Martin will still be playing squash at 80!

MARTIN Wright was born in 1940 and is looking forward to his 80th birthday next year. For some this might mean putting your feet up and having help around the house. But for Martin this is far from reality.

Martin plays squash or racketball three times a week. His opponents range from 55 year olds upwards. He started playing tennis at school and with his father, who was an enthusiastic tennis player. Throughout his life he has played racket sports, starting with badminton at the Railway Institute in York and the Gas Works in Birmingham.

On moving nearer to Thame, he has played tennis in Horsenden, and badminton in his local village club, and had often found himself still completing badminton league matches in single court venues until the early hours of the morning.

While on contract at Brampton RAF station, Martin was keen to continue with his racket sports but there weren’t any badminton or tennis courts around. This is when Martin discovered squash. He started playing regularly with one of his colleagues and has never looked back. Since then Martin has played regularly in clubs at Winnersh and Basingstoke and just before he retired he discovered Racquets Fitness Centre in Thame. For the past 20 years Martin has been playing regularly with a very nice bunch of ‘lads’ each keeping fit and conditioned by being very active several times a week.

The most unusual place that Martin has played squash was the Sheraton Hotel in Botswana where he played with the now foreign minister, who was then the third top player in Botswana.

Martin believes that the only way to keep playing into ‘the silver years’ is to keep playing regularly. “Never have a break of more than a short holiday. You can get into all sorts of difficulty if you take longer breaks,” he says. At 79 years-old, Martin fully expects to be playing wellinto his 80s!

If you want to start back on your journey to being more active, then maybe you could start with Racquets Fitness Centre’s Healthy Hearts circuits for the older generation on Mondays and Fridays at 11am. Light mobility exercises for 45 minutes and then a cup of tea.  

If you’re active but would like to work your heart and lungs just a little bit more, then our Silver Servers racketball group on Tuesdays at 10am might be for you.
There are lots of opportunities at Racquets to become and keep active, and more mobile so why not go along and find out what Racquets can offer to do for you. 
Call 01844 261754 to find out more.