Rob McLean - Finally a victory for Tim Henman
While Andy Murray made a fine start to his challenge at the end-of-season
championships at the 02 Arena on Sunday, his predecessor as the great hope of
British tennis has won his own personal duel in the commentary box.
Game, TV set and match to Tim Henman whose
summarising has been preferred to that of 1970s golden boy
John 'legs' Lloyd who, according to a tabloid last week, was extremely upset at
being left out of the BBC commentary team.
BEEB only had room for two - Andrew Castle and Tim - alongside hostess
Sue Barker and it was Lloyd, the Davis Cup captain, who had to
go.
Unintentionally, I am sure, Henman appears to be
making a habit of putting fellow commentators' noses out of joint. Jimmy
Connors, was just beginning to get into the swing of things alongside John
McEnroe when Tim retired and promptly got the American's job.
This was probably
one of the few battles that Connors, who won 106 titles in his career, has
lost.
But it seems former British players and jobs for the boys – and girls –
are a fait accompli.
The formula is simple. Do the brave Brit loses in five-sets
bit and then bingo - the cheque's in the post.
Some, of course, achieved great things in their playing days. Dan 'Oh
I say, what a dream of a pass' Maskell, got the
ball rolling and the
former Davis Cup coach became the voice of British tennis from 1949 to 1991.
Likewise, John 'virtual match point' Barrett, was a fine Davis Cup
player in the 1950s but I remember
him for his irritating trait of
writing someone off too early only to see that player fight back to win.
Connors
against Mikael Pernfors at Wimbledon in 1987 and then Paul Haarhuis in New York
in 1991, are a couple of examples when Barrett was left with egg on his
face.
In recent years there has been a
queue of British players for the microphone as long as the one for Wimbledon
tickets. Barker, French Open winner, anchors the BBC coverage and Virginia
Wade, our 1977 Wimbledon champion, does TV and radio work.
Barker is very good
but can someone tell her that if they cut out the incessant, inane laughter on
Question of Sport there would be more time for, er, questions.
The remainder of British players
appear to have landed plum jobs on the back of glorious failures, mainly at
Wimbledon.
Castle's claim to fame was leading Mats Wilander by two sets
at the All England Club; Chris Bailey had a match point against Goran
Ivanisevic; while
Barry Cowan took Pete Sampras to five sets; Mark Petchey eventually
made his name as Murray's coach.
Annabel Croft and Sam Smith are
doing fine jobs as well but rarely troubled the scorers in their careers.
To be
fair, Greg Rusedski did reach
the US Open final and he has been grinning all the way to the bank ever
since.
However, everyone defers to
adopted Brat, sorry I mean Brit, John McEnroe, who has gone from BBC bete noir
of the 1980s to top man who
can do no wrong.
Just look how Mac's colleagues fall about in his presence and
hang on his every word. Well, I suppose no one wants to get on his wrong side.
BRIT WATCH: Roger Draper was on the radio today banging on, again, how
brilliant the state of British tennis is in this country. Probably getting
carried away with the euphoria of hosting the ATP World Championships. The LTA
chief executive should remember that Serbia, population 7.3million, has
three male players in top 50 and two recent former women's world No1s.
Britain, 51.5m population,
has Murray and then BELGRADE-born Alex Bogdanovic, at
175.
READ ROB MCLEAN EXCLUSIVELY AT TENNIS.CO.UK EVERY TUESDAY
Date published :
24 Nov 2009 - 10:15:58
