The Australian Commonwealth Games squash team will be in Ilkley at the Ilkley Tennis and Squash Club for their final training sessions, before the games in Manchester begin this month.

They arrive on Saturday, July 20, and depart for the games village on July 23.

Besides having the best players in the world the Australian team also has two of the best coaches in the world in former world No 1 Geoff Hunt and Roger Flynn, a former world top 10 player.

At this stage training sessions are planned at the Ilkley club for Saturday and Sunday, late afternoon, while on Monday, slightly earlier in the afternoon. Members and non-members are welcomed to go down to the club and watch, meet and chat to the players and coaches.

"This is a great opportunity to watch the best players and coaches in the world and should not be missed," said the Ilkley club's squash coach Robbie Burnett.

In the Australian team coming to Ilkley are the world's no 1 women's player Sarah Fitz-Gerald. She is the current World and British Open Champion and has been undefeated since the Hong Kong Open in August 2001 and has won 52 WISPA tour titles. Sarah has represented Australia consistently since she was 17 and was World Junior Champion in 1987. She was a silver medallist in the individual event in 1998.

Sarah was recently named the Australian Female Athlete of the year and also received the Dawn Fraser Award for outstanding achievement. Sarah's current domination is all the more remarkable because she was forced to take 18 months of the game for two knee operations in 1999/2000.

Also in the team is world ranked no 10 Rachael Grinham who was the World Junior Champion in 1993 when she was only 16 and has been on the international circuit since 1997 steadily increasing her ranking. Rachael was a silver medallist in the doubles at the 1998 Commonwealth Games.

Rachael last month won the World Women's Doubles in Manchester, teaming up with her sister Natalie who is also in the squad and ranked world No 14.

Leading the Australian men is world No 2 David Palmer who reached a career high of No 1 in 2001 and was the 2001 British Open Champion. Stewart Boswell is world No 4 while Anthony Ricketts is world No 12.