Alan Clyne brings wisdom and a wealth experience to Scotland’s Commonwealth Games contingent

With over 14 years on the PSA circuit under his belt and three appearances at the Commonwealth Games, Alan Clyne brings a wealth of experience to the team travelling to Birmingham at the end of the month.

Alan has played at a staggering 213 PSA tournaments since starting his career in the early 2000s, playing over 400 matches with a win ratio of 55%. He won his first PSA World Tour title at the Merill Lynch Pegasus Charleston Challenge back in 2008, followed up with a victory at the PSA Magdalena Squash Open the year after. Alan competed in both the singles and doubles events at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, reaching the semi-final in the doubles with his partner Harry Leitch.

Clyne’s three year wait for a PSA World Tour title ended in 2013 when he won the Fitzherbert Row Lawyers International Class in New Zealand, his first PSA M10 title. From here, Alan went on to win numerous titles in an illustrious career including the Garavan’s Bar Paddy Whack West of Ireland Open on 2014, the TC Pro Series title and the Wimbledon Club Squash Open. He also appeared at his second Commonwealth Games in Glasgow that year.

Despite the challenges of Covid, Alan has continued to do well over the past 18 months, featuring in three Challenger Tour events in the United States in 2021, reaching the semis of two of those, at the South State Bank Marietta Open and the HSC Open. In 2022 he reached the final of the Cannon Kirk Irish Squash Open in April, and won a bronze medal at the World Doubles in Glasgow with his partner Douglas Kempsell.

Alan was delighted to be picked for his fourth consecutive Commonwealth Games and is relishing the opportunity to bring home a medal for Scotland.

He said: “It was a stressful wait for selection as even though we performed well at the World Doubles in April, it was not certain how many players would be picked. It was very exciting when I got the selection call whilst away in Egypt preparing for a tournament.

I count myself as extremely privileged to be able to represent Scotland. The Commonwealth Games is a huge event. For me, as a squash player, it’s the pinnacle. So it will be an honour to wear the Scottish colours in Birmingham.

This will be my 4th Commonwealth Games. My first one in Delhi was great as it was the first time I’d competed in an event of that scale, but obviously the Glasgow Games in 2014 was on another level. Having the home crowd backing us was an unbelievable feeling and I hope that with these Games being in Birmingham, the Scots will still get great support to spur us on.

I’m really looking forward to being amongst all the world class Team Scotland athletes in the village. I’ve seen it before that when athletes start winning some medals, it can feed through the rest of the team. It’s an amazing feeling and honour to be a part of.

I’ve been spending the majority of my time in the past year training in Philadelphia and it’s been a great base, but a big focus of our preparation for Birmingham will be in doubles. My men’s doubles partner Dougie Kempsell lives and works in Edinburgh, so we will be training in Edinburgh and Glasgow for 5 weeks before the Games. Doubles is not something that is a large focus throughout the season, so it’s important to get a lot of work in together on court against different styles of opponents and allow our games to play to each other’s strengths. This will ensure we are the best prepared team we can be.”

To find out more about the Commonwealth Games click here