That's very interesting. I am sure Ken Fletcher's' doubles partner's appreciated his supreme confidence, and it would have helped him become one of the world's best Grand Slam doubles titles champions.
I really loved reading about Kenny telling the 'security guards' in the casino basement at 4am to "get out of our way!", as he was due to play on Centre Court tomorrow and if anything happened to him it would be front page news and the police would have to take action .
Well London was certainly interesting in the swinging 60’s. The photo of the young women in their bright mini dresses reminded me of what I wore in that era in Brisbane. They were all the rave here.
I went to London in 2008 and I was amazed at the huge parks so close to the city. Your writing does bring back memories of one’s own life in that era.
Yeah, my sisters and I were talking about the clothes and remembered a multi-coloured mini we all wore as hand-me-downs after the oldest sister; it was in shades of turquoise and swirls of cobalt and blue, just like on the photo at the top of the story, with a Nehru collar, A-Line, made of a sort of polyester I think. In that dolly-bird era, if you were in a really short miniskirt you would tone down the shoes and hair, hoping you didn't look like a tart!
When I was a teenager in the 1970s, we were "chicks". Perhaps it's because girls together enjoying life sound like songbirds twittering, giggling, chatting. Just a thought.
As the Poms would say, What a wheeze! How bright and optimistic those Carnaby Street young women look, eager for the future as Britain still slowly recovers from the War. You can imagine the blokes also dressing in that peacock style of the 1960s, where today's dull regimented suits would have looked so so out of place. Twiggy's sling-back low-heeled shoes are especially interesting compared with the stupid disenfranchising stiletto high heels today. As for the cheating at casinos, I reckon you're lucky it wasn't one owned by the Kray twins...they might have let your famous tennis friend go, and broken your arms!
You're not far wrong. When I was in London one of the huge-selling papers carried a cartoon showing the inside of a typical British pub with a dart board on the wall. But instead of a dart sitting in the bullseye there was a huge tomahawk and one of the customers says: "Uh Oh, the Kray Twins have arrived for a drink".
Steve, I was just lucky to be travelling with Ken Fletcher from Annerley Junction in the 1960s. Because he had been seeded No. 3 at Wimbledon he mixed with all the famous people in London -- who I suppose wondered who I was!
Stephen, mid 1970s sounds good to me. I went to London in 1992, to find Waterloo Station, Queensland House, and Dickens' Lincolns Inn Field filled with poor homeless people. Which I guess was rather Dickensian, so I shouldn't complain. Wish we had 42 acre historic clubs in Australia, though, come to think of it, I couldn't afford to be a member.
One of my London readers replied by email today that he'd been at Hurlingham Club three weeks ago to watch a cricket match. He described it as "a genuine country club ... but in the middle of London". That's the surprising and wonderful thig about London -- giant parks in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world -- yet in Austlralian cities we think something with goalposts is a park.
No John, on Bali there were no Cherry Ripes.
That's very interesting. I am sure Ken Fletcher's' doubles partner's appreciated his supreme confidence, and it would have helped him become one of the world's best Grand Slam doubles titles champions.
I wish I was at that feast.
I really loved reading about Kenny telling the 'security guards' in the casino basement at 4am to "get out of our way!", as he was due to play on Centre Court tomorrow and if anything happened to him it would be front page news and the police would have to take action .
Rod Laver's doubles partner Jimmy Shepherd described Fletch a couple of years ago as "the most confident human being I ever met".
Well London was certainly interesting in the swinging 60’s. The photo of the young women in their bright mini dresses reminded me of what I wore in that era in Brisbane. They were all the rave here.
I went to London in 2008 and I was amazed at the huge parks so close to the city. Your writing does bring back memories of one’s own life in that era.
Yeah, my sisters and I were talking about the clothes and remembered a multi-coloured mini we all wore as hand-me-downs after the oldest sister; it was in shades of turquoise and swirls of cobalt and blue, just like on the photo at the top of the story, with a Nehru collar, A-Line, made of a sort of polyester I think. In that dolly-bird era, if you were in a really short miniskirt you would tone down the shoes and hair, hoping you didn't look like a tart!
Definitely a Dolly-bird era!!
Isn't it a funny name. When you think about it.
Dolly-bird summed up the girls in Carnaby Street back then -- when girls were called "birds". I don't know why that was. Can anyone enlighten?
When I was a teenager in the 1970s, we were "chicks". Perhaps it's because girls together enjoying life sound like songbirds twittering, giggling, chatting. Just a thought.
As the Poms would say, What a wheeze! How bright and optimistic those Carnaby Street young women look, eager for the future as Britain still slowly recovers from the War. You can imagine the blokes also dressing in that peacock style of the 1960s, where today's dull regimented suits would have looked so so out of place. Twiggy's sling-back low-heeled shoes are especially interesting compared with the stupid disenfranchising stiletto high heels today. As for the cheating at casinos, I reckon you're lucky it wasn't one owned by the Kray twins...they might have let your famous tennis friend go, and broken your arms!
Gee, I never thought of that! Anyway we never went back there again -- so they achieved their object.
You're not far wrong. When I was in London one of the huge-selling papers carried a cartoon showing the inside of a typical British pub with a dart board on the wall. But instead of a dart sitting in the bullseye there was a huge tomahawk and one of the customers says: "Uh Oh, the Kray Twins have arrived for a drink".
So envious you experienced London in the sixties. Closest I came was the mid-seventies. Nowhere near as exciting.
Steve, I was just lucky to be travelling with Ken Fletcher from Annerley Junction in the 1960s. Because he had been seeded No. 3 at Wimbledon he mixed with all the famous people in London -- who I suppose wondered who I was!
Stephen, mid 1970s sounds good to me. I went to London in 1992, to find Waterloo Station, Queensland House, and Dickens' Lincolns Inn Field filled with poor homeless people. Which I guess was rather Dickensian, so I shouldn't complain. Wish we had 42 acre historic clubs in Australia, though, come to think of it, I couldn't afford to be a member.
One of my London readers replied by email today that he'd been at Hurlingham Club three weeks ago to watch a cricket match. He described it as "a genuine country club ... but in the middle of London". That's the surprising and wonderful thig about London -- giant parks in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world -- yet in Austlralian cities we think something with goalposts is a park.