George Deubler has been an essential part of squash in metro Sydney for nearly 20 years with this contribution felt by many.
Spreading himself across a number of roles within Squash in the Sydney CBD and more broadly across squash in NSW, including as president of the City Houses Squash Racquets Association (CHSRA) for nearly 15 years, and president of the Commonwealth Bank Sydney Squash Club for the last 18 years and the manager of CBD Squash Club.
A key part of his positions involves running competitions and lunch round robins including organising and running the annual City Houses Teams Competition which has been going since 1952 and currently has 330 players in over 55 teams entered.
The roles are pretty much a second job and beyond competitions see him handle a range of matters including: lobbying Clubs / RSL’s in the CBD to provide funding for various squash initiatives, sorting out players booking issues on Sporty HQ, finding new players in the CBD someone else to have a hit with, and operating the last 2 remaining publicly accessible courts within the CBD at 199 Castlereagh St.
Beyond his work with squash in the CBD George has been involved in Facilities Working Groups at state and national level. With his primary achievement on these committees being the creation of the Squash Supply & Demand Heatmaps which have been used extensively to lobby councils and state government for additional courts in areas where the demand for squash courts exceeds the number of courts available.
“A question I often get asked is do I actually play squash. The answer is yes but nowhere near as much as I would like. I generally used to play at lunchtime at various courts in the CBD but with everyone working from home this has become a rarity.”
George began playing squash relatively late at 28 years old when he joined the Commonwealth Bank Squash Club in 2001.
“For about the first 2 years I played nothing but doubles so all of us could get a hit in on our lunch break. I eventually started playing in the City Houses Competition in D2 where one of my first matches was against the current and long-standing City Houses Treasurer Julie Searant (she still claims she won that match but lost on a bad umpiring call!!!). I started playing on a daily basis to keep me out of the pub at lunchtime and the practice paid off.”
Following this he began playing A grade in City Houses and in the mid 2000’s started playing pennant for Briars at Five Dock and other clubs including Willoughby, Bondi and South Juniors eventually working his way up to State 2.
“I also enjoyed going to various country tournaments having a wonderful time especially with the guys from Souths Juniors and CBA Squash Club. My only victory in any tournament was the Crookwell Christmas Doubles (probably because of all the doubles I played when starting out in squash) though I don’t remember much about the actual weekend.”
George currently spends most of his playing time in the City Houses Teams comp representing CBA.
George finds being about of the CBD squash community and many aspects of his role rewarding including gaining new players and sponsors and continuing to grow the sport.
“It is always wonderful to hear stories from players who have not played squash in 20 years and have been dragged into the City Houses comp to play for their company and then telling you that their love for the game has been rekindled.”
He is also passionate about creating initiatives that facilitate this and help to boost participation including the introduction of the Women’s Novice grade within the City Houses Competition, which has been running for three years and now has approximately 40 female players. “This is something we have invested a fair bit of time and money and we hope it continues to grow. I have to thank Aaron Frankcomb and his East Coast Squash Academy team (particularly Mike Dickens) for all their effort to get the Ladies comp up and running.”
Georges dedicated time and effort combined with his skills and knowledge has been indispensable and he is more then deserving for recognition for the role he plays in running and growing squash. Benefiting not just the Sydney CBD but squash as a whole here in Australia, with George positive on the future of squash.
“I think squash has somewhat come back into vogue as it is perfectly suited to the modern lifestyle. It is a wonderful sport for anyone who doesn’t have much spare time (i.e. most of us). It is easy to organise say a hit at lunch compared to playing touch footy as you only need 1 other person, it can be played in any weather, it has a social / competitive element to it which makes it more interesting than going to a gym and lastly 30 minutes of Squash gives you a great workout.”