From: The Racketeer 35, December 1999
The Wimbledon Experience
Save the Children National Tennis Tournament at the All England Club, Wimbledon
by Brad Payne & Adam Richardson
FOR MANY tennis players the thought of competing at the All England Club is merely a dream, yet for the fortunate partnership of Richardson and Payne the dream was realised on a glorious autumn morning in October. However the quest to play at Wimbledon was not smooth going and was possibly more eventful than the Wimbledon experience.
The initial 'solid' Mapperley Park team entered for the National Save The Children Tennis Tournament held at the Tennis Centre comprised Duncan, Hamish, Adam, and Brad. Even the organisers thought the Mapperley Park team were destined to win the round robin style tournament, but due to injury the infamous Hamish was replaced by a kiddo. Although the kiddo was keen and less cheeky than Hamish, the Mapperley Park team, even with the support of their groupies (Anita & Cynthia), could not match the game scores of Eastwood. Disappointment was felt by all, though Mapperley Park should be proud as the team raised the most funds through sponsorship (about £300).
All was not lost for Adam and Brad, who after coming so close to qualifying were determined to try again, this time competing to win the Derby tournament held at the Derby 'mini' indoor tennis centre. The word 'tournament' should be used with caution as to our amazement the other competitors were yet another Eastwood team (former finalists of Save the Children Tournament). A round robin event would have been difficult and therefore a three set match was played.
Focused we were not. Adam had recently returned from America and apart from being jet lagged was still overwhelmed by meeting Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and friends. This was obvious as a few minutes after the warm up, we had already lost the first set 6-1. The second set started just as badly, yet we managed to scrape back to 6-6 and battle away in a tiebreak. Luckily, and it was luck, the tiebreak went our way. We had finally made our presence felt, but confident we were not and once again found ourselves 5-1 down in the final set, with Eastwood serving for the match and their bags already packed to go. Sound familiar?
Now, from this point onwards we are not too sure what happened. Possibly more focused? Possibly our determination in not wanting to lose was greater than our opponents desire to win? Or possibly, as Adam would say we 'whupped ass!' Anyway we won five consecutive games without losing a point and kept focused in the last game to win a place in the finals to be held at Wimbledon on the 16th October. We were delighted!
A farewell party planned in a funky little bar on Fulham Road with ShaZtastic (Brad's sister) and friends had already made sure the weekend of the 16th October would be a momentous one. However this is a different story and far too saucy for the eyes of the Racketeer's more genteel readers.
Equipped with new tennis whites at a discounted price, with special thanks to Cynthia and Adrian Coles, the Richardson and Payne partnership were ready to compete at Wimbledon. However, two days prior to the finals, Brad was unfortunately struck down with flu, and even with max strength power caps was unable to do much apart from snivel.
The Wimbledon finals, similar to the Nottingham event, involved a round robin with 12 finalists, six pairs in each group. All matches were played on the Wimbledon clay courts, which for the enthusiast are located behind the grass show court number 13. Our first match was against last year's winners, who although were of a reasonable standard, could certainly be beaten. Adam's account of the match was 'Brad... why don't you move? Why don't you hit the ball over the net?' Some things are not curable, and the effects of flu and the drugs were not helping. Even with the support of the Richardson and Payne families, defeat in the first match was imminent.
The second match was a little different. Matched against two old timers we won a convincing victory. In fact any team pairing at Mapperley Park would have won this match, however it felt good to win a few games on the Wimbledon turf with the famous centre court and Rolex clock in view, and not forgetting the pretty young ball girls who were darting around in their short, red minis. The third match flew by (defeated by the eventual winners), however we kept face by winning our remaining two matches. Unfortunately, as expected, three wins out of five was not good enough to qualify for the next round, but it meant we could relax and explore the Wimbledon grounds.
We were able to use the players' changing room for court number 2. It was massive. A little dated, yet fully equipped with showers, baths and personal lockers, it served the players who are not quite good enough for centre or number one court. Naughtily our names have been added to the locker list in preparation for Mapperley Park returning next year!
Above all it was a splendid day and although our performance was below average we thank Mapperley Park Tennis Club for their support and thoroughly recommend the funky little bar on Fulham Road to cure colds and drown one's sorrows of defeat.