Eaton Bray Lawn Tennis Club

Posted on May 15, 2007

It's official - the Chiltern FM Black Thunder is coming to Eaton Bray!! After months of secret negotiations, wheeling and dealing, ducking and diving, I can reveal that the famous Thunder complete with crew of two from Chiltern FM will be joining us for a couple of hours at our Play Tennis Day at the School Lane courts on Saturday 16th June. From midday they'll be handing out freebies and joining in with the various tennis activities, whilst playing all our favourite tracks of the moment, hopefully something for everyone. Together with the free playing and coaching, games, competitions, equipment and clothing sale, BBQ, local MP Andrew Selous and half price membership for anyone joining on the day, it promises to be a day to remember, so do come up and join us and meet the Chiltern Black Thunder crew!

Talking of days to remember, our recent Spring Dance at the village hall was certainly an evening to remember. Tables covered with crisp white tablecloths and festooned with yellow and green helium balloons and ribbons, hosted over 100 people who enjoyed a scrumptious dinner, after which we were all treated to the largely '60s sound of Jim Balls and his Racquets (or is it Jim Racquets and his Balls, I can never remember..) who relentlessly strummed their way through virtually every recording featuring loud drumming that EMI ever produced. They made an exceptionally brave attempt at Oasis's 'Champagne SuperNova', and encouraged by the fact that no-one left, had a crack at U2s 'With or Without You' before moving mercifully back into their comfort zone of some more loud drumming. Nonetheless, the dance floor remained practically full for most of the evening so hats off to Jim and his band, they do know how to play a good gig ! A raffle followed a brief break in the drumming, during which the Chairman's wife won first prize (always happens; I think next time we'll just deliver the top prize to their house beforehand to save the hassle of bringing it down to the hall), before it was back to Jim's big band to close off the evening with some nice romantic slow numbers, with lots of drumming.

I can't close this week without mentioning that stalwart of British tennis, Greg Rusedski, who announced his retirement from the professional sport this week. He spent 12 years playing for Great Britain and reached a career best of being ranked number 4 in the world, as well as holding the fastest serve record for some years at 149mph, only recently beaten by Andy Roddick. Clearly our own Roy Cook's serve has never been officially measured on our courts, because that would certainly take the new record; I'd estimate his first serve must reach over 500mph but unfortunately they very rarely go in, and his second serve is around 4mph, so if you manage to avoid being hit by his first serve, which would almost certainly be the end of you, then you can watch him play his second serve, nip off for a cup of tea in the clubhouse, take the dog for a walk around the field and meander back to the court all in time to see the ball lethargically approaching the point where you may have to consider hitting it back. Games with Roy aren't rapid affairs. Mind you, my second serve is even slower, and we're purposely kept apart in the competitions because of the requirement to finish a game in the same week in which it was started.

For those interested in trivia, the longest singles match in recorded tennis history took place at the 2004 French Open when Fabrice Santoro defeated Arnaud Clement 6-4; 6-3; 6-7; 3-6; 16-14. The match lasted for 6 hours and 35 minutes of actual play, and was spread over 2 days due to it getting dark at the end of the first day!

For any further information about the club, including when we get together for our social tennis sessions up at the School Lane courts, or our various activities, please contact Chairman Ross Bagni.

Source: Focus, May 2007