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.
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.
