy as well. I think that was a huge plus but my movement around the court was also a strength of mine and I trained to make sure that was the case, I was also pretty tough mentally.

“But my game also had pace and accuracy and people always used to say that: ‘You win 3-0 all the time!’ but I worked very hard to make sure that was the case, and they didn’t realise just how hard I worked in these three games and if I hadn’t been as fit as I was it would have been a different outcome.”

For Jackman, looking back through the sepia dimmed prism of almost 50 years in time, when it comes to the question: Was Heather the greatest female player of all time? The answer is simple.

The former World and British Open runner-up said: “Heather was always very focussed, very competitive and she didn’t want to give you anything and in fact some of the time she wasn’t happy if you got a let!. You had to win it!

“I don’t think Heather would cope with the modern era easily with the likes of Sherbini, but I think she would cope all right and then it would be very interesting!

“The thing I notice with the girls of today is that they don’t play it as tight as we did, we kept the ball very close to the wall and deep into the corners otherwise it would be finished off.

“But the modern girls do hit the ball very hard, move so fast and play beautifully and El Sherbini, who I’ve seen play, is just wonderful.

“So it is very hard to make comparisons across the eras and for me that is the case in any sport be it tennis or squash.

“Tennis was different to what it was 10 years back never mind 50 years ago and it is the same with squash particularly with the change in racket technology.

“But she was a great sport and player and in my opinion the greatest of all time.