Boston Manor Tennis Club – Ian Louis Harris

Blondin On Blondin: Multiple Launches In Blondin Park, 7 September 2021

Ian: Is that Morris dancing, Vicky?

Vicky: Yes, we’ve been worrying about Morris for some time

Ever since Linda Massey (of Boston Manor Friends/Tennis Club fame) mentioned fundraising for a pavilion at Blondin Park (across the way), Janie and I became, tangentially and in a small way, involved in the project.

Firstly we both pledged a small offering towards the pavilion. Secondly, once I realised that Blondin Park was flat-ish and suitable for field sports, I looked into the possibility of putting one of our London Cricket Trust non-turf pitches in there – click here or see link below for another example.

AB & Me & The LCT, Deptford Park, 16 July 2019

In fact, we managed to get the Blondin Park NTP installed during the winter of 2019/2020, but then the pandemic put the kybosh on our plans for a launch there.

Meanwhile, Linda and the Blondin Consortium’s plans for a pavilion came to fruition towards the end of summer 2021, so it seemed to make sense to have a joint launch of the facilities.

The Mayor of Ealing, Munir Ahmed, came along to cut the pavilion ribbon.

Linda Massey briefs The Mayor on arrival

Prior to the ribbon cutting…a display of Morris dancing. Why Morris dancing, I hear you cry? Because, apparently, the Northfield Morris troupe was the first community group to book the new pavilion as its new home for its practice sessions and the like.

Had you asked me on the morning of this event whether I knew any Morris dancers. I’d have said “unequivocally no”. But unfortunately it seems that Morris dancers have infiltrated polite society in West London, so we recognised at least two members of the troupe as Boston Manor Tennis Club regulars.

The pavilion launch and even the Morris dancing is explained in this community link piece – click here. Or, if that link ever fails, click this scrape instead.

Meanwhile Carol, a Boston Manor regular but not of the Morris persuasion, helped the assembled throng to reach a state of Morris tolerance…or perhaps even wondrous oblivion, by dint of jugs brimming with Pimms.

Soft drinks were also available for youngsters and those with a good reason to avoid Pimms. In my case, I had driven to Blondin, following my own Byzantine instructions for navigating the parking restrictions and the experimental road closure at one end of the ideal access road for the park. I wrote chapter and verse – some would say an entire apocrypha – on the topic.

There was also a splendid spread of sandwiches and nibbles for the guests, which was quite a treat, although it was a very hot afternoon, so “plenty of liquids” seemed more important than “plenty of sandwiches”.

Meanwhile the youngsters from Ealing Fields High School were limbering up for some cricket.

Several youngsters enjoying the use of our non-turf pitch

The site of their school recently erected the following plaque to the most famous alum of the predecessor school on that site:

The Ealing Civic Society Green Plaque unveiled on 13 October 2020 at the entrance to Ealing Fields School, Little Ealing Lane, Ealing, London W5 4EJ to commemorate singer Dusty Springfield (1939-99). .As Mary O’Brien, she attended what formerly was St Anne’s Convent School on the site between 1951 and 1955. The future Dusty Springfield spent her teenage years growing up in Ealing before embarking upon a career which resulted in her being the only British female singer to have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Once I learnt that our youthful cricket neophytes were from that school, I considered adding some Dusty patter into my London Cricket Trust speech:

Dusty Springfield is actually my role model in the matter of batting. Whenever I take to the crease, I just don’t know what to do with myself, so I close my eyes and count to ten”…

…but then I thought better of it.

Not sure anyone was listening when I spoke anyway

So apparently I said words along the following lines:

I am thrilled to be part of the celebrations opening the Blondin Park Community Pavilion and non-turf cricket pitch. Every one of the dozens of non-turf pitches the LCT establishes in parks around London is special, enabling thousands of youngsters to experience the joys of playing cricket. But this Blondin facility, in my own community, has an extra special place in my heart. Many thanks to the Blondin Consortium, Ealing Council & The England & Wales Cricket Board for the collaboration that has made this wonderful facility happen.

The pavilion itself is indeed a rather wonderful prefabricated building, spacious and full of useful facilities.

There’s me having a chat with our friend Joan from the tennis courts

The wash room facilities, for example, reminded me a bit of Japan…

Japan Reflections: I Need To Write About Toilets In Japan, 7 November 2018

Below is a picture of Jean washing her hands – the sink works out that you are there, so squirts the requisite amount of soap, runs warm water on your hands for a while and then blow dries your hands.

The event was all over too soon. The participation cricket team from my beloved Middlesex County Cricket Club facilitated a rapid game of cricket for the youngsters.

The event was all over the media – Ealing Today.co.uk no less. (If anything ever happens to the Ealing Today.co.uk website, I have scraped the text of that piece to this link.

As always, seeing young folk having fun playing cricket using our facilities always makes me happy. But seeing the new facility being used in Blondin park, in my own community, gave me an an extra special surge of excitement and joy.

Then it was time for everyone except the London Cricket Trust folk to go home.

We held our Trustees meeting at the site, making ourselves the very first EVER meeting to be held in the new Blondin Pavilion.

Thanks to Linda Massey and Janelle for the above photograph.

After the meeting, I showed Ed Griffiths Boston Manor Park and gave him a lift back to a suitable station, despite the relentless teasing he had given me about my parking/driving instructions for the event. Still, I have been brought up to respond with kindness whenever possible, so Dumbo and I took Ed as close to the platform as possible for his journey home.

Meanwhile, the launch day in Blondin Park had been a great success, both for the Blondin Consortium and for the London Cricket Trust.

At Odds With Janie Over Tennis, 14 June 2020

Janie and I have been back on the modern tennis court now for a month or so.

Oh Joy – We’re Back On The Tennis Court, Boston Manor, 13 May 2020

Real tennis, an indoor sport, is still a hope rather than an expectation in this time of Covid.

Anyway, Janie and I threw ourselves into playing modern tennis (or “lawners”, as some real tennis types call it) with abandon. Unfortunately, this switch from “nuffing” to “every day” did not seem to please Janie’s arm. I don’t suppose lugging heavy grub bags for FoodCycle has helped much either:

Ged & Daisy Go South On A FoodCycle Made For Two, 2 May 2020

Anyway, point is, Janie is rehabilitating and we felt the game needed a bit of evening up while Janie’s arm gets better. I proposed using the handicapping system which we deploy as standard in real tennis. Janie, now steeped in the ways of real tennis, received the idea with alacrity.

Now, I know what some readers are thinking. “You can’t use the real tennis handicapping system for modern tennis”. “Doesn’t work”. “Serving whole games each messes up the system”.

I have heard all of those arguments before.

But here’s the thing.

In the very early days of modern tennis, the game was absolutely played on handicap, or “odds” as handicapping was known back then; to the same or arguably to a greater extent than in real tennis. And yes, the odds/handicaps work absolutely fine in modern tennis.

We’ve had a lot of fun trying different handicaps. When the injury was still quite bad and Janie’s play unpredictable, we used moving (sliding) handicaps on a steep gradient. For example, Janie would receive 15 for the first game, but if she lost that game she’d receive 15 and I’d owe 15 (start on -15) for the next one. If she won that game we’d go back to receive 15, but if she ended up two games down we’d progress to receive 15/owe30 and so on.

Now that Janie is almost better, we’ve tried a fixed handicap of owe15, which comes close to evening up the odds. But we’re enjoying more using a shallow moving handicap, where we start at owe 15 and adjust by one notch if either of us wins two games in a row. So if I go two games up the handicap goes up to receive 15, if Janie wins two in a row in goes to level.

Anyway, it does mean that we have been having some really close matches and have both been enjoying the contest despite. Now that Janie’s arm is almost better, we might even start playing level again, although a little bit of moving handicap does keep the match tight even if one of us is not performing at our best for whatever reason. It might even become part of our regular playing conditions. For sure, playing one point at 40-40 enables us readily to progress through a whole set in the 50-55 minutes we now get due to the “social distancing dance” we need to do with the previous and subsequent court-users.

Meanwhile I have been fascinated by the research I have been doing into the history of the tennis scoring system and the use of odds/handicaps for many centuries. I have found a wealth of material on-line, including some wonderful old books written by some extraordinary old characters. Meet Eustace Miles, for example.

In short, I have discovered that several of the game’s creation myths are…frankly…myths. Further, the reality is more messy, complicated and fascinating than many of the myths. I am planning three short pieces for the real tennis community on the following topics:

Ancient origins of the tennis scoring system;
Variety and evolution of tennis odds/handicaps – from esoteric to algorithmic;
150 years of symbiosis in the development of real and modern tennis rules and odds/handicaps.

Catchy titles, huh? Watch this space, folks.

Folks?

Where’s everybody gone?

Oh Joy – We’re Back On The Tennis Court, Boston Manor, 13 May 2020

Linda Massey pulled out all the stops to get us back on court day one of the Covid-19 partial unlocking . Thanks Linda.

I was the second person to log on and book, but while Alfred went for a leisurely 11:00 booking, the only slot we could do on a busy day of work, FoodCycle charity round and Virtual Glad performance (all to come) was 10:00.

So we were the first people back on court. Yah boo.

As you can see from the headline photo, I couldn’t even remember what to do with the tennis bag – I look utterly bewildered as indeed I was.

Court Two has not been vandalised – it has been decommissioned while social distancing remains in full force.

You can even tell from the pictures that Janie was up for it to a greater extent than me. She took the first set 6-2. I started to come back second set, leading 5-3 when it was time for us to leave.

Normally, of course, the next pair on need to drag us off the court kicking and screaming because we still want to play.

But on this occasion, due to social distancing, we politely yielded the court, donning gloves and wipes to ensure that the gate handle is kept as germ free as possible.

We saw several of the regular dog walkers who waved at us and we waved back. We even exchanged a few words at extreme distance which I’m sure is not a breach of the spirit or even the letter of the social distancing rules.

It really is great to be back on court at Boston Manor. Thanks again to Linda Massey for organising it so quickly.

Four Courts In 25 Hours; Boston Manor Centre Court, Lord’s Real Tennis Court, Royal Court Theatre & Boston Manor Court One, 8 & 9 February 2020

Saturday 8 Feburary, Janie and I went to Boston Manor for an early game of lawn tennis. It was a bit chilly but the sun was shining and the weather was set dreadful for the next couple of days.

So although I was due on court for a real tennis match that afternoon, we both needed some exercise and both fancied some of the outdoor variety.

We had a good game. I thought I played well and hoped my timing would be as good that afternoon as it had been that morning. In the end I think it was.

A quick scrub up and then off to Lord’s in Dumbo for the MCC v Dedanists match.

Parking Up Dumbo…Outside Moreton Morrell in this photo as it happens

The MCC v Dedanists match has been reported extensively on the Dedanists Society and MCC websites. Your truly has written the report. Here is a link to the Dedanists’ Society site.

Here is a link to a scrape of the report on The Dedanists’ site, which might be easier for you once my report is no longer headline news.

Here are some pictures. First up, the Captains:

Sam Leigh keeping an eye on the guests, no doubt

Below are some of the spectators, rapt with attention, hanging on every shot:

Here’s me, John Thirlwell and my partner Martin Village (grabbing a coffee) as we came off court.

Here’s a link to all the stills that Janie took that day:

Janie took a few video clips, the first of which illustrates the famous Harris serve followed by the infamous Harris grunt…

…this next one shows some relatively classy play by our standards…

…and this next one includes my incisive calling, an all-time favourite string, “switch…up yours…well played”:

For the uninitiated, the phrase “up yours” is not a petulant expletive in the direction of one’s partner. Heaven forbid. “Up” indicates that the ball will land on the penthouse above the dedans gallery, thus telling one’s partner that there is no need to volley. “Yours” means that the ball, once it descends, is for one’s partner to play.

Considering that Martin and I had never even seen each other play before, let alone played together, I thought we got a lot more of that sort of stuff right than might have been expected.

I have scraped CCTV video evidence of the match highlights from all five of the rubbers, which can be seen in silence but glorious colour, through the following embedded links. We join Tony Friend & Paul Cattermull v Yuri Kugler & Julian Sheraton Davis in the second set with the score at 4-4:

We join Sam Leigh & Simon Martin v Simon Webster & Rodger Davis in the second set with the score at 3-3.

We join Giles Stogdon & Carl Snitcher v James McDermott & David Enticknap in the second set with the score at 2-3.

We join Peter Dean & Giles Pemberton v Johnny Saunders & Linda Sheraton Davis towards the end of the first set with the score at 4-4.

If you are a truly in search of passing some time (nearly an hour), you can watch both sets of the Sebastian Wood & John Thirlwell v Ian Harris & Martin Village match below.

As if that wasn’t enough drama for one day, Janie and I went on to the Royal Court to see All Of It after Lord’s. It was a wonderful 45 minutes of theatre, reported on here and below:

All Of It by Alistair McDowall, Royal Court Theatre, 8 February 2020

On Sunday morning the wind was howling at 40 mph plus and the weather forecast looked increasingly terrible. But the rain didn’t start first thing and Accuweather suggested that it wouldn’t rain until 11:00, so we decided to brave our regular 10:00 slot.

Just a little bit crazy – picture from some daftness a few years ago

Strangely, there was no-one else around in the park, apart from Linda Massey who was battening down the hatches of the pavilion.

Linda briefly came across to the tennis courts to tell us:

Ok, I am now officially declaring that you two are mad.

Strangely, once we got used to the wind, we had an exhilarating, fun although not exactly classic, game of lawners.

We played on Court One on Sunday, whereas we had played on Court Two (Centre Court) on Saturday. So those two, plus the Lord’s real tennis court and the Royal Court theatre add up to four courts in 25 hours.

Don’t tell Linda Massey, but we went back to Boston Manor Park again on Monday morning in similar weather – again no-one else around – and had another game of lawners. We’re not mad…we’re just a bit mad on tennis.

Three Courts In One Day, 29 April 2017

I was a slightly reluctant conscript to represent the MCC against Middlesex University Real Tennis Club (MURTC) today.

Much as I love playing real tennis, my weekend routine is to play modern tennis with Daisy in the morning and we had theatre tickets booked for the evening.

But this match was the reverse fixture of a match I played back in the autumn, mentioned en passant in this piece – click here…

…and it was after all just down the road in Hendon on a long weekend…so I told the skipper that I would play only if needed.

I got the “yes, you are needed” message a couple of weeks before the match.

Still, I was selected to play the last (doubles) rubber, mid afternoon, so I thought there was no need to dispense with the traditional Boston Manor modern tennis fixture with Janie first thing.

Lawners at Boston Manor – court one of three

I played a cracking good game of lawners, though I say so myself. Janie later claimed that she let me win by a large margin to help build my confidence for the big match. I don’t think so.

Went home, showered, switched from pyjamas to whites and off to Middlesex University for lunch and the match. By the time I got there the MCC were one rubber down and while I was eating lunch we went 2-0 down with two rubbers to go.

Then we watched a very exciting game of doubles, which looked as though it would go MURTC’s way but ended up going MCC’s way.

“No pressure, but it’s all down to you two”, said one of my team mates, helpfully, as my partner and I went on court for the deciding rubber. Court two of three.

We’d never played with each other before and I have only played a handful of doubles at real tennis, so asked my partner to do the calling. He seemed reluctant to do that at first, but when I called a couple of times, reminding him that I really wasn’t sure whether to go for the ball on not, he said he’d call himself, which he started doing and I started to work out quite quickly what he wanted to play or leave.

The handicapping system did us some favours, as my limited doubles experience means that my doubles handicap lags behind that of my singles. On the other hand, the MURTC court is very different from that at Lord’s – much bouncier, it reminded me a bit of the one I tried in Manchester last autumn – click here, adding to the novelty of the situation. Yet, that extra bounce sometimes gives the player just a smidgen of extra time to adjust and hit a better shot – at my stage of real tennis, I rather like the extra bounce.

Anyway, the upshot of all that, I’m delighted to report, is that we won our rubber and thus the match was drawn. My partner and I were metaphorically carried aloft with garlands in our hair, before everyone said fond goodbyes and went their separate ways.

These real tennis matches are very enjoyable, friendly affairs. A good way of getting to know some of the MCC players better. Also a good way to meet some really interesting and pleasant people from other clubs, in this case MURTC.

No photos from our match but here is a little promo video from MURTC that they made only a few weeks ago, which gives a pretty good idea about the place, not least its friendly and welcoming atmosphere. You can even see a couple of the people I met in the still below – the professional and the male student (left of picture).

“Three courts in one day…so what about the third court?” I hear you cry. Well, that was The Ferryman at The Royal Court, which I have written up separately – click here.

Boston Manor Tennis, Mystery Photo, 15 November 2015

Janie and I play tennis every Saturday and Sunday at Boston Manor.

Why I felt motivated to wear my hoodie with my bandanna on the outside and pose for photos wielding my tennis racket at a leaf is a mystery.

But that’s what we did – example:

Impromptu Housewarming After Tennis At Lisa Opie’s Place, 15 August 2015

Having learnt the previous week that Lisa’s new flat was more or less ready, we arranged to pop around and have a look after tennis on a Saturday morning.

It became a brief impromptu housewarming:

I vaguely recall one of those Champagne flutes biting the dust, resulting in me and Janie getting Lisa another pair as an additional housewarming present.

International Tennis At Boston Manor Park: Victor, Heinrich, Jacques & Me, 11 March 2011

I don’t often get involved in international matches of any kind, although I had single-handedly (sort of) won the Ashes a few week’s earlier…

A Valentines Day Massacre In Galle aka The Day I Won The Ashes Single Handed, Galle, Sri Lanka, 14 February 2011

…and did defeat the might of Tibet on behalf of England at altitude cricket a year or so earlier:

Tibet v England Impromptu Cricket Match in Yunnan Province, April 2010

But I digress.

For many years, Victor Benissan coached at Boston Manor Tennis Club, where Janie and I regulary play. He very rarely coached us – we’re more-or-less uncoachable now, but we became friends with him. Here is a picture of him (from Queen’s, not Boston Manor), which I have “borrowed” from his Le Cavalier Style Facebook Area:

I’m guessing that Victor won’t mind as I have linked to his site.

Victor is from Togo originally, long before Togolese people were perceived as naturals for tennis stardom. But Victor was, presumably, one of Togo’s top players in his day.

Victor would occasionally bemoan the fact that he found it hard to get a game at his level.

Jacques Malan, who had also been a fine tennis player in his youth and who works/worked with Heinrich Groenewald, would similarly bemoan his lack of tennis-playing opportunities, especially when roped into playing in our silly cricket matches.

Anyway, it occurred to me that we could have some fun one afternoon by pairing up Jacques and Victor for an up-market hit, while Heinrich and I would…do our thing.

I seem to recall being on the wrong end of things against Heinrich that day, while I think Victor and Jacques had a good contest but I cannot honestly remember who won.

Then I took on Jacques left-handed for a short set, which worked out very well for me as I am used to playing off the wrong hand whereas he isn’t. He was rapidly getting better during the set and I’m pretty sure he’d have won a second set.

Then we played mixed doubles…as in mixed ability doubles…with me and Victor taking on the visiting, Southern-Hemisphere pair of Heinrich and Jacques.

It was a very enjoyable way to spend a Friday afternoon at Boston Manor.

Z/Yen Tennis Evening At Boston Manor, 1 July 2010

Leo Fishman’s textbook shot (economics textbook, sadly, not tennis textbook)

Z/Yen’s mighty gladiators prepare for battle

Z/Yen works outings and events tend to work out successfully – not much can go wrong if you organise a jolly with activities, libations and grub.

But just occasionally, such a jolly turns out to be very special indeed; exceptionally enjoyable at the time and exceptionally memorable long after the event.

Such was, in my opinion, the Z/Yen tennis event at Boston Manor Tennis Club (BMTC); especially the first time we did it, in July 2010.

Janie and I play tennis at BMTC every weekend, unless absence or extremely foul weather prevents. We knew it would be a friendly, informal venue for a bit of sport and a barbecue…

…and an opportunity for BMTC to make a little bit of money towards its floodlight project – which met its objectives within three years of Z/Yen’s visit.

Anyway, this idea seemed to catch the collective Z/Yen imagination, as we ended up a group of 30 or so for the event; 16 playing, 14 trying to put the players off and all 30 of us eating and drinking.

Maury Shenk “cannot be serious”, foreground, with Ben Morris at the base line

I wrote the event up at the time on Now And Z/Yen – click here for link.

Actually the unsung hero (or should I say heroine) of the evening was undoubtedly Monique Gore, who organised pretty much everything (apart from the tennis itself, which was organised by Jez “Games Teacher” Horne) and also took over 100 photographs. You can click here or click through the photograph below to see all of the pictures:

Monique is an excellent photographer. Observe, in the picture above, she has managed to produce the visual illusion that I know what I am doing playing doubles up at the net. Nothing could be further from the truth, but I do look the part in that picture – as does Chiara hitting the ball in the background – thanks Monique.

The above picture does remind me of one early memory of the evening, which found its way into the Now and Z/Yen report:

It was Chiara von Gunten’s first working day, so we hope she doesn’t get into the habit of knocking off work every day at 15:30 and spending the rest of the afternoon enjoying sport and revelry. Within about 15 seconds of starting practice with her randomly-picked doubles partner, Ian Harris, she had “caught him amidships” from behind. Not a good career move on your first day, Chiara.

Strangely, the above incident didn’t adversely affect Chiara’s career in the end…probably because she was so good at her job.

Leo demonstrates a textbook shot…unfortunately it is from the economics text book, not the tennis text book

You could be forgiven for assuming, if you only saw the above picture of Leo Fishman swatting a fly…I mean trying to hit a tennis ball…that Leo wasn’t too sure what she was doing…

…but I knew that Leo comes from good tennis stock – I spent many hours on the tennis courts at Keele in my student days while her grandfather, Professor Les Fishman, was playing with his entourage on one of the other courts.

So it wasn’t a complete surprise when Leo and Joey took the coveted trophy that year; presented by Jez.

To quote from the Now and Z/Yen write up:

With the barbeque sizzling and the refreshments flowing, the tennis competition soon became secondary, although plenty of people enjoyed some makeshift tennis after the tournament ended. The revelry went on long after dark, which takes some late-night stamina at this time of year.

The above memory is my most abiding one – a surprisingly large group of people lingering on, enjoying the glorious long summer evening and each other’s company until very late.

One memory absent from the Now and Z/Yen report was the appearance of Angela Broad with her friend Doreen, who was briefly in the country at that time. Doreen’s chauffeur parked the ginormous Mercedes “inconspicuously” on the far side of the car park. This worked in a way, because if you weren’t looking out for it, you probably wouldn’t have noticed it from the courts or associated that vehicle with our event. It must have caused a bit of a stir amongst the regular park users, though. Janie and I thought it was very funny at the time.

I’d love to know if other people remember this particular event as fondly as I do…

…and do people have some other/alternative memories of that evening they would care to share

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