Fram Reports

Part One – Meeting the Team at Home

Gouna 2024. I am taking 2m  to swallow a lovely salad from the Bar, and to get some warm air – those who lived the ICY conditions of squash venues in hot countries will understand – I step outside.

A couple is sitting on the terrace. Mr and Mrs Malik, Camron and Sue.

I started noticing the ‘Malik’ name in the UK Nationals – so many of them I thought.

Then, in 2016, the Sumner Travel to Cairo Degla: that little boy who got an incurable disease and charmed all the SquashTV viewers.

Then there was that match in BlackBall where Curtis M took out the home boy – Omar Mosaad – in an EPIC 5 setter, up 2/0, and only clinching the match 13/11 in the 5th! He went on playing Ali Farag, who he pushed to 12/10 in the opener.

I soon realised there were 5 Maliks playing under the PSA umbrella and England Squash. And as I spoke with Sue and Camron on that terrace in Gouna, I realised there was so much I didn’t know about them, I really wanted to dig in and learn more about the ‘Team Malik’.

A few months later, thanks to my ‘Masked Sponsor’ – He who doesn’t want to be known – I arranged to get to the Malik’s home a couple of days before the UK Nationals as the 5 Maliks were in the draw, then stayed to cover the event.

Arriving at the Pub

Don’t ask me where they live. It’s off a lovely old village – Midsomer Murders kind of place, you expect Miss Marple and Barnaby to appear at the corner, and their home is actually an old pub, with a lovely huge garden. It’s quiet, vast, with old wood and a warm atmosphere, with plenty of little corners where a large family can find a bit of calm and privacy when needed, and large areas when they want to stick together.

Camron picked me up from Heathrow early in the morning, my flight was leaving Nice at 6.40am, I KNOW!

I met the family one by one, as they all were getting ready to get to training. First Curtis, then Torie, the ones I actually knew from PSA. Then Perry – I only saw his name on draws and was following his results. And then  the youngest, Heston and Bailey, looking strangely alike. Twins, I thought.

Sue, Mum, looked at me. She didn’t know what to think of me for a few minutes, I felt. What was I really there for? Could she trust me? I don’t know what I said or did, but she suddenly relaxed, dropped the dubitative smile, and started being herself, telling it straight while making me feel as if I had always lived there – while Camron had the silly idea to offer me a cup of tea.

Poor man, he spent the rest of the weekend putting the kettle on for me and suggested I do my own tea whenever I felt like it. Good move Camron.

Is Camron the best sales man ever??

How it started?

Camron and Sue met in their late 20s through a military-run youth organisation called Sea Cadets, where both had a common interest (Sue’s late father was involved, and Cam ran the band. At the time, she worked for American Airlines at the airport, while Cam was in sales.

Sue didn’t want kids. Few years later, they had six….

‘Well, Sue didn’t want children when we met. I think my sales techniques come in quite well there…” he smiles. “The best thing I ever did in my life was to meet my wife” he continues.

I thought it was a nice figure of speech but it isn’t. She is the centre, the core, the heart of the Team. Anything technical, she is in charge. Computer, cameras, decorating, repairing this and that, organising the garden, she is in charge. Anything that needs to be washed, dried, put to dry outside, then folded, back to be used again the same day, she is in control.

We chatted over two hours for my interview. I think she managed three loads of laundry by that time, plus sorting out the shopping with Perry on the phone (that took about 4 phone calls…)

But if you imagine her being the Cinderella of the story, you couldn’t be more wrong.

In the Team, everybody does something for the others. Shopping, cooking, etc. It’s a Factory at work. And it’s all organised. And when the kids have finished cooking, we all wait with our plates, as in a buffet. “It’s better that way, it makes it easier for everybody,” explains Camron. Of course, as I’m the guest, I am first served. And not just once, I tell you, the food is GORGEOUS.

Camron, Papa Bear

This is not just a story about squash. Its about a couple who didn’t build squash players, champions in the making — they built very special human beings. They built a team, with Papa Bear coaching and buidling, while Mama the Unbreakable kept the ship going through it all.

Tomorrow, Meet Papa Bear