The School Magazine
The first issue of the school magazine appeared in 1938. It was the work of R. H. Shorten, a fifth form pupil. Since then the magazine has evolved and improved considerably. The school magazine is probably the best window on the life and state of the School over the years. I am delighted to present to you in electronic form some past issues of the School Magazine. The hard copies were from Fernando Duranti (1939), Samir Simaika (1940, 1947, 1948, and 1950), Hael Mughrabi (1956) and myself (1951–1955). I would like to thank Duranti, Mughrabi and Simaika for allowing me to use their magazines and Madiha Abaza for providing me with Simaika’s issues. We do not have magazines for the years 1938, 1941–1946, and 1949. If anyone has copies of these magazines, please contact me. I have intentionally included all the advertisements because I felt that they were also part of history.

Reunions
The first reunion of the Old Boys took place in London during the summer of 1929 at the Cock Tavern in Strand. A photo in Mr. Beard’s book shows an Old Boys dinner at Holborn Restaurant in 1948. The number of attendees was approximately 60. Mr. Beard states in his book around 1965 “… now that there is no longer an English School to supply recruits to our Association, it is doomed before long to die a lingering death, but those who are in charge of its fortunes are anxious to postpone its demise as long as possible.” I am pleased to report that the Old Boys and Old Girls are still active and continue to meet at various locations around the world. View photos from places around the world.

Squash

Lotfi El-Sherbini,
Mohamed Hamza,
Freddy Saad.

Photo taken at
M.I.T. in 1957

According to Mr. Beard, “Not long after the war it was the Old Boys’ Association that undertook to raise the large sum of money required to build the School’s two Squash Courts.” Many of the ESC boys and girls enjoyed playing squash. Some excelled at it, such as Eileen Jamal, and Aly Nasr who became Egyptian Amateur Squash Champion. I recall an exhibition match at our school between the famous world champions Hashem Khan and Mahmoud Abdel Kareem. Some of us continued to play squash after leaving school and some still do. I include a photo of Lotfi El-Sherbini and Freddy Saad at M.I.T. Both played on the top team, and Saad became captain in 1961.

An interesting website is www.worldsquash.org. According to this website, squash was first played in England and is currently being played in 153 nations. There are over 50,000 squash courts worldwide. At present, Egyptian players are doing very well. Amr Shabana and Ramy Ashour rank first and second respectively in the world. For women, Omneya Abdel Kawy ranks seventh. In 2006, Ramy Ashour became the first man in history to win the junior world championship title twice. In August 2007, Raneem El Weleily successfully defended her title as the World Junior Squash Federation Champion. Egypt also boasts both the women’s and men’s junior team world titles and is the runner-up in the women’s and men’s senior world team championships.