As Alan Clyne finalised his preparations for today's opening tie at the AJ Bell World Squash Championships in Manchester, Scotland's top player was looking forward to getting a taste of what is to come at Glasgow 2014 next year with some home support behind him.
Clyne travels all over the world contesting Professional Squash Association events, the early part of this season alone taking him to Colombia, Australia and the USA and he has, down the years, experienced some challenging environments, notably in the squash hot-bed of Egypt.
However, with some of Scotland's brightest young talents having been sent down to gain experience of a major event at a venue that is within range for friends and family, he knows he is assured of some noisy backing after watching countrymen Greg Lobban and Kevin Moran narrowly miss out on qualifying for the main draw.
"It was funny, by the time Greg played last night the whole crowd was basically supporting him so it will be interesting to have that tomorrow night when I play," he said.
"It was quite unusual, so I'm looking forward to having that [support] behind me and having Roger [Flynn, the Scotland coach] here. He's not been able to come to that many tournaments because I'm travelling so much and it's great to have him here to give me advice between games and evaluate performances after matches.
"I haven't played many tournaments in Scotland because we haven't been able to have PSA events or host European or World Championships, so the only support I've had is with other players who are there, so this event is going to be great."
Ploughing such a lone furrow for most of the time makes improving his world ranking challenging and the 26-year-old is currently six places below his all-time high of 26th.
However, as he waited yesterday to find out which of the 16 players who came through the weekend's qualifying tournament he will meet this afternoon, he could draw some additional confidence from knowing that he has performed at his best when he has not been the solo Scot at events.
Admittedly there is also slight frustration that they did not count towards his world ranking, but his best wins this year have been when representing Scotland.
Clyne overcame Simon Rosner, Germany's world No.12, and Nicolas Mueller, the Swiss who was then ranked 20th, as Scotland claimed fourth place at the European Team Championships, while he beat Olly Tuominen, the Finnish veteran who has been as high as No.13, to help the team finish ninth at the World Championships.
That also bodes well for what, with squash yet to be brought into the Olympics, Clyne regards as the most important event in the schedule given that, for all that some of the world's leading players are obviously unable to participate, the opportunity to win Commonwealth Games medals comes only every four years.
"It's been quite a theme," he said.
"I've had some really good results playing for Scotland and I really enjoy that kind of scenario when you're there with your team-mates and have them supporting you.
"I seem to thrive on that so I'm hoping that will continue because the Commonwealth Games will be like that on an even greater scale and I feel like that is the pinnacle for our sport as a Commonwealth nation because it is such a massive event with all sports.
"So we're gearing up towards that and all these tournaments are building up towards Glasgow."
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