Blacker has been a Bega Squash Club member since 1997 and in 2012 was awarded life membership.

At the Australian Squash Masters held in Ballarat in September, he and his team were outright winners in the men’s Division 9.

This was a huge achievement given Blacker had his second knee replacement last year but was back on the courts playing as soon as he could to get back to fitness.

His motivation was that he wanted to play in the Australian Masters again.

He played in his first NSW State Masters Championships in June 2016 after his first knee replacement surgery, and won his division.

Then in his first Australian Masters last year in Darwin his team was runner-up.

This year he also played the individual Australian Masters event, unfortunately without success, but he was a member of a NSW winning team.

Blacker's goal is to continue to enter the NSW state and Australian Masters tournaments until he has played in every state.

Fellow Bega Squash Club members said this, along with is latest result, is an inspiration to those who think they might have to give up their sport of choice due to injury or surgery.

Meanwhile, Blacker’s wife Keri, who has been a club player for many years as well as a  committee member, also played in the Masters Australian and state championships and managed to win three out of five games in Ballarat – showing it’s never too late to start setting goals.

She has travelled away to Masters tournaments for over 15 years as a supporter but without entering, as she thought her playing standard wasn't high enough. She was finally convinced to enter this year.

Over the years, Robert Blacker has served in a number of Bega Squash Club roles and has coached both junior and senior players.  He enjoys passing on his knowledge of the game, particularly to the young up and coming players in the club. 

In 2011, he was awarded a community service medallion for services to the Bega Valley sporting community.

Robert and Keri's daughter Katelyn accompanies them both on many squash tournament events.

Katelyn is an avid supporter of  squash and is passionate about rugby league. She is well known on at the Bega club and Masters squash circuit and regularly provides coaching to  players, with her best advice being they need to “focus”.

Katelyn was a Bega junior squash member for many years, as were her brothers Owen and Leon who have now moved away for work.