Fram Gommendy chats away …
I hadn’t done interviews for a while, to be honest, our little phone was not up to scratch with sound recording. God bless my PSA media partners, who showed us a little device you can plug into mobile phones, ensuring good sound quality.
OK, it was a bit laborious to start with, as we didn’t really know how it all worked! We got South African ref Alex Hewiston to stand as our guinea pig. He was so patient and understanding.
But then again, he would have all those qualities, now, wouldn’t he, as on top of being Chartered Accountant, he is a preacher, he learned so many languages to read about the Old Scriptures, and actually gives lectures about those Sacred Books. I kid you not.
So, it’s a bit of a long interview, 12 minutes, here is about what we chat about :
- 00’40” : how he discovered that his dad played Squash for South Africa by looking in the Attic…
- 01’15” : how he started refereeing…
- 02’30” : how he is able to analyse situations quickly….
- 03’30” : where we learn how he went from Chartered Accountant to learning about Scriptures and preaching, lecturing about religion.
- 05’00” : how important a match is for the Athletes, and the empathy he feels as a former player himself…
- 06’00” : he actually has notes he reads before the matches, as an athlete would have…
- 07’40” : how important it is to respect the player and not to take things personally…
- 08’40” : remembering how amazing it is to do this job…
- 09’20” : his feelings about AI and refereeing…
- 10’50” : Best and Worst squash memory..
I just wish you’ll take the time to listen to what that young man has to say about our sport, about the players, about the Tour. Cause he is just a great lad, and I hope you’ll like him as much as I do…
Annnnd a little extra about the challenges that refs face… short and interesting too!
