Blessed by sport

Love of sport is woven into the fabric of my long life. In my close family there were outstanding sportsmen so ever since I was very young I heard about sport and was informed about the history and heroes of cricket, football, tennis, athletics and all the rest and was encouraged to participate myself. It did not seem to me then that life could be fully lived without a love of games and it is no different now that I am on the verge of 90.

For a long time I loved the physical, adrenalin-rush of playing to win for self and country. For nearly fifty years I played tennis and then squash competitively – years containing a wealth of pain and glory, nerve-wracking tension and pure joy, despair and excitement, fun and furious disappointment also.