It gives me great pleasure to recall our two tours to Brest Squash Club, Brittany. Our first tour was back in April 1987. We left Truro on the Friday early evening, took the overnight Roscoff ferry and arrived at the squash club around breakfast time. Fuelled by croissants and strong French coffee to compensate for a virtually sleepless night we entered the fray against some locals and then enjoyed lunch at the shopping centre nearby. Some of us were flagging - I recall Trevor Spargo sleeping on a bench behind one of the glass back courts. Then we played a tournament. Yves, the owner, was a wonderful host even arranging a creperie meal that evening before some of us danced the night away in a club by the port. Les Bone accompanied us as our #1 and at that time he was at his peak and ranked in England. The home crowd had never seen anything like it! Les, of course, loved the attention (especially the French ladies!) and went on to win the competition easily that weekend. His prize was an Easter egg, not quite what a professional was used to! He also went on to play for Brest SC in their national league team for a few seasons after that. Sunday was more relaxed though there was still quite a lot of squash matches still to play and by the evening we were transported back to Roscoff and the return crossing. In addition to those already mentioned  Mort Searle, Jeremy Gimson, Phil Pearce, myself and Tony Raftery ( club chairman at the time) made the tour. The memory isn’t what it used to be so apologies if I’ve left anyone out! 

In 1999 I arranged a second tour to Brest SC. This time there was more of a family feel to the weekend with Diane, Adrian and Will Tyas, Dave and Karen Taylor, Phil and Caron Moxom as well as Jamie (our #1), my daughter Anne-Fabienne, Jeremy Gimson amongst others. The Friday evening ferry was great fun and once again we played a lot of squash over Saturday and Sunday. Jamie came out top. He was, of course, club and county champion at the time. 

 We enjoyed nice meals, played some good games of euchre (thanks Dave Taylor) , stayed in nearby hotels this time and Jeremy treated us all to a slap up meal back at Roscoff port before the return journey. The sea was again kind to us so I can’t recollect anyone feeding the seagulls from the side of the ferry!

Both tours went very well. The Brest Squash Club goes from strength to strength with a team in the top flight of the French national league. There has been a recent refurbishment scheme and with six fine glass back courts, a wonderful bar and eating area it is indeed an excellent venue should you ever wish to visit. It is currently run by Arthur who took over from his father Yves last year. Arthur was ranked 120 in the world and is a former French junior champion. Having spent 6 years as a pro in England his English is excellent. They would love to have us on tour again one day, they constantly remind us.