Tennis in Surrey Magazine 2016

“A couple of days ago we were
having a clean out after the sale
of our business late last year and I
was pleased to come upon a couple
of pewter beer mugs which my
father had won in Malaya between
the wars.
Closer inspection revealed
that contained within them
were a number of medals I had
accumulated as a boy whilst living
in England from March 1965 to
December 1971.
Boy did some memories come
back!
“I do hope that the youngsters
fortunate enough to earn these
titles are still awarded effectively
worthless (in monetary terms)
mementos like these.
Money is very soon gone as I am
well able to testify!
For the record my trove includes
the British Boy’s Championship
winner 1968 and Semi-Finalist
1967 (I may have lost to JPR
Williams perhaps), British Boy’s
16’s Champion 1966 (an all-Surrey
final as Paul Chevalier and I played
it – we share exactly the same
birth date) Surrey Boy’s Singles
Champion 1967 (the best match I
ever played I believe), Inter-County
Boy’s winners 1968 and Inter-
County Men’s winners 1971 (a
spoon), both the last two as part of
Surrey teams.
That they have survived
countless moves and three
marriages over the past 45 years
is some sort of miracle. The only
other possessions to have survived
anywhere near that long are my
hacksaw, purchased in 1975, and
an old splintered cricket
bat with which I whacked
a six into the Mound
Stand at Lord’s in July
1965 just two weeks after
my 15th birthday.
Anyway, I guess the
message is that these
little tokens carry
memories that last a
lifetime even though
they may seem of little
consequence at the
time they are awarded.
It is with a certain
smugness that I sit at my keyboard
on the Gold Coast in shorts and
bare feet a few yards from my 27
degrees C swimming pool whilst
imagining the whistling wind and
freezing early spring weather in
London.”
The Tennis Surrey team really
enjoyed reading about Fred’s
musings and asked if he had any
images from his time playing:
“As requested, this is about as
close as it gets, sadly the five years
since the first was taken have not
seen colour return to my summit
though I do at least retain the hair.
The second was taken at
Stanley St in Auckland circa 1975.
I remember it was early in the
season and the grass was dampish
and slippery. My opponent had an
enormous serve, but if one could
get it back, one had every chance
in the point. As I’d been playing on
asphalt during the winter the tread
on my shoes had worn and I had
trouble staying upright as I ducked
and dived about fielding his serve.
So I went barefoot which raised an
people
The Tennis in Surrey team has received a fantastic email from Fred Whitaker,
affectionately named ‘Fiery Fred’, in which he describes his memories of
playing tennis in the county as early as 1965…
‘Fiery’ Fred Whitaker :
Surrey tennis in 1965
eyebrow or two at the time.
I guess these days I’d have owned
several pairs of shoes but then
that picture wouldn’t have been
taken. I also recall my ‘Fiery Fred’
label. The best known of those
around that time was the famous
cricketer Fred Trueman, but it was
one of the names with which I was
encumbered.
I looked up an old tennis
opponent on Twitter and a
link came up with him and his
wife standing in front of an
honours board of County Junior
Champions. I recall a number
of the names from the Surrey
County Honours board of Junior
Champions,but a missing name is
John de Mendoza who was Junior
Champion of GB but not Surrey.
It was him I played in the final in
1967 when I reckon I played the
best match of my life.
It is flattering that
you were interested.”
Fred Whitaker
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