Tag: John Lumley

Real Tennis British Open At Queen’s & Victory In Australia by Richard Whitehead At Lord’s, 22 & 26 November 2025

Richard Whitehead talking, Alan Rees listening.

Two Men’s Singles Semi-Finals & The Women’s Singles Final At Queen’s, 22 November 2025

Janie and I warmed up for this event by having our regular hour of “lawn” at Boston Manor, albeit at 10:00 rather than our regular hour of 11:00. We then hot-footed it (if you can hot-foot by car) to the flat dropping off some old computer equipment headed for charity, then picked up Janie’s flashy new specs, then got to The Queen’s Club about 30 or 40 minutes into the first match.

Simon Talbot-Williams greeted us both warmly from his stewarding position, while simultaneously telling me off “for being late”, before helping organise our seating.

Just as well we warmed up for the event, as the dedans gallery had a real chill breeze feel to it, despite the nicely positioned radiator near our feet.

Must have felt even colder up there in the “makeshift media gallery”.

We caught the end of the match between Nicky Howell and Rob Fahey. Then saw all of the match between John Lumley and Bryn Sayers.

After taking some tea and chatting with the assembled real tennis glitterati, Janie and I saw Claire Fahey’s historic win in the final against Tara Lumley.

Our first sight of women’s tennis played at the highest level

Historic, in that the women’s final hadn’t been at Queen’s for decades. We both thought that the format including both men’s and women’s matches was an excellent idea.

More of this men’s and women’s tennis on the same day, please, Janie and I say.

On searching on-line for the results, Google’s AI Overview, for once, has not hallucinated. The following summarises matters expertly.

Men’s (Open) Singles Semi-finals

Two Men’s Singles semi-final matches were played during the afternoon. 

  • Fixture: N. Howell bt R. Fahey
  • Score: 6/2 6/2 6/5
  • Start Time: 2:00 PM
  • Fixture: J. Lumley bt B. Sayers
  • Score: 6/5 6/3 6/2
  • Start Time: 4:00 PM (approx) 

Women’s Singles Final

Claire Fahey defeated Tara Lumley in the final match, which began at 6:45 PM. 

  • Fixture: C. Fahey bt T. Lumley
  • Score: 6/0 6/0 

What the AI cannot do is express how much we enjoyed our afternoon and early evening at Queen’s, watching high grade tennis. It’s just a shame it was unseasonably cold!

Victory In Australia by Richard Whitehead, MCC Library Book Club, Lord’s, 26 November 2025

Janie and I very much enjoy these library book club supper evenings. This one, at which Richard Whitehead discussed his book about the 1954/55 Ashes tour, might not have attracted our attention, but for Alan Rees (head librarian) taking pains to let me know how much he had enjoyed that book and was thrilled to have secured an evening with Richard.

Save the date…

said Alan a good few weeks before the evening was announced. Hence, once it was announced…we pounced to get tickets.

We were very glad we did. The food and company is always good. On this occasion, as a bonus, we found ourselves next to my real tennis pal of old, Jim Chaudry. Jim has been “off games” for some while now, but I occasionally see him at cricket and have spotted him a few times at the library book club dinners, but until this time, not at my table.

Jim knows how to hold his knife and fork, whereas…

The food was, as always, excellent. Janie went into full tilt food porn photo mode this time.

Both courses depicted on arrival at her place. Thanks, Janie.

As usual, after the talk, the Q&A, and the book signing, Janie and I went home thoroughly pleased and satisfied. That’s some of my holiday reading for our next trip sorted out for sure.

US Trip 23 September to 8 October, Day Five: Strolling, Lunch/Exhibition Doubles At The Club & Tournament Dinner At Newport Beach House, Newport RI, 27 September 2025

Daisy (Janie) making an exhibition of herself at the Newport club

Mercifully a less action-packed day. We took it easy in the morning and ambled back to the Newport Club via some shops that Janie wanted to see and the wharf area where we took some pictures.

A Streetcar Named Fisher doesn’t have the same ring to it as A Streetcar Named Desire

A street car that defies description

They didn’t lie to us – not a spare court in the whole club

With the World Championship over, the afternoon was a far less formal affair, with the main combatants pairing up with Newport pros Tony Hollins and Josh Smith to play an exhibition doubles for us.

The lunch once again was very good and it gave us a chance to chat with some of the members, not least Paul, Chris, Noel, Ellen, Kelsey and Sarah who made us feel very welcome. We even met Sarah’s mum that afternoon.

The informal atmosphere enabled us to view some of the tennis from each of the Newport vantage points, which was a nice bonus.

By the time we got home for a rest ahead of the tournament dinner there was not much time, but still we (I) had a short rest and then we Ubered it to the Newport Beach House for the dinner.

We chatted with the young Lumley’s for a while over cocktails and then sat at a table for the meal with some very interesting people, including Jonathan Pardee to Janie’s right and an architect-regular-combatant of Jonathan’s to my left.

After dinner, we chatted with Freddy, Judith (Freddy’s mum) and Rob Lake for a while, until it dawned on us that we were almost the last people left around!

ROB: “let me tell you a thing or two about Ealing Lawn Tennis Club…“

Gosh it had been a tiring few days, but very enjoyable and interesting.

If you want to see yet more pictures from that day, yes really, here’s a Flickr link – and/or below:

US Trip 23 September to 8 October, Day Three: The Elms, The Tennis & The Moorings, Newport RI, 25 September 2025

Bend it like Camden

Another wet day.

With the pre-tennis match reception starting no earlier than 13:00 (we planned to arrive a little later than that) we had time to visit one of the nearer mansions, The Elms, during an ingeniously-picked break in the almost-relentless rain that morning.

Some of the regular houses on the way to the mansion were quite grand.

We found the inside of the mansion rather hideous in its ostentation and faux-baroque grandeur…

…although the kitchens and gardens made the visit seem very much worthwhile.

As seen in The Gilded Age, apparently.

We resolved to take in the other mansions, all of which must be similar in most ways, by dint of a well planned cliff and street walk the next day, weather permitting.

Despite not being drowned like rats that morning, we still freshened up and choose to Uber it to the Newport Club rather than risk getting soaked in our glad rags.

We enjoyed a fine lunch and then witnessed, from the Club Room, Camden Riviere winning the World Championship again by taking three of the day’s four sets to complete the task 7-1 in just two days.

Want to see more than just a couple of photos? You can see all of the play on our day by clicking the link below. You can occasionally see me and Janie sitting up in the top right hand corner of the club room:

John Lumley put up a fine fight on that second day. It was a great honour and privilege to attend that day and to be on the court itself to see the trophy presented.

John Lumley (above) came an honourable second on Day Two.

Tony Hollins rounded off the formalities

We returned to our apartment to change into more casual clothes, then went out to try a local restaurant with a good reputation for seafood – The Moorings. Obviously super-popular, even though it’s was out of season they had no tables, but could offer us full menu at the bar, which was very well appointed.

We ended up being served by a very interesting barman/maitre d, who seemed a bit suspicious of us at first, but once Janie asked him a question about the NFL football he became our best friend.

“Let me explain the offensive backfield in motion and offside penalty rules to you…”

Superb clam chowder and lobster rolls, with a fine Napa Valley Chardonnay. A very enjoyable evening.

We took a gazillion pictures that day. If you want to wade through all of that eye candy, then click the Flickr link here or below.

Real Tennis Skills Night & Club Nights At Lord’s, Some Really Real Tennis At Queen’s, Dedanist’s Lunch At Lemonia & Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinner In Holborn, November & December 2023

This photo and others from Skills Night by Conor Coley, with thanks

Skills Night At Lord’s 1 November 2023

Lord’s Skills Nights, now held twice-yearly, have become “my thing”, by dint of me, foolishly, offering to help back in 2019. Foolishly, because I thought “help” might mean adding a bit of extra resource to a well-managed thing, rather than, as it turned out, replacing the manager who used to manage the well-managed thing. Thank you, Johnny Whiting.

Still, in truth I enjoy managing it as much of not more than I enjoyed playing it. The curry and wine afterwards always was the highlight and I can certainly still participate in that aspect.

At least i get to curate the prize-giving, providing room for all manner of subsidiary prizes and opportunities to give away gimcrack.

Most Valuable Player Award – a millionaire every time

The Close But No Cigar Award

If you have an MCC login – everything you ever wanted to know about his event but were afraid to ask can be found here. In the unlikely event that someone else wants to read my match report in excruciating detail, click here.

Lord’s Club Nights, 16 November and 13 December 2023

By similar method, although slightly less formal, Steven Bishop managed to finesse a seemingly one-off request to “look after Club Night” for him on one occasion just before the pandemic, into “I’m basically not really in London midweek any more…” me looking after Club Night most months.

This informal evening can be curated while playing, which I very much enjoy doing on these occasions. We get a mixture of regulars and newbies. It is always possible to mix and match, to make the evening fun and good practice for most if not all who attend.

An Afternoon Watching Really Real Doubles At Queen’s, 17 November 2023

The only slot of the British Open that worked for me this year – I very much enjoyed a few hours at Queen’s watching proper real tennis doubles on Quarter-Finals afternoon. I saw Rob Fahey and Nicky Howell overcome Levi Gale & Lewis Williams, then John Lumley & Steve Virgona defeat Claire Fahey and Louis Gordon. A pleasant afternoon, during which time I ran into several people I know, which is more or less guaranteed if you go to see real tennis.

Dedanist’s Lunch At Lemonia Followed By Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinner At Spaghetti House Holborn, 14 December 2023

A Highlight of the real tennis year is the Dedanist’s seasonal lunch, at Lemonia. On this occasion I needed to be reasonably abstemious because OI was going on that evening to the annual Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinner afterwards.

But reasonably abstemious still allowed for a glass-and-a-half of wine, some tasty grub and excellent company.

The photo below from the Ivan Shakespeare, not The Dedanist’s.

Loadsa Real Tennis, Some Of It Me Playing At Lord’s, Then Some Really Real Tennis At Queen’s, 20 to 23 November 2019

20 November 2019 – Semi Final Of The HD Johns Cup

Dominic Flint and I qualified for the semi-final of the doubles in the Lord’s internal tournament for people of our grade.

Tony (left), Dominic (centre) & Yours Truly (right), at MURTC in spring

We’ve been practicing together a fair bit over the summer and autumn, and/but knew that we’d need to be at the top of our game for our fancied opponents; Gareth Zundel and Sebastian Wood.

We were quite excited to qualify for the semi-final. I haven’t played much competition sport since school, so this was my first semi-final since 1975. My 1975 fives semi-final did not go well; ironically on a day when England’s cricket semi also went sour

A Truly Thrice Awful Day In My School/Sporting Life, 18 June 1975

In short, I’ll have to wait a while longer before I win a semi. Dominic and I started poorly, losing the first four games. After that, we were in the hunt for the rest of the match, but it is a best of three set shootout, so when our opponents overcame our second set lead amd pipped us in the second set as well, that was that.

What do you mean, “you’d like to see the whole sorry affair pan out”? Surely not? What? Oh, Ok, then. It is just shy of an hour, so two parts:

I feel I learnt a lot from the process of getting to know each other’s games and working out a method as a pair. Dominic says he feels the same way, so I hope we get another opportunity to play a tournament together.

21 November 2019 – Club Night, Lord’s

The club has recently initiated a new idea, called club night, which is basically a turn up and play doubles evening with an element of eating and drinking for those who wish.

I love the idea and intend to be a regular attendee. But I was unable to make the first one, so wanted to make the effort to attend this second one, even though I wasn’t really up for the libations and dining side of it.

I got to play a couple of sets; early in the evening with some guys who were well above my pay grade; then latterly a really well-matched set which enabled me to reunite with James McDermott.

Me and James, at Hampton Court a few week’s earlier

In October I had briefly broken away from my partnership with Dominic to play a Dedanist’s representative match with James McDermott at Hampton Court – the first of three travelling matches in a report you may click here or below:

How I Lost My Virginity Three Times In Less Than A Week, Yet Didn’t Lose A Match, 10, 14 & 15 October 2019

James was playing very well in that successful Hampton Court match and has subsequently gone on to great things – not least qualifying for the final of the WH Ollis (singles).

It was good fun to have another go at doubles with James, although this time we came out second best in the tightest of tight sets.

I’m aiming to try and make club nights from now on; including keeping the early morning afterwards free if possible.

22 November 2019, A Couple Of British Open Doubles Quarter-Finals Matches, The Queen’s Club

I was keen to see some of the British Open at Queen’s this year. I chose the Singles semi-finals day to take Janie (that’s tomorrow) but also thought I’d take in some of the doubles (now that I am making strides in that format).

So I took the afternoon out to watch a couple of the matches and then drive on to Noddyland.

Here’s the first match I watched:

Darren Long, who has looked after me so well when I have visited Manchester, was on the wrong side of this match – a not unexpected result in the circumstances.

Between the two matches I watched, i popped into the restaurant/bar for a snack and ran into Darren there. He introduced me to Ben Taylor-Matthews (Leamington) and we had a pleasant chat before he shot off to get his train back to Manchester.

The second match, which included Ben Taylor-Matthews, was a fair bit closer and went the way of my new found friend. He was partnering Bryn Sayers, who i know from Queen’s, so I suppose I was rooting for the favourites for once. You don’t really do much partisan rooting when watching real tennis – more admiration for good rests and great shots:

23 November 2019, The British Open Singles Semi-Finals Matches, The Queen’s Club

After our traditional game of lawners in the morning, Janie and I headed off to The Queen’s Club in time to have a pleasant brunch before watching the singles semi-finals.

I wanted to show Janie how the game really ought to be played – surely she had suffered enough watching me a few times.

As it turned out, although Janie has known many Queensistas in her time and had been with me to see lawn tennis at Queen’s, she’d never actually been in the main building before.

I think that might be the tennis court, there…

Of course we bumped into people we knew, not least Tony Friend, Robin Simpson and Brian Sharp.

Brian is probably asking me if I have got my handicap below 60 yet.

I promised to show Janie around a bit during the break between the two matches, which I did reasonably successfully.

The first semi-final was between Rob Fahey (current world champion, long-time world No 1, now world No 2) and my new friend Ben Taylor-Matthews:

Rob Fahey looking supremely confident
Ben Taylor-Matthews gathering himself

I thought Ben put up some strong resistance before eventually succumbing, but when I saw him briefly afterwards he said he’d been disappointed by his performance.

The second match was a little more one-sided. I don’t think anyone was going to beat Camden Riviere this year:

Chris Chapman sporting electric blue shoes
While Camden wore red and one back shoe; some sort of statement?

Janie really enjoyed her day at Queen’s and even took an interest, the next day, encouraging me to put the streaming on the TV so we could see the semi-finals of the doubles.

The Queen’s Club is a lovely place to visit and my it looked resplendent as we left, even in the rain: