They often say: "He's been a great artist, but a horrible person..." Well, Stewart Boswell has been an outstanding pro squash player and one of the finest souls I have ever met. And now, after losing in the quarter finals of the 2011 World Series event Kuwait Cup, he announced his retirement to the amazement of the whole squash community; he recently looked so fresh and strong, giving age-defying lessons to the up-and-coming players and beating old time rivals David Palmer and Thierry Lincou for example. Of course, Bozza must know better his own reasons, nevertheless he - as much his person as his squash - will be very much missed on the PSA tour. Boswell broke into the world top30 as a junior and a few years later he was already world #4. Very few exclude that he would have been a strong contender of the top spot of the rankings hadn't he undergone that terrible back injury that forced him to quit the circuit for almost two years. He however came back in style, winning the first seven (!) tournaments he entered and reasserted himself for a brief period again even in the top10. Ever since, he has been one of the most consistent players on the tour, hardly ever loosing to lower ranked players. His consistency is due to the extreme high degree of discipline in his game. Tactically he hardly ever choses a wrong shot, technically he is impeccable: movement fluid, racket-technique academic. He's not that quick on the feet, however he's earlier on the ball as many of the quicker players, due to his phenomenal perception and understanding of the game. He's been also widely considered as one of the fairest players ever to play the game on such high levels. If I were to be a coach, he'd be one of my first choices to demonstrate to the youngsters how to do things on the court. In tennis, when Edberg retired, the governing body, the ATP, has introduced the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award. If I were the PSA, my first thing now would be creating a similar award with the name of Stewart Boswell on it.
