SPORTS YEARBOOK 2011 (Including the 2009-2010 Review

was that it offered the opportunity
to work at Wimbledon during The
Championships. Better still, the job
was to operate the Centre Court
“manual” scoreboard. This was my
first taste of Wimbledon - being
paid to sit on Centre Court, do a
little work and to watch my tennis
heroes up close – how good was
that. My best moments during
those times were to play my small
part in scoring the finals when
Bjorn Borg won in 1976 & 1977
and Virginia Wade in 1977.
I left Cambridge in 1977 with an
honours degree in Mathematics
and three successive wins over
Oxford in varsity tennis, the final
10 Sports Yearbook 2011
year as Captain of the team. I also
had the opportunity to represent
the combined Oxford &
Cambridge tennis team that
played against Harvard & Yale in
the ‘Prentice Cup’ in USA in 1976.
My mother was definitely right –
tennis and maths… in that order!
Tennis and maths didn’t stop
there. After graduation I trained
and qualified as an actuary and
have spend the past thirty years
working in the profession, firstly in
reinsurance and subsequently in
financial consultancy. I continued
to play tennis for Yorkshire, but
also started to try to give back to
the sport by involving myself in
tennis ‘administration’. For fifteen
years I was the Treasurer of the
International Lawn Tennis Club of
GB and for the past thirteen years I
have been a committee member
of the All England Club.
I have learned a lot about
Wimbledon in my time as a
committee member.There have
also been some memorable
moments. One of my highlights
has to be when I took Goran
Ivanisevic for his post-match press
interview after he won the Mens’
Singles Championship in 2001.
Here he was, a 30 year old wildcard
entry with little chance of
progressing through the