PSA50: Heather McKay: Six Of The Best

By RJ Mitchell

The ultimate measure of any great champion must surely be the regard they are held in by those they battled against while sharing and enduring those most intense moments that define our sport.

Courtesy of an excellent short YouTube piece created by Oliver Coulcher-Porter, we have the chance to provide a string of affidavits from those that competed with the great Heather McKay and attempted to supplant her at the summit of the women’s game – only to come up short – and those who followed in her footsteps during the early years of professionalism on the women’s tour.

Barbara Wall

To start proceedings the expert witness box is filled by Barbara Wall, the first Australian woman to turn professional, who lost (3-9, 1-9, 2-9) to Heather in the final of the 1977 British Open.

Barbara, who went on to win the 1979 British Open, said: “It was a little bit like being in a dry press when you played Heather. You’d start off with the warm up and that would be fine, but as the match got started and went on the pressure just grew and grew.

“It was so intense as she just didn’t make mistakes. She also got everything back and was very accurate.

“The great Egyptian squash professional Dardir El Bakary came over to coach in Australia and he explained to us that the reason Heather was so good was, as he said: ‘Heather has a great department of administration, a good department of engineering and an excellent department of labour!’

“In other words she had a fantastic brain for the game, wonderful stroke production, and she was just much fitter than any of the other women.”

Angela Smith

Angela Smith was the former World No.2 from Stoke, Great Britain, who was a semi-finalist in the 1979 & 1981 World Opens.

In the 1979 World Open Angela took a set from Heather in a 10-9, 4-9, 3-9, 1-9 defeat and she said: “I would never compare anybody, even the top players now, but I am lucky to have played in several eras and there is no one that comes anywhere close to Heather’s standard.

“You can talk about Nicol David; you can talk about Sarah Fitz-Gerald, and all the other players since and everyone that saw Heather play will tell you she was just in a different league.

“In fact she gave some of the men like Geoff Hunt and Jonah Barrington a run for their money.“

Sue Cogswell

Former World No.8 Sue Cogswell lost to Heather in the final of the 1979 World Championship (9-6, 3-9, 1-9, 4-9) while she was also runner-up to Heather in the 1974 British Open final (4-9, 1-9, 2-9)

Recalling all of this Sue said: “I actually went to Toronto to get coached by Heather, be around her and learn from her. The coaching wasn’t so much about the technique it was about discipline, how to train and how to practice and you to do your drills and try and improve.

“My game was different to Heather’s as I made a lot of unforced errors and went for shots at the wrong time, so it was trying to be disciplined to wait for the opening rather than force it.

“People talk about different eras but Heather would be right up there in any era and she would be creaming them for sure.”

Rhonda Thorne

Rhonda Thorne was the 1981 World Champion and World No.1 in both 1981 and 1982 and has no doubt Heather should be regarded as an icon: “I saw Heather win a number of British Opens and also her two World Opens. In the 1979 World final she was 38 at the time and semi-retired and she lost the first game in the final to Sue Cogswell as she was extremely nervous and she had very little match play.

“But after a chat with her husband Brian it was the old Heather McKay and all downhill for Sue from then.

“I also had the privilege of having Heather as coach and manager of the 1981 Australian Women’s team which was successful in (World Team Championships) Toronto and she was a real role model for me coming through in my career.

“I know she was inspirational for Sarah Fitz-Gerald and Michelle Martin who aspired to great things. Heather McKay is an icon of our sport.” 

Alexia Clonda

Former World No.5 Alexia Clonda was coached by Heather as a junior and has a unique perspective on the legend’s qualities, saying: “What can I say, Heather is an absolute legend. When I met her I was a junior and I saw her at the second World Open in Sheffield and she was gracious and powerful.

“We actually had a lesson and she just hit the ball at a different level, it came back at you with a punch – almost like Jahangir Khan. It was so different to any other woman I played; she was my idol from the first time I picked up a squash racket at 13.

“Her ball just had such ferociousness and power and my mouth was open as I’d never experienced anything like it. On and off the court she had this grace and she was just very humble and modest.”

Sarah Fitz-Gerald

Sarah Fitz-Gerald, the former five-time World Champion, was a student of Heather’s at the Australian Institute of Sport in the 1990s, and she said: “I first met Heather McKay when I was 16 years-old and she came home from living in North America for 10 years to coach at the Australian Institute of Sport in Brisbane. I was lucky enough to be one of the kids on that programme.

“So I got to train with her as well as being coached and she took me to the world juniors in Brighton, England in ’87 and it was great having her there in my corner – everyone wanted to meet Heather.

“She also took a few of the young Aussie players away on our first professional tour and thank god she was with us! She had been there and done it and knew exactly what to do when we were starstruck kids. She was wonderful, a great person and still is and at 80 plus she is still phenomenally fit. I hope I am like her when I reach that age.”

Surely never has the case for greatness been made stronger.