Bruce Crane came to Houston about five years ago. When he first arrived he was a good squash player, but not among the best. Although he will never admit it, I used to beat him quite regularly back then. In his first tournament here he lost to Dwight Waters in the first round. Craig Hiddleston and Mark Frankland were substantially better than him. Pickard would routinely wrong foot him during their matches. Early on Bruce and I traveled to play in the US Nationals in Hartford, he in the 4.5 division, which he won quite convincingly, and me in the 5.0 division. While Bruce was known to yell and cuss on court while playing locally, one didn’t hear a peep from him during his matches. Sure, none of his opponents came close to beating him, but it was mostly because his parents were in attendance at his matches. Little known fact – Bruce turns into a mouse in the presence of his parents. They would never believe that their well behaved boy would ever cuss and scream on a squash court, or anywhere else for that matter. His father gave me permission to whack him if he ever got out of line. His mother gave him a smack just for good measure. You gotta love his parents! Needless to say I gave him plenty of grief for playing in a lower division and accused him of sandbagging his way to a national trophy. Actually, I’ve probably given Bruce more grief than anyone else in Houston. How could I not? He provided me with so much material. I must admit I was extremely hard on him and gave him a piece of my mind on more than one occasion. I felt that I had earned that right as his friend and I hope he sees it the same way. At times our spats would lead to a prolonged period of pouting when we wouldn’t speak to each other. For most of his stay here, Bruce didn’t own a car. One time he had a date and he made me pick him up in my car, and then we went to pick up his date. This was a girl he’d met only a few days earlier. Guess where Bruce took his date that night? To the HSRA social, where the beer was subsidized that the food was free. Needless to say Bruce got plenty of grief from all of us that night. And yes, that was his last date with that particular girl. I gave Bruce plenty of ribbing about being cheap. I harassed him constantly until he finally agreed to become a patron during our Texas Open tournament. When Bruce announced that he was moving back to New York it took me by surprise. Suddenly I realized that I hadn’t spent nearly enough time with him. We didn’t play as much squash together as I would have liked, partly because Bruce had progressed into becoming arguably the best squash amateur player in the city leaving me way back in his dust, and partly because I always assumed that there would be plenty of time. Over the years, he had improved his squash game substantially. In my opinion Coco is probably the most talented amateur player in Houston today, Frankland and Pickard are the trickiest, and Hiddleston is the smartest. But Bruce is the most stubborn; he will grind out a win against the best of the best and frequently has. After he left Houston, Bruce had a couple of weeks before starting his new job, so he went to Ireland to play in the Aer Lingus Open in Dublin. I figured he would fare reasonably well but given the depth in the UK and Ireland I was not expecting him to reach the final. He proved me wrong, winning the title and bringing home the trophy. He will go back next year to defend his title so if you want a shot at him on the squash court, book your ticket to Dublin. At the last HSRA social Bruce bid us all farewell in an emotional speech. Bruce, emotional? Yes. It was a very touching moment. He went on to hand the HSRA a generous check to be used for the squash advancement of an underprivileged junior. Bruce, generous? Yes. So much for all the grief I have him about being cheap – I was wrong. Houston squash wishes him the best and we hope that fate will bring him back here some day. I for one will miss my friend Bruce Crane.
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