Winter County Cup – Bath –

Friday 23^rd to Sunday 25th November 2007

This event was held at the very luxurious Bath University Sports Complex. I arrived very early on the Friday morning, so as to get ahead of the invading County Squads looking for immediate restrings. Without meaning to be cynical, some players will wait for me to restring their rackets at a County Week if their County will be picking up the restringing cost. So you could get someone arriving at 9am, no fresh rackets for a match at 9.30am and hoping that I can restring 3 rackets in a hurry for their match, a simple case of mistaken identity, thinking I am Superman.

I dragged all the equipment onto the viewing balcony where I had been told I was to be positioned. I set things up beside the other three stringing machines already there, presumable for use by the local coaches. I moved their machines to one side, placed my Babolat Star 4 so as not to be in the way of anyone, obtained a small table for the stringing log, grips, stationery etc, all the time telling players and coaches that I would be ready to start restringing their rackets in 10 mins.

I was just about to start logging in some rackets that needed to be done in a hurry, when I noticed that I had not yet connected the power lead to the Babolat and then something lit up in my two brain cells – there was no power sockets! The other three machines were manual, one Prince Neos, One Pro’s Pro and one Gamma Progression.

Now surrounded by about ten rackets, no paperwork filled in and that 10 mins long gone, I had to look for another place to work from. I eventually found a suitable place half way along the balcony and it took me about 20 mins to get it all set up again, not a good start to the long day ahead.

The first day is always the busiest for obvious reasons. If I was at a normal tournament, when overloaded with rackets, all I would do is refer to the Order Of Play and prioritise the work accordingly. Match rackets come ahead of those needed for practice and then in order of the earlier matches and so on. With County Cup, I had no way of intelligently working out what players would be on first as Team Captains would hang onto their selection list as long as possible. If you asked the player when he actually NEEDED the racket, the answer was always NOW, so a waste of asking!

The rackets went along quite well on the first day, average time would have been around 20+ mins, including the admin, dashing to the café for the odd coffee and some green Kryptonite as I was working like Superman. I had a total of 30 rackets and did 27, leaving 3 for Sat morning. About 20% of players needed a supply of string, many needed advice for switching from a manual to an electronic machine and over 90% of strings were the dreaded polyester, including TF Redcode, Big Banger, Bab Prohurricane, Tennis Tech Match Pro and Dunlop Dynamite. On the nylon synthetics, some Tennis Tech syngut, Dunlop Mfil, Fischer Protournamant and Bow Brand T2000. I supplied one set of Babolat VS Team 1.25mm to Colin Beecher from Kent who was using a Dunlop 200, which he got from Greg Rusedski. Colin thought that they were a bit heavy, so I weighed them both. Although Colin had already removed some lead tape from the 3 and 9’o clock position, they still weighed in at a heavy 362gms. I removed the Tournagrip and Yonex leather grip and as I suspected there was another 10gms of lead at the base of the pallet. I removed the lead, reapplied the leather grip as it had been wrapped for a leftie (Rusedski) and the racket then felt a lot better to Colin for his doubles, where a manoeuverable racket is a requirement. At the end of the balcony was a window looking into a purpose built dojo, where some National Squad judoka were practising hard, under the watchful eye of a Japanese Sensei. Judo was a big part of my life for about 25 years and it was an added bonus to me, to see this high level of judo again. If only I had a young body again ..

Saturday arrived and unfortunately nobody was allowed into the complex until 9am, although they took pity on me at 8.40am and I got stuck into the 3 rackets before grabbing an early coffee. Julie Piper, the Event Director introduced me to a new LTA person, Bill Mountford from the US. Bill is the new Head Of Coach Relations & Competitions and was visiting to get an inside view on what was happening at County level tennis. He hails from New Jersey and we chatted about many aspects of GB tennis, including Davis Cup stringing, polyester strings/tension, and coach education. Looks like the UKRSA will be supplying some racket servicing articles for the coaches regular newsletters.

As each day came and went, so more rackets came in and there was no discernible change in selected tensions. Players were happy with their choices, although I had an unusual high number of late minute jobs and on-court rush jobs. Seems players of all abilities cannot count how many rackets there are in their bag.

Looking back on the three days of matches, I think that the players really enjoy this level. Many of them will have met many times over and with being immersed in a Team role, much of the stress is removed.

Doubles were particularly enjoyable to watch and I often wonder if one or two of the better players had ever bothered to turn professional, would they have made the grade. Now and then I spotted a regular Tour player and I expected them to win easily, but they were often eclipsed by a good County player. Best not to mention names here!

Bath University has sporting facilities that are just about the best I have ever seen outside of a National Sports Centre, so a great tennis location and great staff to support it within the centre.

Julie kindly invited me to join her and Bill Perkins the Referee for a meal at Raphaels restaurant on the Saturday evening, right in the middle of historic Bath. When we sat down, Julie said that she had just completed a total of 27 years in the LTA, to which Bill replied “That’s uncanny, I have completed 27 years in ICI” To which I replied “That’s amazing, I have completed 27 years in the Prison Service!”

So now the “27 Years Club” has been formed.