Each morning, Nicoleta Balasiu walks out of her front door and unlocks the gates to two squash courts next to her house in the Romanian town of Arad, near the border with Hungary.
The two glassback courts at the Alpha Squash Club have some gym equipment and comfy chairs in between them and are Nicoleta’s gift to her local community. They are also the product of her frustration at having nowhere else to play, having fallen in love with squash at 44 years old.
Now 59, Nicoleta plays on her courts every single day. The standard of opponents that come through the door is variable, but she will give anyone a hit, often coaching beginners and doing exercises and drills with anyone who drops by.
“It’s a self-service club, I open the gate and let people play by themselves,” says Balasiu. “I built these courts as I thought others in this town might be interested. I wanted to let them learn this fantastic game.”
Balasiu’s unquenchable zest for squash began in mid-life. She had played a bit of tennis and enjoyed aerobics but found them “not physically intense enough.” On trying squash for the first time when a court opened at her tennis club, she exclaimed: “This is the sport for me!”
She recalls: “It was love at first sight. I didn’t want to play anything else after that.”
But that court was not accompanied by a coach or a playing community to show her how to play. It later closed and another two courts across town were poorly maintained. She picked up an injury slipping on the floor. She started travelling over 50km to the nearest decent club in a desperate attempt to feed her obsession.
“I started getting frustrated,” she admits. “I didn’t have anywhere to play in the area so I thought I’d build a club myself.”
Her zest for the game has only increased since she retired last year from her career as a general manager in a textile company. That has afforded her time to travel and compete on the European Squash Masters circuit.
She has played in 11 ESF Masters tournaments over the last 18 months and finished third in the Swiss, Luxembourg, Hungarian and Italian Masters. She is currently fourth in the European women’s over-55 rankings. At the time of writing, she was planning her next trip to Helsinki for the Finnish Masters in August.
She has found inspiration from watching the likes of England’s 75-year-old Bryan Francis, who is ranked European no.1 at over-75, and Ireland’s Myron Evans, who competed in last year’s Hungarian Open at the age of 83. No-one else had entered the over-75 draw so he played in the over-65s instead. “I watched and wondered how it is possible to move so well at that age,” says Balasiu.
Her only regret is that she didn’t discover squash until later in life. “I do feel sad about that,” she admits. “I started so late, there was no coaching in the area so I learned by myself – badly at the beginning, of course! I needed 10 years to get rid of the bad habits.
“I would have been happy to start at five or 10 years old, like the professionals, but sadly I didn’t discover squash until later. Now, I want to play at least until I’m 75 years old at least!”
With the self-built Alpha Squash Club only a few footsteps from her kitchen door, she has a readily accessible training base to prepare for her regular European Masters circuit trips.
“The circuit is a new hobby and it’s very interesting for me,” she says. “The reason I started to play in the European Masters is because there are a lot of good junior players here and the age and skill difference meant it wasn’t too much fun playing them.
“With women it’s difficult generally to get them to play squash, but on the Masters circuit I can meet new players and have good matches with them. Each time I come back with new ideas about tactics and techniques.
“There are some very good players in these tournaments. They maybe can’t run like young people but they still have the skills to hit perfect balls into the corners. That’s very interesting for me to learn from.
“I like travelling very much and I get the opportunity to see some new cities. Visiting, playing squash, having fun at the parties. From my point of view, it’s perfect!”
