But imagine if someone had said to Pete Sampras that Wimbledon was no longer one of the greatest events and might not be staged, or that Lester Piggott thought there would be no Derby.
That’s roughly equivalent to what Jonah has experienced in recent times, during which the world famous tournament with which he was once synonymous seemed on its way to the dump.
“I became pretty despondent because I felt it had almost reached the stage where the best players were choosing whether to play or not on the basis of what kind of ranking points it would give,” said the six times British Open Champion.
The point about this, of course, is that for much of its seventy-five years the British Open had been the tournament around which every decent player based his or her schedule, and created squashtranscending legends. But somehow the olde tourney was kept alive, then it was made fit and mobile again, and now it is carrying some of its old status forward to what may well be new and different glories.
The man who has achieved this is Paul Walters, the neatly ubiquitous founder of internationalSPORTgroup™, which kept the British Open going during the last two difficult years, brought it to familiar surroundings in Manchester this year, and signed an uplifting five-year deal from next year until 2012.
With support from title sponsor Dunlop, alongside UK Sport, the Northwest Regional Development Agency and Manchester City Council, Walters has made the British Open a fixture in the Mens Super Series, committing the tournament to a record prize money total of $120,100, with likely annual increases. This is vigorous movement for what was considered a corpse.
The men’s prize fund has risen from $40,000 in 2005 to $77,500 this year, making it a Super Series silver event; the women’s event, which was $31,000 two years ago, is now $42,500, and a Gold 35 level event.
This had Barrington pouring passion again. But we’ll ask him to hold his breath for a moment longer. Because the new British Open will be different from the old. It will move: every other year it will be at the National Centre in Manchester, but in between it goes to another city. JONAH BARRINGTON
‘‘The British Open should be the ultimate ambition for every young squash player, and I do tandem it with the World Open because it is the height of the professional game. ’’
This year Manchester, a nice taster for the 2008 World Open; next year Liverpool, as part of the city’s European City of Culture; in 2009 Manchester, in 2010 Birmingham, in 2011 at Manchester again, and in 2012 somewhere else.
“Paul has to be commended for the holding action because it must have been very difficult for him; but to take this on board and perform an upgrade in such a short time is terrific,” Barrington enthused.
“There are signs that we are returning to the days when there was a genuine pro circuit in the UK and hopefully that will act as a promotional springboard and give great incentive for more and more youngsters to be involved.
“Suddenly we are talking about our sport becoming fashionable again, which is amazing. So many aspects of life changed in the eighties. Squash fell foul of the demands of different fashions.
“But I find it fascinating, because actually, while living in the doldrums, we had our best group of players ever, followed by four or five others, who are now in their prime period.”
“And yet during that period there were so many aspects of the sport which were not just stagnating, but fading. Now there’s real optimism about potential recovery.
The British Open should be the ultimate ambition for every young squash player, and I do tandem it with the World Open because it is the height of the professional game.” The British Open was certainly that when Barrington won it for a third time at the Edgbaston Priory Club at Birmingham in 1969, beating Geoff Hunt in a match which lasted fully two hours and 13 minutes. In those days the event was important enough for Barrington to become a national hero, though the final was so exhausting it was one of the few occasions when he was hardly able to speak.
Maybe this is why he recalls surprisingly little of this dramatic occasion. “I remember it was a match which my bank manager came to watch,” he said, breaking into that generous, slightly manic, laugh of his.
“And he was put at the top rake of seats for large parts of the match and was unable to see anything of the game because of the amount of length hitting.” (More laughter) “He was really only able to tell who had struck the ball by the sound! Geoff’s had a violence to it like a pistol shot whereas mine was more varied because no sense at taking him on at what he did so brilliantly and at pace.
“Nazrullah (Khan, Jonah’s coach) had identified it was most important not to work Geoff short willy-nilly, which I never did against him because of his mobility. Rule was when I was behind him, to take him back and work him mentally and hope to break him that way.
“And essentially that’s the way the match developed. And this poor sod watching…. He was from my home town and travelled all the way up to Birmingham, which was not an easy journey in those days. And he scarcely saw a ball!!!” (climactic laughter).
When Barrington beat Hunt again in the 1972, at Abbeydale in Sheffield, it was his fifth and penultimate British Open triumph and arguably the most amazing final ever. It was more than half an hour before Barrington could win a point, and by the time he did he was 0-9 0-2 down. Yet Barrington still won because, despite the frightening deficit, he was ahead on the other count – who had more fuel in the tank.
“But it was very difficult psychologically because at that stage I don’t think he had made one unforced error,” he said. “When everything was in order Geoff was pretty awesome – so smooth and so balanced and I just said to myself ‘just keep working to get one point’ because very often what happens is that once there is a breakthrough it serves to gain momentum - and that’s what happened.
“But at no stage did I dominate the match. I went two games to one up but I had a physical problem in the fourth – I think it’s called ventricular tachycardia.
“I had no idea at the time what the consequences were but I have since been told that I would have collapsed before anything drastic happened. But during the period when this took place it was difficult to keep any kind of squash activity going. And he took over and then he was very dominant.
“But at 6-0 to Geoff in the final game my system cleared and then I felt I was reborn, and at that moment he started to have problems with cramp. And I took over. It was obviously, as always with him, whatever matches, very long. It was very exhausting mentally.“
But then Barrington’s battles were often great triumphs of will, very personal triumphs. They established him not only as one of the great squash players of all time, but as one of the Britain’s great sportsmen. He became the only celebrity squash player Britain has ever had.
Every squash player in this country should now have a chance of forging a connection to this legend. That’s because a new and extensive prequalifying competition offers anyone the chance to battle through to the main draw.
There will be other widening connections to the British Open. Age groups and Masters events are a growing part of the great week, and build-up events at Birmingham, the English Grand Prix, and Wolverhampton may be fore-runners to a reborn British professional circuit.
Another who appreciates all that’s happening is the last Briton to win the British Open, Peter Nicol. ”I think Paul has done a fabulous job," said Peter Nicol, the champion in 1998 and 2002.
"The British Open still has something wonderful about it. Give it two or three years and it will be the most important event in the world again." From a rival promoter, the words are generous as well as believable.
But the last words should be those of the man who did more for the British Open than anyone. “It wasn’t that I had fallen out of love with the game but I did feel quite depressed because I thought the British Open was going to slide away into obscurity,” Barrington repeated, making it feel as urgent as if he had just uttered it for the first time. “But now I am very interested in the pro game again.”
By Richard Eaton