Tag: Rob Shenkman

An Afternoon & Evening At The Queen’s Club Watching The British Open & Dining With The Prossers, 22 November 2024

A very kind invitation from Richard Prosser, my oftentimes doubles partner for The Dedanists…

A Couple Of Special Afternoons & Evenings At The Queen’s Club With The Dedanists’ Society, 8 & 24 May 2024

…to join him for an afternoon watching quality doubles at The British Open, followed by dinner, with Janie and Geraldine joining us for the grub bit.

Richard secured us front row seats in the dedans gallery, where we saw the following quarter-finals:

  • Rob Fahey & Steve Virgona v Louis Gordon & Rob Shenkman;
  • Tim Chisholm & Camden Riviere v Vaughan Hamilton & John Woods-Casey.

On arrival, I ran into a great many real tennis friends – many of whom I know from Lord’s. Indeed, Richard and I estimated that, at the start of that afternoon session, there were more MCC members than Queen’s members watching!

Janie made good time getting to Queen’s for dinner, so was able to join us for the last 20-30 minutes of the second match we saw.

Feeling envious that you didn’t see those matches? Or wondering what they looked like? Or wanting to refresh your memory? Here are the highlights reels for those two matches. I recall a great many highlights in fact, so the reels might not have captured them all:

The food at The Queen’s Club is very, very good these days – it has certainly come on a long way, catering-wise, since the 1990’s:

Lawn Tennis At Queen’s, In Which I Inadvertently Deployed Gamesmanship Masterfully, Yet Still Lost, 24 June 1999

Richard had not yet met Janie before and neither Janie nor I had previously met Geraldine. It was a great pleasure to spend an evening with those two, eating good food and chatting about all sorts.

Janie and I continued to get pleasure from this event for the rest of the weekend. The doubles semi-finals were on the Sunday and once we had decided to have a quick peep at those on the stream, we were hooked. The first of the semi-finals in particular was a humdinger:

Janie and I also felt quite smug about our modern tennis experience that weekend. Although the weather was shocking, we found a gap in the weather each day to have a decent enough game of “lawners” outdoors.

But the prevailing good feeling from the weekend was that most enjoyable late afternoon and evening on the Friday with Richard & Geraldine Prosser.

An Afternoon At Hampton Court Palace Watching Real Tennis Champions Trophy Quarter-Finals, 2 August 2024

I chose a beautiful afternoon to down tools early and drive out to Hampton Court Palace to see some quality tournament real tennis.

I hatched the idea several weeks earlier, when Janie was called for jury service that week and the next. At that time, June, the weather was cold and we’d had more than our fair share of rain. I thought of this booking as a bit of a hedge against my summer sports watching being rain-blighted.

As it turned out, none of my chosen June/July tennis and cricket watching was so blighted and 2 August was destined to be a seriously hot day.

I watched the first of that afternoon’s two matches from the sauna that was the dedans gallery: Nino Merola v Nick Howell. Here is the highlights reel:

In the break between matches, I ran into Linda, whom I know through the Dedanists and have even partnered on one occasion. She was stewarding. When I mentioned the heat, she pointed out that the upper gallery places had barely sold and that I would be welcome to watch the second match from those less crowded and cooler giddy heights. It turned out to be excellent advice, both for me and also to relieve some pressure on the heaving dedans gallery.

I enjoyed the views from the upper gallery – initially (before the match started) the external views:

Then from the inside, the view of the match itself. I have viewed from the hazard end before (at Prested) but never from a great height like this:

Rob Shenkman v Ben Taylor-Matthews, it was. Ben depicted above. Here is the highlights reel:

It was a most enjoyable afternoon. The choice of a Friday afternoon in early August made sense in the end, as the drive to Noddyland was a doddle compared with the usual rush hour jam home from Hampton Court.