Nathan Lake is blazing a trail for squash in Gloucestershire all around the world.

The undisputed county number one has been a professional for the best part of a decade and is a player who can go toe-to-toe with the very best on the planet.

He’s very good – he’s enjoyed a world ranking best of 47 – but although he travels all over the globe to play the game he loves, he remains very proud of his Gloucestershire roots.

Still only 27, the former Bournside School pupil has a home in Cheltenham and his is a familiar face on the squash circuit around the county.

“I spent most of my formative years at Old Patesians,” said Lake. “My dad used to play rugby for Old Pats and I remember as a six-year-old watching him play.

“I’d been going to the club for three years before I realised they had squash courts!”

Lake had already played a bit of squash at Cheltenham Ladies’ College by then but it’s fair to say that he didn’t come from a squash family. His dad Graham, a prop, was a decent rugby player but he knew a lot more about scrums and lineouts than serves and returns that are such a big part of squash.

That was Lake junior’s forté, of course, and he was lucky enough at Old Pats to come under the tutelage of Gary Powell, a squash coach who is held in the highest esteem by so many of Lake’s generation.

“He coached me for five years, he was fantastic,” said Lake. “He is one of the big reasons why I am a squash player. He instils passion within a player and he was a highly motivating coach for me.

“He encouraged me all the time and Old Pats became my second home, I was there six days a week every week.

“Gary had a hard core of eight players, we were all good players and we were all good friends. We were very fortunate, I still go and see Gary quite often.”

Lake, a left-hander, describes himself as a “relatively late developer”, adding: “At the age of 12 I started getting quite good but I didn’t have an England ranking at under-13.”

He soon put that right, however.

“By the under-15s I was ranked five, at the end of the under-17s I was two and by the end of the under-19s I was number one,” he said.

And he wasn’t just number one in this country because he was also crowned European junior champion, a tournament victory that he still regards as being right up there with his best even today.

By then Lake’s career had moved on apace and in his early teens he was coached by Keir Worth, who was based in Worcester and is now CEO of England Squash.

“He coached me for three or four years and was brilliant for exposure,” said Lake. “He had a group of professionals who he trained and he exposed me to high-level squash and what was required to play at that level.

“Although I was good I didn’t have anyone steering me – I was very lucky to have the right people supporting me at the right time.”

By now Lake had also become a regular at the East Gloucestershire Club and for a short time was coached by Fiona Geaves, the one-time women’s world number five.

These days he’s the squash professional at East Glos and he said: “I started to play there when I was 13, East Glos has been very good to me over the years.”

Lake, who also worked with coach Rob Owen in Birmingham, admits that he was ready to turn professional at the age of his 16, but his parents – his mum’s name is Debbie – were keen for him to do his A-levels first.

“My parents didn’t play squash but they were always very supportive,” said Lake, who was happy to extend his education at Bournside.

“The school was very good to me, if ever I needed time out from school they were brilliant, very helpful.”

The school’s powers-that-be could obviously spot a talent when they saw one and Lake, who was offered a place at the University of the West of England, did not disappoint as he started playing squash professionally at the age of 18.

And while that sounds a pretty, easy, straightforward thing to do, it’s not of course. There’s not the money in squash that there is in other individual sports such as golf and tennis, and there’s no money at all if you don’t perform on court!

“There are three main ways that a professional squash player can earn money,” said Lake. “Tournament earnings, playing in professional leagues and through sponsors.

“I play about 15 tournaments a year all over the world, I’ve played in every part of the world.”

Push him and he’ll say that his favourite is the Tournament of Champions in New York and he says he’s not just saying that because his girlfriend Haley Mendez, who was sitting next to him during the interview, is from the Big Apple!

Mendez is actually a top squash player in her own right – she was ranked 40 in the world in the women’s game at the time of writing – and Lake said: “She’s a better player than me, she’s in the top 40!”

Lake loves New York – who doesn’t? – and he loves playing at the glass court on Grand Central where the Tournament of Champions is played, but it’s just one of many top venues that he is lucky enough to have played at.

“I’ve played at Canary Wharf, in Hong Kong and Cape Town, and Haley and I have played in front of the pyramids in Egypt, that’s a fantastic location.”

But while some of the locations are clearly spectacular, there’s also a very, very serious side to squash as well.

“It’s very brutal,” admitted Lake, “more and more so as the physical capabilities of the players get better and better.

“There’s always a debate about whether the top of the game is stronger now than before but there is general consensus that the depth to professional squash is greater than ever.

“It’s a brutal sport because of all the travelling, the schedule and the fact that everyone is so fit. You can’t just be a skilful player, you must have the complete package to compete.

“That’s what makes it such a fantastic challenge. I’m lucky because every day I’m trying to perfect something that I absolutely love.”

And he remains fiercely ambitious.

“Realistically I’ve got four or five years left as a top player, once you get to 32 or 33, physically it becomes much more difficult to compete because the players are so powerful and explosive.

“But there’s still plenty I want to achieve. I want to play for England as a senior, I’m pretty patriotic so that’s a big one for me.

“I want to win the British Closed Championships and I want to get back into the top 50 in the world.”

Winning the British Closed in Nottingham in February would help him go some way to achieving his other two goals of course and he reckons it’s something that’s achievable.

“I’ve reached the quarters before and it’s a bit like the Wild West, anyone can beat anyone,” Lake said. “I’ve beaten top 20 players before.”

He certainly has and it’s a fair bet that he’ll do so again over the coming months and years but while going deep in tournaments helps to swell a player’s bank balance, conversely, an early exit can leave a player struggling to break even.

That’s why the professional leagues are so important for players because it provides them with a regular source of income.

“I play for five different teams,” Lake said. “I play in national league, the Surrey Cup, the Dutch League, the German League and the Yorkshire League.”

Lake negotiates his own contracts and insists: “I don’t feel like a mercenary, I have played for each team for a number of years so I do feel an attachment.”   

And Lake also has an attachment to his sponsors – three of whom are members at East Glos – and he added: “As a squash player you can earn quite a lot in one week but in the summer you’re not earning because there are no tournaments or leagues so I’m really grateful to all my sponsors.”

The fact that Lake is so hands-on when it comes to his career – it’s not like some other sports where the top players get everything done for them – will stand him in good stead when he does decide to stop playing.

He could always go into coaching, of course, but he’s not sure that’s the right way to go for him even though he’s recently graduated from the University of Gloucestershire with a sports coaching degree.

Lake clearly has a brain and is keen to stretch himself so it’s no surprise to learn that he has been on a wealth management course and is hoping to do some sales work in the not-too-distant future.

And he’s certainly bright enough to realise that being a left-hander in the right-hand dominated world of squash is definitely an advantage.

“One hundred per cent,” he said, before adding with a laugh: “I like telling people I’m the fourth best leftie in the world!

“Where right-handers are weak, I am strong. If we’re in the centre of the court, my backhand is weaker than their forehand, but my forehand is better than 99 per cent of right-handers’ backhand.

“Left-handers throw right-handers’ patterns of play out of the water, the better players adjust but not everyone can.”

So how would Lake assess himself as a player?

“My skill is my strength,” he said. “My accuracy is a big strength. Physically I’m not quite so good, I’m not a physical, natural athlete.

“You can dominate a player in so many different ways – you can be phenomenally fit or phenomenally skilful.”

And while his ability to manoeuvre the ball around a court is clearly a strength of Lake’s, he also works extremely hard on his fitness, training six times a week.

It’s that willingness to graft that has helped Lake to get to where he is in the world of squash and he’s certainly got an impressive sporting CV.

Ask him for his standout moments so far and he immediately mentions that European Junior Championship win in 2011.

“That was a big deal,” he said. “There were some top names on the trophy – Peter Marshall, Nicolas Muller, James Willstrop. I remember thinking at the time that my name will always be up there with them.

“I’ve won a tournament in Cape Town and I recently won a tournament in Texas.

“Playing at Grand Central Station was a real high as was playing in Canary Wharf. I’ve been very lucky to have been able to travel all over, the only corner of the world I’ve not been to is Australasia.”

He’s clocked up some air miles over the years has Nathan Lake, but deep down he’ll always be a Gloucestershire boy.

And he wants today’s youngsters around the county to experience the thrills and spills of squash just like he was in the early part of the 21st century.

“A couple of years ago I set up a squash in schools programme in Gloucestershire,” Lake said. “In one year 1,500 children were introduced to squash.

“I still go on court with some of the youngsters at East Glos, I’ve still got quite a close relationship with them.

“It’s a small sport but I think it’s relatively healthy. It’s a great game; it’s tactical, it’s physical, there’s sledging, there’s the mind games.

“If more kids knew about squash, many more would play. I’m passionate about making the game available to as many people as possible.”

And Lake certainly plays as often as he can.

“Whenever I can play for Gloucestershire I will,” he said. “I always try to play the Gloucestershire Closed, I’m very patriotic but I do love playing in Gloucestershire.”