This year, 26 district sporting legends are being inducted to the hall of fame, honour roll and junior honour roll categories in the Greater Shepparton Sports Hall of Fame. The News is featuring stories on each of the inductees in the lead-up to the induction ceremony on August 6. Today News reporter Max Stainkamph speaks to Tom Spark, who is being inducted to the honour roll.
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In the sporting world, the word master is a term not bandied around lightly.
Masters — in tennis, in golf, in a wide range of sports — are the most prestigious titles you can attain. They’re the pinnacle of their sport.
Those who conquer those pinnacles, who become masters, are few and far between.
In cricket Sachin Tendulkar — the most prolific batsman of all time — is known as The Little Master, and Viv Richards the Master Blaster.
In the world of tennis, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have won enough masters their names are synonymous with the word.
Tom Spark is not at the level of these players, but the word master still sticks to him like glue.
He won the Victorian Squash Masters Championships 16 — yes, 16 — times and the Australian Masters a further 12.
On the road, he won the World Masters championship for the 35-39 age bracket in 1984, and in 1991 won it the 45-49 age group.
Spark was introduced to the world of squash in the mid-1970s by his brother Wally, while the pair was teenagers.
He said he was instantly “hooked”.
The Bendigo native spent time in Melbourne while he was studying, becoming the number one player in the state and “on the verge of going professional”.
However, the sport never quite got big enough for him to make it a full-time career.
“Even then, during its heyday, there’s not a lot of money in it, especially if you’re married and with family,” Spark said.
So he kept studying teaching and carpentry and moved to Shepparton in 1982 when the sport was still booming.
“It was like all country centres, it was strong — we had Tatura, Kyabram, Numurkah and Shepp all had centres, and the numbers were big,” Spark said.
“We had nine courts, quite a lot of juniors playing the sport, but now we’ve only got Shepparton and Tongala has a couple (of courts) at the school.”
He continued to play, but when the Masters were introduced Spark’s ears pricked up.
“After playing open squash when I hit about 35 the masters were introduced,” Spark said.
“It was a great idea as when you hit that age a lot of people start to drop off the sport a bit.”
Crucially, it meant he didn’t have to compete with the young bucks who were trying to make it professionally or able to train far more than he was while working full-time.
He said the community really got behind the idea of a masters tournament.
“If it’s in the warmer states we will have between 300 and 500 entries, whereas in Tassie it might be down to 300,” he said.
“The numbers are huge, and every second year they have a worlds masters which will travel around the world.
Spark played in three world masters and won two of them and lined up in countless state and Australian competitions.
He said he loved the camaraderie of the competitions.
“They give that great social atmosphere, but for those who are still really keen it becomes a challenge,” he said.
“For me it was an incentive to keep going — I’d always loved physical exercise and when I jumped across into that it put you on a level playing field.
“When I was in opens I was playing against players who were professional and I was working and playing, but when you step into masters everyone’s doing the same.”
There are regularly players in their 80s jumping onto the court and Spark said he would love to be in a condition where he’s still playing decades into the future.
“I hope so,” he said of if he could play that long.
“It’s a sport which is very demanding on your body, you hit a point where you have to manage it.
“I’d love to do more, but physically my back won’t allow it. If you keep it as a goal you might be able to, if I fell away from playing, well, you tend to lose what you don’t use.”
However, there’s a bitter-sweet tinge to the masters competitions.
“It’s the strongest part of the sport now which is sad,” Spark said.
The sorrow is reflected in Shepparton, where despite a push for more courts the sport is still nowhere near the level it was at three or four decades ago.
“We’re really trying to encourage younger members which we have got a couple onboard now, it’s critical to the survival coming forward,” Spark, who is heavily involved with the Shepparton squash scene, said.
“With the oldies sometimes the energy’s not as much as the young ones.”
He said there were pushes to make the sport more accessible and more enticing to players.
“They do a lot of school programs with smaller balls and bigger racquets,” he said.
“Parents enjoy that it’s a non-contact sport and all year round and we can keep costs quite minimal, too.
“Kids go through phases with different sports and it can cost a lot of money, so we try and get them through the door and make fun of it.
“Juniors is a really hard one and it’s hard to get them and hang on to them. You’re competing against some really big sports too.”
He's spent years coaching juniors and teenagers through the start of their squash journey, and has put weight behind organising and helping squash as a sport throughout Victoria.
Spark said he was honoured to be inducted and recognised by the hall of fame.
“You don’t do it for that reward, you just do it for the enjoyment of the sport. It’s just the satisfaction of the sport you love playing,” he said.
“A lot of it can’t happen without the support of your family, one year I went across to the worlds and my wife Christine had a broken ankle and here I was gallivanting around the world.
“There was a lot of travel in Australia to national titles too, so having that support was fantastic.”
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