Geoff Hunt, a member of the Australian Sports Hall of Fame, assisted in kick-starting the new concept on the Border on Sunday via video link from the Gold Coast.

Unfortunately, Hunt was unable to make it to the official launch due to the cancellation of his flight, but he spoke intently about the important role the competition will play.

“I think it’s absolutely vital because from my perspective the country areas have produced more good players than the city counterparts,” Hunt said.

“It’s an ideal game for country areas and we’ve had some fantastic players come from there, so it’s great to be reintroducing the game with an inter-town competition where rivalries are always strong.

“I think it will go very well and help produce a new wave of players and juniors that might want to go on and represent Australia one day.

“When I first started playing squash many years ago, the game was just opening up and I remember going throughout the whole of Victoria opening up a number of new squash courts here and there with my brother and father.

“We did a fair bit of promotional work in my younger days, so it’s nice to think there’s more of it happening today, particularly as we’ve lost a number of courts over the last few years.”

Hunt added he would like to see an increased level of participation in squash at the junior level.