Just a diary note piece, this. Tony and Sheila Shaw were my landlords at Clanricarde Gardens. This dinner was at their place near Great Missenden, a couple of years after I had bought the Clanricarde Gardens flat from them.
They always were wonderful hosts.
They were great tennis lovers and indeed had their own tennis court. My most intense memory of that evening was everyone’s intense disappointment that Tim Henman had lost his Wimbledon semi that day to Goran Ivanisevic. The match had been spread over three days due to rain – no roof in those days. Tim had seemed on the verge of victory on the Friday until the rains came. Saturday proved different. This BBC report sums in up. I’m sure we talked abut other things too, but this subject dominated my memory, if not the conversation at the time.