Earlier this year, Salome Iyelih embarked on a career milestone, with the Nigerian heading to Birmingham for the British Junior Open for her first overseas experience as a qualified squash referee.

Squash Player Magazine caught up with the Police College Squash Club regular to learn more about her experience refereeing overseas.

The following has been adapted from an article first published at squashplayermagazine.com. Click here to read the original article in full.

Nigerian police officer Salome Iyelih had a “wonderful experience” after being invited to the recent British Junior Open for her first overseas experience as a qualified squash referee.

Iyelih was part of the officiating team at the prestigious junior event in Birmingham working under tournament referee Peter Hindmarsh, which proudly included six women: Adriana Aida (Scotland), Alicja Ciszewska (Poland), Samah Hanafy (Egypt), Mithila Tamilarasan (Malaysia), Laura Tiemann (Germany) and Salome.

Iyelih, who coaches juniors and the police team at the Police College Squash Club in Lagos, first branched out into refereeing in 2018. Having completed online training in 2022, she then took part in Level 1-3 training with World Squash Officiating (WSO) assessors who visited from the UK. They later observed the trainee referees at the Lagos State Classic tournament.

England’s Curtis and Perry Malik played in that tournament (Curtis won the title) and Iyelih met and stayed in touch with them. After refereeing at the BJO, she spent a further two weeks in Crawley with thee brothers and their father Camron getting some coaching tips and wisdom.

“Reflecting on the Lagos State Classic where she first experienced top-class refereeing, Iyelih told Squash Player: “As we were progressing through the course and the tournaments, I noticed those that did well were selected to officiate the biggest matches – and I officiated right through to the final. I thought, ‘This is looking good for me.’

“Since then, I’ve kept improving on my officiating. Steve Eccles [highly experienced English referee] has been my mentor and have been giving me feedback. England Squash gave me the opportunity to officiate at the BJO, so here I am! I am so happy.

“It was a very big experience for me. I have never officiated outside Nigeria, so this is the biggest tournament I’ve ever done.”

Top-level junior squash can be an unforgiving environment for referees, with parents and coaches sitting in very close proximity and ever watchful of decisions that affect their athletes’ fortunes. With stakes so high and emotions often raw amongst young players, controlling matches can be testing.

Iyelih said: “There was a particular match where I called a foot fault and the player’s mum said to me, ‘Why have you called a foot fault?’ I’m not supposed to discuss with her, so I said to her son, ‘A foot fault is part of the rules.’ I have to be mindful of the way I talk so they don’t feel intimidated on court.”

Having been a police officer for 24 years and a squash coach for many years too, Iyelih is very used to dealing with difficult behaviour and situations.

“Being a police officer… I don’t know whether I could say that I love it, but it is always interesting!” she smiles.

“Squash refereeing is very interesting and challenging. A lot of things are happening at the same time in a match; watching the ball, watching the players, watching every move they are making on court, keeping score. It is quite demanding.

“There aren’t too many female referees. I’m very pleased and happy to be part of that group and I’d love to referee in more competitions, seniors ones too. I hope this is a starting point for me and I can go higher.”

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