Sat 7th Aug,
2004:
The Willstrops
at Wimbledon
As a general rule, I don’t like exhibition matches. But I must say, the
Willstrops know how to entertain.
On a very warm Saturday evening, Mr Willstrop Senior, Mr
Willstrop Junior, and Nick Taylor (who Malcolm introduced as
“from Lancashire”, stressing the huge gap between Yorkshire and the rest
of the world…) came to Wimbledon Racquets and Fitness Club to
entertain a select crowd who had the good taste to prefer the hot
atmosphere of a squash club to the delights of a warm summer evening
outside a café in Wimbledon Village.
Let me tell you, we were in for a treat!
Willstrop Senior started by explaining to us the programme of the evening,
then introduced the players (“Nick Taylor, now the advancing years are
catching up with him”…, and “James Willstrop, an extraordinarily well-bred
young man…”).James and Nick started with a quick warm up, commented by Malcolm. Then
the coach gave them some routines, with the instruction “hit low, and
close to the wall” and charming comments like “well, that’s not very good,
is it?”.
There was one exercise I particularly liked, it was “no shots in the
centre”, you know, you can only play near the walls… Loved that one! And
boy, you can still play a lot of shots in such a small target. When you’re
good that is…
Then two players from the Club joined in, Phil Rushmore, the new
pro, who was Nick Taylor’s team mate from Heaton, and Neil Desai, a
very promising junior.
Malcolm gave his players some handicaps, like, can only play straight, or
only crosscourt, and those conditioned games balanced the levels of
course, and offered us some beautiful rallies indeed!
A nice doubles to follow, and to finish, the two champions treating us to
two games then a first to three points decider, that of course went to
3-2. To whom? It doesn’t matter that much, does it?
But the evening was far from over…
After a few questions/answers, a quick shower, a bite to eat, James
grabbed his guitar, and spoiled us with a few gorgeous songs, with a
lovely, sensitive, intelligent voice.
If I hadn’t been already madly in love with the boy, that would have done
it…
Joking apart, I had the best of times, and so did all the people there.
Yes, really a lovely time…
Thank you… |
Malcolm starts the evening
|
During the evening, I discovered
Malcolm as a "compere", a role I never
saw him play before.
And let me tell you, he is darn
good at it. Yes, darn good.
Another string to his bow...
|
Question and Answer
The multi-talented James |
