County Champion Simon Roberts, picture right.
When I found Simon Roberts, at a short tennis demonstration at his then school (The Oaks Primary School in Bolton, Lancashire), it was like finding gold. He had the gift, and after my demo I scribbled 'your son is a tennis natural' on the slip of paper, which he took home to his parents.
Fortunately for Simon, his parents were (and are) the salt of the earth and backed him in every way they could. But with financial assistance, I have no doubt that Simon would've made the top 200 (perhaps he still could); possibly higher. However, what personal price he would've paid, if he'd left home to hit balls to the exclusion of all else, in one of those hideous Florida workhouses, we'll never know.
Apart from a token financial gesture, from the honourable Mark Petchey, who always seemed too decent a guy for the political manoeuvrings within the LTA (and the only British tennis commentator worth listening to), and Bolton Arena's Jim Edgar, who made sure Simon never wanted for a practice court or a squad, Simon's efforts were funded entirely by a father who worked night shifts for the Post Office.
By
contrast, I wonder how much the LTA has spent on Alex Bogdanovich over
the years? Or how much has David Felgate and Jeremy Bates have profited
from the LTA coffers? And the army of nodding donkeys on the LTA payroll?
All God's children and jolly nice people, I'm sure. But not the type you'd
find working for a Registered Charity if the money and the hours weren't so
darn good.
Or, to put it another way, you wouldn't see their backsides for dust if the
word 'charity' regained something of its original meaning.
Those who used to run the Lancashire County Junior Tennis Tournament when it was held at Southport, the Brothertons in particular, all seemed like very decent people and I've no doubt they have given good service. But we had completely different views of what tennis is and what sport could be. The Southport event had the air of a WRVS garden party about it, and the artificial grass surface that was used, until they made the move to the Bolton Arena, was a joke. I mean, where else in the world of tennis would you find a tournament played on such an obsolete surface, which was alien to the majority of juniors in the tournament?
The impressive Bolton Arena tennis centre was funded out of a number of pots and built for the Commonwealth Games, and when the Regional LTA made a home at the Arena it had indoor hard courts and six superb (and rare) European clay courts outside. However, it wasn't long before the four of the six true clay courts were dug up to make way for all weather pitches, and all that remains of Dave Sammel and the Regional LTA crew now are 'LTA reserved' slots on the car park.
Bolton
Arena over the school holidays is a hive of sporting activity for youngsters
and the junior tennis courses suggest that someone finally has a plan.
It just seems a pity that one wasn't formulated while they still had
a full quota of world class clay courts to fill, or that the LTA couldn't
offload a few free-loaders and fund the courts usage on a tennis-for-all
basis.
But then tennis-for-all was never their ethos...and I sometimes wonder whether
it was worth making it mine. To borrow a classic line of another Lancashire
coach, the ever-pragmatic John Schofield, I might've been better sticking with
'those who turn up on time, pay up on time and **** off home on time!'.
In the main picture (toggle 'writing' and 'image' buttons above) Simon looks like he's just hatched out of an egg. But he was probably nine or ten years old by the time of this picture and already hitting balls on my adult group tennis lessons.
Simon and our little family group of Boltonians spent the lion's share of the next ten years on tennis courts in varying states, until I got fed up of p*ssing in the wind... and waiting for him to grow, because other Lancashire County players like Ken Skupsky and Andrew Davies only beat him in the County Championships because they were twice as big!
Liverpool's Ken Skupsky is up around the 500 mark in the ATP world rankings and doing pretty well in the doubles. But I've been told Ken is sponsored by the wealthy Norwegian businessman, and promoter of the Liverpool International tennis tournament at Balderstones Park, Anders Borg. And that kind of backing makes a difference.
Last
year Simon won British Tour tournaments in Cardiff and Doncaster and
he beat Marcus Willis 6-1 6-3, in the final of the Bolton Arena British
Tour event in March 2009. He has also played ranking tournaments in India
and beyond, and rose to an ATP world ranking of around 700 (which in
football terms would earn him a minimum six figure salary in a Premier
League squad). If further proof of ability were needed,
at the 2009 Liverpool tennis tournament at Balderstones Park, Simon was
a set all and had match points against Mardy Fish (ranked
in the world's top 30 and seeded 28 at Wimbledon). The Liverpool crowd
really took to Simon's determination and at the end of the match, the
tournament MC asked Simon on-mic if he'd considered returning to the
tour. The bottom line is he couldn't afford to return to the tour, and,
as Simon didn't get paid to play in Liverpool and was entertaining the
local crowd for free, a far more interesting question would've been this:
'How much did it cost you to play in the Liverpool International tournament?'
The answer is a week's wages of cancelled coaching back in Bolton.
Taking
a set of Mardy Fish is quite an achievement, considering Simon is a part
time player who fits in tournaments when he can. He is also one of the
nicest guys you'll ever meet, which hopefully means we got the balance
of sport and life right.
And because sport is evermore guilty of creating arrogant, selfish monsters,
I'm far more proud of contributing to the latter than the former.
tennis
for all
County Champion Simon Roberts, picture right.
When I found Simon Roberts, at a short tennis demonstration at his then school (The Oaks Primary School in Bolton, Lancashire), it was like finding gold. He had the gift, and after my demo I scribbled 'your son is a tennis natural' on the slip of paper, which he took home to his parents.
Fortunately for Simon, his parents were (and are) the salt of the earth and backed him in every way they could. But with financial assistance, I have no doubt that Simon would've made the top 200 (perhaps he still could); possibly higher. However, what personal price he would've paid, if he'd left home to hit balls to the exclusion of all else, in one of those hideous Florida workhouses, we'll never know.
Apart from a token financial gesture, from the honourable Mark Petchey, who always seemed too decent a guy for the political manoeuvrings within the LTA (and the only British tennis commentator worth listening to), and Bolton Arena's Jim Edgar, who made sure Simon never wanted for a practice court or a squad, Simon's efforts were funded entirely by a father who worked night shifts for the Post Office.
By
contrast, I wonder how much the LTA has spent on Alex Bogdanovich over
the years? Or how much has David Felgate and Jeremy Bates have profited
from the LTA coffers? And the army of nodding donkeys on the LTA payroll?
All God's children and jolly nice people, I'm sure. But not the type you'd
find working for a Registered Charity if the money and the hours weren't so
darn good.
Or, to put it another way, you wouldn't see their backsides for dust if the
word 'charity' regained something of its original meaning.
Those who used to run the Lancashire County Junior Tennis Tournament when it was held at Southport, the Brothertons in particular, all seemed like very decent people and I've no doubt they have given good service. But we had completely different views of what tennis is and what sport could be. The Southport event had the air of a WRVS garden party about it, and the artificial grass surface that was used, until they made the move to the Bolton Arena, was a joke. I mean, where else in the world of tennis would you find a tournament played on such an obsolete surface, which was alien to the majority of juniors in the tournament?
The impressive Bolton Arena tennis centre was funded out of a number of pots and built for the Commonwealth Games, and when the Regional LTA made a home at the Arena it had indoor hard courts and six superb (and rare) European clay courts outside. However, it wasn't long before the four of the six true clay courts were dug up to make way for all weather pitches, and all that remains of Dave Sammel and the Regional LTA crew now are 'LTA reserved' slots on the car park.
Bolton
Arena over the school holidays is a hive of sporting activity for youngsters
and the junior tennis courses suggest that someone finally has a plan.
It just seems a pity that one wasn't formulated while they still had
a full quota of world class clay courts to fill, or that the LTA couldn't
offload a few free-loaders and fund the courts usage on a tennis-for-all
basis.
But then tennis-for-all was never their ethos...and I sometimes wonder whether
it was worth making it mine. To borrow a classic line of another Lancashire
coach, the ever-pragmatic John Schofield, I might've been better sticking with
'those who turn up on time, pay up on time and **** off home on time!'.
In the main picture (toggle 'writing' and 'image' buttons above) Simon looks like he's just hatched out of an egg. But he was probably nine or ten years old by the time of this picture and already hitting balls on my adult group tennis lessons.
Simon and our little family group of Boltonians spent the lion's share of the next ten years on tennis courts in varying states, until I got fed up of p*ssing in the wind... and waiting for him to grow, because other Lancashire County players like Ken Skupsky and Andrew Davies only beat him in the County Championships because they were twice as big!
Liverpool's Ken Skupsky is up around the 500 mark in the ATP world rankings and doing pretty well in the doubles. But I've been told Ken is sponsored by the wealthy Norwegian businessman, and promoter of the Liverpool International tennis tournament at Balderstones Park, Anders Borg. And that kind of backing makes a difference.
Last
year Simon won British Tour tournaments in Cardiff and Doncaster and
he beat Marcus Willis 6-1 6-3, in the final of the Bolton Arena British
Tour event in March 2009. He has also played ranking tournaments in India
and beyond, and rose to an ATP world ranking of around 700 (which in
football terms would earn him a minimum six figure salary in a Premier
League squad). If further proof of ability were needed,
at the 2009 Liverpool tennis tournament at Balderstones Park, Simon was
a set all and had match points against Mardy Fish (ranked
in the world's top 30 and seeded 28 at Wimbledon). The Liverpool crowd
really took to Simon's determination and at the end of the match, the
tournament MC asked Simon on-mic if he'd considered returning to the
tour. The bottom line is he couldn't afford to return to the tour, and,
as Simon didn't get paid to play in Liverpool and was entertaining the
local crowd for free, a far more interesting question would've been this:
'How much did it cost you to play in the Liverpool International tournament?'
The answer is a week's wages of cancelled coaching back in Bolton.
Taking
a set of Mardy Fish is quite an achievement, considering Simon is a part
time player who fits in tournaments when he can. He is also one of the
nicest guys you'll ever meet, which hopefully means we got the balance
of sport and life right.
And because sport is evermore guilty of creating arrogant, selfish monsters,
I'm far more proud of contributing to the latter than the former.
