Janie and I blocked out the day to do research for our planned house refurb, and to visit Lord’s. We wanted to take a look at some women’s cricket – two matches against a visiting squad from the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) and a Real Tennis Women’s Day that had been organised around the SCG visit. Oh, and we were also going on to the Wigmore Hall for an evening concert.
Mr Logistics (that’s me) worked out that all of this activity could be undertaken in Bayswater and Marylebone, mostly on foot with some minimal use of the underground sauna otherwise known as The Tube.
The paint business took a little longer than we expected, whereas the SCG Women’s Team dispatching the Middlesex Women’s team apparently took less time than people had expected. Basically Janie and I arrived in the pavilion as the first cricket match was concluded.
No matter – we were a bit peckish having walked from Westbourne Grove to Lord’s, so we soldiered on to the Nursery End of the ground, where I had been wanting to show Janie HoAM – the tasteful new cafe in the performance centre – for quite some time.
Tasteful environment, with tasty and mostly healthy grub
Determined not to miss out on seeing some cricket we made sure we were back in the pavilion for the very start of the second match.
Getting ready to goAh, cricket!
But we really wanted to have a proper look at the real tennis women’s day, so only watched the cricket for a few minutes before retreating to the tennis.
Ah, off to see the tennis I suppose…
…said Paul, the steward, who seems to have us well and truly worked out by now.
The atmosphere was warm and convivial – aided and abetted by some fizzy pop of the intoxicating kind, provided generously by Graeme Marks.
Janie and I politely declined. We had photos to take, shelving to examine, shoes to buy and music to listen to. It could be positively dangerous to do those things under the influence.
Several of the women, plus Chris Bray, warming down in the dedans (above)…while Mary Strevens and Lucie Grosset warmed for the final round robin match up on the court.
Janie and I watched that final round robin match: Mary Strevens & Lucie Grosset v Rhona Russell & Anisha Charania. It was a good battle, fought hard. Mary and Lucie were on the wrong end of the match itself yet fighting hard to try to scrap an extra game or two. We discovered that they were striving for a final place that would be determined on the number of games and boy did they show some fight to get there.
Ahead of the final, which Janie and I were unfortunately unable to attend due to our furniture appointment in a more southerly quarter of Marylebone, I was commissioned to take the group photo. Janie took a photo of me taking the photo, which rather breaks the “Bismarck” laws and sausages rule, in my opinion.
A dozen people all smiling with their eyes open doesn’t just happen, you knowThanks to Kate Evers for the photo finalists Sarah Sullivan, Mary Strevens, Chris Bray (marker) Peta Louise Jeffery & Lucie Grossett.
Mary Strevens is a new addition to the MCC squad, who had the dubious honour of playing her first competitive match for the MCC in January’s MCC v Old Harrovians match partnering me. We did OK. Still, failing to learn her lesson, Mary has also attended club nights on several occasions and also skills night. So, despite the fact that she is significantly better at tennis than I am, I feel that she is to some extent my mentee. Yet, despite that, she has nevertheless retained a strong competitive spirit and will to win, which progressed, in partnership with Lucie Grosset, into a tournament win on the day. Well done to both of them.
But everyone’s a winner on such a day, really. The spirit and convivial atmosphere was wonderful to behold, as was the quality of the tennis emerging from a morning of coaching followed by an afternoon mini tournament. I do hope the idea can become a regular feature in our MCC real tennis calendar.
You don’t want to know about our furniture research and Janie’s shoe shopping, now do you? Thought not.
But just in case you do want to know about the guitar and tenor concert we heard at the Wigmore Hall, here’s a link:
Victoria Luiza Barros & Nauhany Vitoria Leme Da Silva of Brazil, having just defeated Maria Valentina Pop & Anita Tu
We had a super day at Wimbledon again this year.
Again a quarter finals day, again our base court was Court One.
The weather was blisteringly hot. But we braved the relentless sunshine for quite some time ahead of our main features of the day. We chose Court 18, where the upper seating at least was getting a little breeze, albeit warm breeze. The stewards up there are charming and helpful.
Rhys Lawlor of Britain did his best against the fancied Thijs Boogaard of NetherlandsThen the start of Xinran Sun (a promising 15-year-old Chinese girl) against Thea Frodin of USA
As One O’Clock approached and the heat was getting stronger, we retreated to Court One where, joy oh joy, we discovered that the seats I had “chosen” were in the shade. Superb “planning” on my part.
We watched all of the match between Linda Noskova (who went on to win the tournament) against Elise Mertens. It was a good match.
…so sort-of felt that we had previously done all that.
You two again!“Popcorn match? Bring forth the kikones!”
We stuck around for a while, then went out to get a sense of the atmosphere around the ground – Arthur Fery of Britain, the surprise package of this year’s Wimbledon, was making even more surprising light work of Flavio Cobolli on Centre Court – the sound from the Mound and that court was wonderful to hear around the grounds.
I also had a secret mission to visit Robert Allan Fitzgerald’s tennis racket in the Wimbledon museum – on loan from the MCC museum…
There it is, proudly displayed in the first display cabinet – item 2 in dark wood
…although the Wimbledon Museum is describing it as Prince Albert’s tennis racket, suggesting that Bertie (Prince of Wales) presented it to the MCC after he became patron of the MCC at Fitz’s behest, rather than Prince Albert gifting it to Fitz at some earlier stage. Another historical detail that needs disambiguating; the Wimbledon version seems more likely given the minimal contact Prince Albert might have had with Fitz personally.
Naturally, Janie was more taken with the museum’s tennis-related knick-knacks
By the time we moved on, the results of both of the men’s quarter finals were all-but determined, so we thought we’d spend more time watching some of the promising youngsters.
We headed for Court 12, which was very sparsely populated at that stage, due to the sun and the main matches still being in play. We caught the very end of one girls doubles (see headline photo) and then took sanctuary in a corner where we could tell that the shade would arrive first and where you could tactically watch the Court 8 goings on while waiting for the next Court 12 match to start.
A thriller between Luis Guto Miguel & Ziga Sesko, who narrowly beat Kunanan Pantaratorn & Arnav Vijay Paparkar
That doubles match went to a 10 point tie-break which got well up into the teens-all until it was finally determined by a lucky/bitterly unlucky net-chord unreturnable serve. Note to World Tennis and all the governing bodies – please abandon this “no lets” experiment and don’t let it seep into the adult game. It presents an element of unnecessary luck and simply adds to the inherent advantage of serving. I welcome experimentation but would welcome even more dispensing with this particular idea, which has been tried before, between 1875 and 1882, then sensibly replaced with the “let” rule.
Rant over.
Jana Kovackova & Katerina Zajickova, doing battle with Alyssa James & Sol Ailin Larraya Guidi
We didn’t see that last game through to its end – we thought the crowds had died down enough once the first set was done and set off for home, very satisfied and happy.
Katerina Zajickova lets rip. The Czech pair went on to beat the Brazilian pair in the final.
…we decided to book the same three days of Eastbourne tennis for 2026: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Tuesday Evening
On the Tuesday evening, we met up with Linda Wrobel (formerly Linda Phillips) and her friend Yasmin for dinner. Yasmin was a very close friend of the late great Mark Phillips, Linda’s cousin. Linda and Yasmin became good friends in the wake of Mark’s illness and demise, nearly two years ago now.
Linda judged correctly that we would all enjoy each other’s company. Yasmin had been in town for the first couple of days of the Eastbourne tennis. Janie and I enquired about the comfort levels (or lack thereof) at Devonshire Park, given the unseasonal heatwave – the hottest June temperatures since records began.
Brutal, to be honest…
…said Yasmin. We wanted honesty, even though that answer wasn’t exactly what we wanted to hear.
We ate in the Thai restaurant in Sovereign Harbour. Same place as last time with Linda, but on this occasion, with the weather so hot, we ate in their outdoor harbour area which was a very pleasant temperature for evening dining.
But we couldn’t sit in the sun for long periods – we normally wander quite a lot anyway – so we did a fair amount of shade-seeking walking around.
In so doing we found a shady spot in the walkway between Centre Court and Court Number One, where we caught glimpses of Toby Samuel and Arthur Fery playing their matches.
Toby – plucky but doomed to close matches with narrow defeats this grass seasonArthur Fery – remember where you saw him first.
We also spent a bit of time on Court Two – especially once there was a bit of breeze and shade on one side. There we saw a bit of:
McCartney Kessler v Anhelina Kalinina
Gabriel Diallo v Tomas Martin Etcheverry
Great view of Devonshire Park in all its glory from up there
We had a great day. And we were all set to come back and do some more tomorrow.
Thursday 25 June 2026 At Devonshire Park
Centre Court again, so we saw:
Naomi Broady announcing our matches…Kader Nouni in the umpire’s chair for one of our matches
Jelena Ostapenko v Zeynep Sonmez
Zeynep
McCartney Kessler v Madison Keys
Jack Draper v Gabriel Diallo
You can have too much of a good thing, so we decided to skip the fourth match on centre court and let our tickets be sold as charity returns for that match: Ugo Humbert v Quentin Halys.
Instead we enjoyed a quiet evening on the terrace of our lovely AirBnB in Pevensey Bay
Friday 26 June 2026 At Devonshire Park
Semi-finals day on Centre Court. We saw:
Tatjana Maria v Jelena Ostapenko
Petra Marcinko v Madison Keys
Zizou Bergs v Toby Samuel
Jack Draper v Ugo Humbert
It wasn’t quite so hot today and indeed we even had a little rain, briefly, after Tatjana Maria won the first set, which led to Jelena Ostapenko retiring.
Tatty and…Jelena
During the retirement interval, I guessed that Jack Draper might have gone for his warm up and guessed correctly. Janie was well pleased as she had been hoping to see it.
Jack DraperAndy MurrayJames Trotman
Then another abbreviated match, as Petra Marcinko also retired after losing one set to Madison Keys:
Petra MarcinkoBeautiful bird
Then an epic: Zizou Bergs v Toby Samuel:
Toby was doing great until we abandoned him, in order to have one last iced coffee and stretch our legs. It all went horribly wrong for wildcard Brit Toby while we were away.
Would Jack Draper fare any better against Ugo Humbert?
We left our lovely AirBnB quite early the next morning – but not early enough to avoid heavy traffic on the M25, followed by a sweltering afternoon & evening in London.
Still, we’d had a great time, so the journey for sure was worth it.
The weather chose to improve a little at the start of May – my previous attempts at watching county championship cricket so far this season had led only to some glimpses from the safety of the Long Room and/or Writing Room behind glass, April was so chilly.
I got to Lord’s just before lunch was called, then got ready for a bout of doubles tennis early afternoon, with a collection of players similar to the Bionic Quartet reported last summer:
One of our number was having his first go back after surgery, so we played for fun off the book.
I had informally arranged to meet up at some point in the afternoon with Ed Griffiths (our London Cricket Trust mastermind) and Madz, who does some photography for Durham CCC. Can it really be four years since Madz last came to Lord’s on such a mission in May?
Anyway, as it turned out, Ed was delayed until much later than he had intended to arrive, and Madz was engaged with matters photographic and the like also until late afternoon.
I thought I’d photograph Matt Potts in action this time, while waiting for the others
In the end, all three of us watched from the Warner Stand for a while late in the day. Here’s the scorecard from that match. A high-scoring draw. Why can’t they produce result pitches at Lord’s, I hear some irate, know-it-all readers cry!
It is hard for me and Janie to remember a time when Ray was not a constant feature of tennis in Boston Manor Park. We have always played at the weekends. On Saturday mornings, for more than two decades, we would witness Ray enthusiastically showing children the basics of tennis on Court One. On the occasions when we could play during the week, such as Monday mornings, we’d come across Ray again, stewarding some (mostly) women’s doubles.
Ray’s thoughtfulness and courtesy towards other players at the courts was impeccable. One of the many reasons why Janie and I became sure that Boston Manor Tennis Club, is “our sort of place”.
All good things come to an end. Ray has decided to hang up his racket. Would we care to join him and other members past and present for an afternoon party across the way in Blondin Park? Linda Massey was organising a bit of a do. How could we possibly have missed that?
Dozens and dozens of Ray’s friends, family and former tennis trainees stopped by to help Ray celebrate. The April weather smiled on Ray’s party – no more than he deserved. In fact, it was a bit of a scorcher. I decided to protect my head with my new pillbox cap, which I plan to sport when watching cricket and tennis this season.
I have long thought that Janie and I might be the last remaining players at Boston Manor who have been there since before Ray’s time. Very few people played there when we started playing in that park and Ray came along to get activities moving soon after we joined.
Ray confirmed that factoid in his speech, while also making reference to a playful comment by one of the youngsters alluding to my resemblance to a certain well-known writer from days of yore – the short clip below says it all:
No-one had pointed out this resemblance before…at least, not this month they hadn’t.
Ray was far too polite to point the finger at the offending youngster…which is more than can be said for that youngster’s dad, who approached me on the tennis courts a few days later, struggling to suppress his giggles, confessing that his son was the culprit. Hmm.
Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest…
…as The Bard so eloquently put it, in King Lear.
Boston Manor Tennis Club won’t quite be the same place again without Ray, but his efforts (and those of many others) helped transform that small tennis club, and indeed the whole park, into a thriving and friendly community place.
Me and Simon Barton in our Alleyn’s School shirts. Photo by Paul Cattermull
Soon after I started playing real tennis, in 2016, I ran into Paul Cattermull in the viewing gallery at Lord’s. Paul and I had worked together years before, at Binder Hamlyn. I told Paul that I was enjoying the game enormously but finding it really difficult.
But why, Ian? It’s a bit like cricket. Move your feet, get your head over the ball, watch the ball and keep your head still as you hit it…
Indeed, all the shortcomings and techniques I struggled with at cricket are also there to torment me in real tennis. But at least with tennis, if you make a mistake, you just lose one point. Well,15, if you are counting the time-honoured tennis way, but you get my meaning.
Anyway, with perseverance and years of fun sporting activity, I have worked my way up the real tennis handicap charts to being very, very average at the game. Indeed, when the Tennis & Rackets Association re-based the handicaps last year, my doubles handicap straddled the median pre and post adjustment value of 55.
As I progressed from “absolute beginner” into “showing some progress towards ordinariness” category, Paul suggested that I find a fellow alum from Alleyn’s School to enter his eponymous “old school” handicap doubles tournament. It was a lovely idea, but for the absence of such an alum with whom to partner.
Thus the plot was hatched and we agreed to attempt the tournament.
Simon is able to boast having had a single digit handicap and even now maintains a handicap of 14. Unfortunately for me and for our Cattermull Cup campaign, that’s his golf handicap. Simon’s real tennis handicap is in the 70s.
That makes the Cattermull Cup a tough ask for Alleyn’s. Simon’s handicap is above the cut off for this tournament and my limited ability will struggle to cover that shortfall. But we agreed that it would be good experience to give the tournament a go this year, albeit as the lowest ranked pair. We entered in hope, but not with expectation.
Alongside this uphill sporting endeavour, Simon and I have also formed a rather unusual, some might say ghoulish, connection over our avocational history research projects. I am looking at the MCC’s role in the development of cricket and tennis (real and lawn) in the mid to late 19th century, not least the extraordinary efforts of Robert Allan Fitzgerald. Meanwhile Simon, who is described by the website topdoctors.co.uk as an expert in sexual health, is, as one of his hobbies, researching the history of STDs in a similar period.
Parenthetically, biology teacher Tom Gascoigne would have been extremely proud of Simon’s post Alleyn’s medical achievements (as would Chris Liffen & John Clarke), despite Mr Gascoigne’s preference for researching sacoglossan penial styles rather than the penial afflictions of humans.
Robert Allan Fitzgerald, first paid Secretary of the MCC, 1863-1876. “Retired due to ill health” 1876 and died tragically young in 1881, a victim of tertiary syphilis.
I’m pretty sure that Mr Jenkins would have thoroughly approved of the unusual subject-matter in Simon’s and my history projects. With Mr Jenkins’s consent, I researched the 7th century origins of Islam for my third year history project and the 19th century origins of the cinema as my ‘O’ Level history project.
Eadweard Muybridge – moving image pioneer. Mr Jenkins style of history favoured eccentric characters with unusual back-stories, especially chaps with fulsome beards
As Simon put it oh so succinctly after our third thrashing in three warm up matches in preparation for our tournament:
Ian Harris: Better on Jacobethan music and drama than at tennis.
…but Simon’s poxy tag line is more infectious than mine.
Anyway, all the above blurb is merely a maxi preamble to my mini match report on the 2026 Cattermull Cup from the Alleyn’s School team perspective.
No Sets Please, We’re Alleyn’s: The Tournament Itself, Middlesex University Real Tennis Court
All the gear…
We were properly prepared. Simon procured a brace of Alleyn’s School tennis shirts, which went down well with the organisers. My choice of team name did not go down quite so well.
I had imagined that the teams had alum-oriented team names and that some of them might be imaginative and witty. But it turned out that “Alleyn Old Folk” was the only team with a waggish name.
We found ourselves in a group comprising Clifton (multiple former winners), Harrow 2 (Harrow are also multiple former winners), Highgate & Alleyn Old Folk.
Let us not delve too deeply into exactly what happened in our round robin group. Suffice it to say that we were not humiliated in any of our matches – no bagels and no breadsticks. Harrow prevailed in our group, deservedly so, winning all three of its rubbers.
When I called Janie before setting off for home, we had the following conversation:
JANIE: How did you get on?
ME: Not too bad – we came fourth in our group.
JANIE: That’s amazing! How many teams were there in your group?
ME: Four.
JANIE: Ah, not quite so amazing then. But did you enjoy yourselves?
ME: Of course we did.
As always with real tennis, it was a convivial yet competitive afternoon with a great bunch of people, many of whom I know well from other matches and tournaments. It was a great learning experience for both of us. In Simon’s case, his first taste of such a match/tournament against lower handicappers. In my case, the challenge of trying to find tactics that would give us a chance to win some games in the sets, as once you are in the mix with games on the board, anything can happen in a one-set-to-six shoot-out.
And there’s always next year, by which time, hopefully, Simon will have a bit more experience under his belt and a better (hopefully uncapped) handicap to bring to the party.
I am imagining what Simon’s and my sports masters would have to say about all of this.
Good on you, chaps. Fine sporting effort for the school. Keep trying. Better luck next time. Harris – would you please mark some matches for me on Tuesday?
Colin Page (1926-2021)
Messsrs Banson & Page watching on c1977
I told you both that you were utterly useless at sport.
Barry Banson (1933-2025)
Epilogue: The Finals
Janie & I played our traditional game of lawn an hour earlier than usual in order to get to Middlesex in reasonable time. At least I manged to scrape one set this weekend…just.
We arrived as the losing Sherborne pair were departing, bemoaning their narrow fate in a tight semi against Rugby (6-2, 6-5). On taking up our viewing positions, I asked one of the victors, Charles Whitworth, to encapsulate the Sherborne match in a few words:
Adrian Warburton’s devilish bobble serve,
came the reply.
We had arrived early in the second set of the second semi-final: Norwich School v Harrow 2. The Norwich School team comprised Tim Edwards, whom Janie and I got to know when we were in Newport Rhode Island for the World Championship last year…
Norwich’s opponents were Harrow 2, Sebastien Maurin & James Charatan, who had proved 2-much for me and Simon Barton the previous day in our group.
Harrow 2 also proved to be too much for Norwich in a close run match (6-5, 6-4), despite Reuben Ard’s relentless pounding of the grille and tambour. At one point he achieved a hat-trick of grille winners, which I have only ever witnessed once before, when Alex Gibson pulled off such a stunt in the 2023 MCC Club Weekend C/D Groups Final. Unfortunately there is no video evidence of Reuben’s achievement, which was rather more muscular than Alex’s, whereas the last two of Alex’s three grille shots are captured here:
I have ever since called that achievement the “Coup De Gibson”. I briefly considered changing the name now to “Coup D’Ard”, but that sounds more like something emanating from the manosphere than a real tennis achievement, so we’ll stick with Coup De Gibson.
Both semi-finals were played between pairs with vastly differing handicaps and were won by the pair that was receiving a significant handicap. The final was very different – just a four point difference separated the two – (Harrow received half 15 from Rugby).
It looked on paper as though it was going to be a tight match, but when it came to the action on plaster and wood and stone rather than paper…
…it was an incredibly tight match. I think at least half of the games went to 40-40. Certainly the first handful of games in each of the first two sets did so. It was compelling viewing and it was impossible to tell which way the match would go until the last few minutes, when the Rugby team applied one or two new tricks which did just enough to confound the Harrow pair. (5-6, 6-3, 6-4).
Callum Grier & Charles Whitworth of Rugby, receiving the trophy from JanieWill Burns, James Charatan, Sebastien Maurin, Callum Grier, Charles Whitworth, Paul Cattermull & Jack Carter
It was an enjoyable watch in good company, as is real tennis’s way. Hopefully next year…or at least some year…I’ll be at The Cattermull Cup on finals day as a player rather than a spectator.
The original Hinds Trophy being presented in March 2023
The following text (or an edited version of it) will shortly appear on the MCC website, along with some of the photographs taken on the night. When that happens, I'll add a link.
Sixty years ago, in March 1966, one of the most coveted trophies in global sport, The Jules Rimet Trophy, was stolen from its apparently secure display location in Westminster. A couple of days after an aborted ransom sting, a dog named Pickles discovered a parcel containing the trophy in a hedge beside his owner’s home. Pickles became an overnight sensation, the Jules Rimet was presented at the 1966 Football World Cup Final, before being retained by Brazil, then, a few years later, in Rio, permanently stolen.
The Hinds Trophy (aka The Skills Night Wooden Spoon Trophy), another of the most coveted trophies in global sport, recently had a similar journey. The original Hinds was snatched from its secure location behind the Lord’s hazard end galleries, at some point in the summer or autumn of 2024. No ransom was ever demanded, nor was any canine heroism involved, as far as we know. But just a few weeks ago, long after its replacement with a replica trophy, the original Hinds reappeared just as mysteriously as it had disappeared. The replacement Hinds will continue to be engraved and displayed. The original Hinds is now preserved at a highly secure, secret location.
Ironically, the coveted Hinds Trophy was nearly won this time by Andrew Hinds’s own team, Three Ravens. Numerically and temporally challenged in many ways, that team started with just two but ended up with four players. They need words, not numbers; the collective noun for ravens is “an unkindness”.
The ravens team was especially unkind to two teams. By performing so well on the final discipline, they knocked Souldiers Three (Hugo Fenwick, Gavin Yeats & David Pritchard) into the Hinds Trophy slot. Then, with the final scoring of the event, those unkind ravens denied Three Things In Store late surge to the top spot. Instead, Three Poor Mariners – Richard Boys-Stones, Mary Strevens & Huw Humphreys – were, fairly, reinstalled at the top of the podium.
The Close But No Cigar Award went to neophyte Gerald Slocock, whose ability to almost-but-not-quite hit a target might become the stuff of legend, if he maintains form in that regard.
The Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award went to Shaheed “Sid” Rashid, not least for being the only player to score two points off one hit on the central beam of the dedans gallery.
The Philip The Bold Golden Moment Award went to John Thirlwell, for an extraordinary hat trick of coups du pataugeoire -landing the serve in a paddling pool – which is much harder than it sounds.
There is a serious purpose to skills night; honing skills. True, most of the skills honed on such nights involve eating curry, drinking, singing and the like, but the evening does include some real tennis skills too.
Skills night unquestionably proves the skills of the MCC admin team who organise the event so well, and our tennis professionals, who make the game swing with great reliability. Which is more than can be said for most of us players’ tennis swings!
Paul Cattermull & Emma Norris (front), Linda Sheraton-Davis, Me, Richard Prosser & Simon Mansfield (back) – looking on from the dedans.
The team at The Queen’s Club gate are regular faces and clearly very well trained. On arrival, I announced myself by saying:
I am here for one of the great events in the global sporting calendar.
The attendant replied:
That must be the Dedanists’ match. Let me get the list…
I was especially looking forward to the fixture when I learnt that I would be paired with Giles Stogdon, with whom I have partnered many times in the past, but not since the arrival of Pinky, my new hip, less than a year ago.
Playing one of the early matches gave us the opportunity to warm up with some of the other early arrivals. During warm up, Giles tried but failed to emulate the “lights out tennis” he had mustered against me the previous week in the MCC weekend:
The early arrival also of Linda Sheraton-Davis & Chris Hancock enabled us to start our bout about 15 minutes early. Just as well – the battle was a hum-dinger which would not have been concluded in a mere hour. Indeed, even with the extra time, we needed to start the decisive third set at 4-4.
At one point, Linda Sheraton-Davis made an impressively elegant, almost balletic manoeuvre, in order to dodge the ball and avoid losing a vital point, allowing a modest chase instead.
Later in the evening, in conversation – yes, the chatting, watching, eating and drinking is at least as important as the tennis on these occasions – it transpired that Linda had indeed pursued ballet as a hobby in her youth. Several people expressed regret that Linda’s “croisé devant” had not been captured on camera during our match.
But in the modern era, one needn’t let an absence of real images spoil a good story. I instructed DeepAI to produce an image that reflected Linda’s move. The AI did rather well, although I couldn’t persuade it to produce anything that looked faintly like “a real tennis court”…or even “a court tennis court”…as the background. But it has most certainly captured the dance move.
Being a polite chap, I did ask Linda for permission to produce and publish an automated artist’s impression of the moment. Linda replied:
Only if you also point out to your readers that starting the final set at 4-4 put you and Giles at an advantage, because in both of the previous sets you had won the first two games and then lost the next three!
You see how much it means to us all! In truth, we all turn up in the hope of having good bouts like the one we enjoyed on this occasion, but tend not to be too fussed about the result if it is a good match.
As much as anything else, this Dedanists’ fixture, like many others, tends to be populated mainly by Dedanists, such that we often find ourselves batting for the other side. As in 2023, in 2026 I was representing The Queen’s Club…despite having no real right to do so.
Giles Stogdon has no more right to represent Queen’s than me. He hadn’t even twigged that we were listed to represent Queen’s rather than The Dedanists’.
The fact of the matter is – the “which team won?” aspect doesn’t really matter. We raise some money for the Dedanists’ Society good causes, have a good fun match and a most companionable dinner afterwards. In that sense everyone wins and tennis wins.
Richard Vallat & Gary Duncan (service end) v Graham Defries & Stuart Kerr (hazard end).
On returning to the gallery after their battle, Richard Vallat confessed to me that he had completely forgotten which side he was representing this time around. Classic. But the last set of that match was a most enjoyable watch while we worked up our appetites for a delicious boeuf bourguignon dinner, followed by a very tempting cheese plate.
But just in case anyone has come here to see a results sheet – here is that sheet.
The players greet graciously; the manner in which the whole match was played
Big Match Build Up
At the end of the MCC Club Weekend, a couple of days before this match, I reassured Tom Carew Hunt that I had put aside the evening to join him at the Paterson Bowl Final. Tom said:
I’m so glad, as I am now a serious doubt for being able to get into London that evening.
I had a dreadful feeling that I would end up master of ceremonies for the post match presentation; a feeling that was utterly justified.
That sense of dread was magnified when I arrived at Lord’s to discover that the RG Paterson Bowl itself was under lock and key in the MCC museum, which meant that it would not be possible to present the actual trophy on the night.
On reflection, I realised that it is, in fact, an MCC tradition to restrict access to trophies in this way – The Australians have had nearly 150 years to get used to such limited access in the matter of “The Urn”, win or lose.
I also had a slight sense of dread, on Eddie Gray’s account, when I learnt of the handicap Ben Havey was due to receive. Both players are relatively new to the game and both are fast improving, which is rather wonderful, but Ben in particular is currently going through one of those “growth spurts” that talented players can achieve.
I had done battle with Ben only a couple of days earlier, albeit at doubles. Here’s a single rest (rally) clip of me serving to him:
Let The Big Match Commence
So, to the Eddy Gray v Ben Havey match itself. Both players started a little nervously, I thought, with one or two uncharacteristic errors. It was the first “big final” for both of them. It was also the first big final for our apprentice professional Henry de Lord, who has been working on his own game with both of these players lately. But all three of them settled quickly and then did very well.
Jonathan Potter also represented the tennis committee on the night. He was able to comment from first hand experience on Eddy’s recent progress.
Eddy indeed showed us his array of weapons, with several forces to the grille and some superb winners on the floor too. But Ben also has powerful winners, plus a very strong defensive game. That made the nine point handicap difference extremely difficult for Eddy to try and overcome.
Here is one point by way of example, in which an Eddy error results in the glorious ringing of the winning gallery cowbells…but from the wrong side. “Hell’s bells” I like to call them – they used to reside in my late mother-in-law’s apartment.
Here is another really excellent rest (rally) in which both players demonstrated their fast-improving skills, eventually resulting in Eddy landing a hazard chase.
Very soon after that one, Ben’s girlfriend, who was sitting a little nervously close by, asked me if the match was nearing its end. I said
…if I have been counting correctly, this is now match point.
Which it was:
The result: Ben Havey bt Eddy Gray 6-1, 6-1 on handicap.
As their handicaps move towards each other (hopefully both still improving) I suspect there will be some close battles between Ben Havey & Eddy Gray, plus some excellent representation for the MCC by both of them.
We held a short presentation ceremony on court, during which I said that sort of thing and presented both of the combatants with their mementoes. I also gave Ben advice on how to visit his trophy and handed him his well-earned bottle of Pol Roger fizzy pop.
My self-report card: 10/10 for a wonderful weekend, 9/10 for effort, 6/10 for performance, 0/10 for results.
I have written at length about the MCC Tennis Weekend before and certainly don’t want to bore regular readers. For those who have not read about such matters before: the 2024 report majors on tennis derring-do and nervousness about method acting…
This year I’ll focus on the tennis. To get the least interesting bit out of the way, I’ll simply say that my partner, Jeremy Norman, and I, did not do well. Group B was especially strong this year, as evidenced by our group’s runners up eventually taking the top prize – Mason Sharp Trophy. Someone has to bring up the rear in each group.
We did, however, try hard. We also provided some entertainment…in a good way. We even influenced the result of the tournament by eliminating one of the stronger pairs in our last rubber, thus providing the eventual winners a semi-final slot. The following clip shows probably our best, albeit in vain, efforts during that last round robin match.
20 stroke rests don’t happen all that often at our level.
At the very start of our campaign, on the Friday, we were up against Giles Stogdon – my partner from last year, who literally produced a “lights out tennis” moment on court:
Jeremy Norman and I are absolutely convinced that, had it not been for the lighting deficiency on court for the rest of the tournament, we would have prevailed in all of our matches. 😉 . We would say that, wouldn’t we?
As for the Chair of tennis, Graeme Marks, he seemed hell bent on using the prerogative of the chair to sneak those extra few points that can make all the difference. A net cord that still makes the winning line, a spin-backer onto the grille ledge, another spin-backer into the dedans from his partner in crime, Paul Wollocombe…
…not that such “tactics” were enough to get them through to the semis, despite recording a good round robin win against the eventual trophy winners. Such is tournament tennis sometimes.
I was able at least to relax for most of the Sunday, after playing my heart out for pride just before lunch. The semi-finals and finals were a good fun watch, not least because of the convivial (and at times almost rowdy) atmosphere amongst those members who chose to stay and watch the concluding afternoon of the tournament.
It really is always a grand finale and enjoyable afternoon, regardless of the quality or excitement of the tennis matches. This year, as it happens, the tournament built up to a humdinger of a Mason Sharp final, which went all the way to a deciding game.
Firstly, for those who want to watch it, the final of the Osborn Parker (C/D Groups). Iain Harvey & Sebastian Maurin v Andrew Hinds & Giles Watkins.
Secondly, for those who would like to see the whole match, the final of the Mason Sharp (A/B Groups). Steven Bishop & Paul Cattermull v Nigel Smith & Paul Wickman.
If you only fancy the last three minutes of the big final, having already learnt that it went to a deciding game…here is just the deciding game:
It is most unusual for a team from the B group to prevail in the final – let alone the runners-up from the B group. In this case, even more unusual because Paul Wickman went home after their round robin loss on the final morning assuming that his pair had been eliminated. In fact, as the group had panned out, the comparative scores meant that Havey and Walker needed to thrash me and Jeremy Norman in the final round robin rubber of the group in order to overtake Smith and Wickman.
I did berate Paul Wickman, while also congratulating him on a fine tournament win, for assuming that Jeremy and I would be thrashed. “I hadn’t thought it through to that extent”, was his excuse.
Fortunately, “going home” for Paul did not mean “going over the hills, far away and unable to return.” He and Nigel put on a fine show, both in the semi-final and the final. Two of their very best rests were in the semi-final, which I shall use as a closing clip for this piece.
The atmosphere at Lord’s was terrific all weekend. So much effort goes in from staff and volunteer organisers to make the tournament seem effortless on the weekend itself. The organisational effort and skills cannot be demonstrated in a 90 second YouTube clip…but, fortunately, the tennis skills and effort can:
