Neil Harvey - Squash Director

Neil has a Bachelor of Education Degree in Human Movement Studies and Maths. On qualifying as a teacher he coached squash part time before deciding to make it a full time career.

He has worked at some of the best clubs in Essex - Kingswood, Wanstead and Connaught being the pick of them.

He took up playing competitively in professional tournaments in his spare time and as he improved decided to play full time.

His England debut came in 1984 and he went on to gain 32 caps many of them as captain.

The highlight of his playing career was a world ranking of 14 and winning 4 European Championship team medals.

In 1987 he beat the then defending world champion Ross Norman (conqueror of the mighty Jahangir Khan) to reach the quarter finals of the World Open and then helped England to 3rd place in the team championships beating arch rivals Austrailia to clinch the bronze medal.

During his playing career he had an 18 month break through injury and spent that time recuperating and coaching in Spain. He led the prestigious Abascal Club to their first ever Spanish team championships and even more remarkably led the Spanish National Team to an unpresidented 9th place in the European Championships. On finishing his playing career her returned to coaching and was introduced to a talented U-19 player who was desperately keen to make the grade as a professional.

Having just come off the circuit Neil and Peter Nicol joined forces to become a formidable team. Nicol made a meteoric rise up the world rankings and challenged the unbeatable Jansher Khan and took his world number 1 position. Thus began a domination of 5 years to give Nicol similar legend status.

Neil was rewarded with the prestigious Mussabini Medal for coaches, joining others who have won this award such as the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Ian McGeehan (the British Lions Coach) and Sir Steven Redgrave.

Neil has also coahced two world junior champions Ong Beng Hee and Justin Rennie, helped the then world number 14 Linda Charman to a career best of 3 in the world and the highlight came with England when he coached them to their first ever World Team Championship in Egypt in 1995.

On a personal level, Neil has a passion for travel (particularly Spain), meeting people and helping youngsters achieve their dreams through his work in squash and with the Polish Childrens Fantasy Foundation for terminally ill children.

Coaching Availability

Individual Coaching - By arrangement. Please contact Neil on 07973 887716.