Shetland squash stars hope to serve up success at Island Games 2025
The Shetland Islands squash team are aiming to repeat past successes as they head to Orkney for the 2025 Island Games.
This will be the shortest journey to the event for a Shetland team since the island hosted the event 20 years ago – the first year that squash was included in the games.
Since then, they have experienced medal success, with a silver medal in the women’s singles and a bronze medal in the women’s doubles in Bermuda in 2013.
One of the players hoping to make an impact this time around is 22-year-old Lindsey Sim, playing in her second games after competing in Gibraltar six years ago.
Lindsey was only two years old when Shetland last hosted the Island Games, but she understands how much it meant to the community.
She said: “It’s part of the culture in Shetland.
“All of the memories from friends and family, and it left such a legacy with so many of the sports facilities here because of it.
“Even twenty years on people still have their medals and kids still take their mum’s medals to school.”
In 2019, Lindsey was just 15 when she represented the island in sunny Gibraltar – and she’s taking a different approach this time.
She said: “I’m focused more on the squash, I’ve been studying in Glasgow at the moment, so I’ve been training a lot at Scotstoun.
“I’ve been playing two or three matches a week, box leagues and things like that as well as solo sessions and private lessons for the first time in my life.
“I feel like my squash is probably in the best place it will ever be, so I’m ready to make the most of the opportunity.”
Lindsey knows it will be a tough week of squash, but she intends to give it her best shot.
She explained: “I’d love to win a game this time – last time I finished second bottom, but I was only 15 – to place in the top half of the draw would be amazing.”
A player with a lesser-travelled route to the games is Andrew Reid, who represented Orkney at the Island Games in Gibraltar six years ago, but will represent Shetland after living on the island for five years.
Andrew said: “With it being in Orkney, I think most of the Orcadians will be booing me – Orkney and Shetland have a longstanding friendly rivalry, so I’ve been the butt of a few jokes for my defection.”
Having taken on the role of Team Manager, the 33-year-old has been heavily involved in the team’s preparations, and he feels things have gone as well as they could have.
He explained: “Everybody has been putting in a huge amount of work, we’ve been training religiously three or four times a week for the past year, if not longer.
“We’re really happy with how everybody has thrown themselves into it and we’re as ready as we can be for the games.”
As a competitive club player, the opportunity to participate in the Island Games is a high point for Andrew, who is hoping to learn from the experience of a difficult opening doubles match with the Cayman Islands.
He said: “We are up against it in the first round, no matter how much preparation we have put in we’ve got an uphill battle ahead of us.
“Our main aim for this year is to gain some experience as a team and enjoy the week.”
Team photo –
Back row (l-r) – Ruth Anderson, Billy Mycock, Louise Jamieson, Stephen Leask, Lindsey Sim
Front row (l-r) – Wayne Leask, Phil Manson, Andrew Reid, Ramsay Hogg
