What years were you a Ball Boy? I was a Ball boy at Wimbledon for 3 years in 1958, 1959 and 1960 What age were you and what courts did you look after? The
first year I started on Court 15 and then moved up to Court 8 (Age 14) Did you enjoy the task and why? It really was a tremendous experience to be able to do something like this, which very few people would be able to do. There was a great deal of competition for places and we trained very hard for 3 months before the Championships. We were picked up every day by Grey Green Coaches during Wimbledon fortnight for the trip to Wimbledon and it seemed to take an age for us to get there. Some people in cars behind would have had some very interesting sights from the back window of the coaches if my memory serves me right. When we arrived it was a very strange experience being asked for our autographs by young girls each day. All we were was ball boys. Did anything unusual/funny happen whilst you were on court? I remember the first year on Court 15 I was on the court for the Veterans Doubles and Jacque Borotra (?) a very famous old French player was on court in long white trousers. When Court 15 stopped I moved up to Court 8 where I had a bit of a problem with the brightness of everything being white in strong sunshine. I was on the net and missed the first serve of Italian Nicole Pietrangeli and he got angry and hit a ball at me which just missed my head. I didn't see it because I had my eyes closed at that very moment it. He had a rollicking from the umpire for doing it. I had the last laugh 2years later on Centre Court but more of that later. Which player did you most enjoy meeting and why? My favourite players were Darleen Hard from the USA (who was brilliant with the ball boys) and Karen Hantze (later Susman) because she was a cracker and really nice with it. For obvious reasons I did not like Pietrangeli but the other one who was not very nice to the ball boys was Maria Bueno, who was the biggest name at the time. Who is your favourite tennis player today? My favourite player now is Tim Henman because he is English Do you play tennis now and if so do you belong to a club? I don't
play any tennis because I never was any good at it but I do play Would you like to add any further information? It really was a marvellous experience to be on Centre Court, seeing all the great tennis players in the big matches 'up close' with the best view in the place. We were on the court for 3 hours at a time. There were 8 boys on Centre Court with only 6 on court at any one time with 2 off having a break for an hour. While on our break if there was a good match on No 1 Court we would go up to one of the entrances and the Service people on the gate would let us sit on the side of the steps to watch it. In 1960 Nicole Pietrangeli, from Italy, got to the semi-final of the men's singles. On the final point of the match after a lob by Barry Mackay of USA just went out right near me, Pietrangeli turned towards the net and threw his racquet really high in the air, turned and ran up to the net to shake his opponents hand. The racquet started to come down and I am sure it was my will that made it land right on the top of his head. Justice, one year late. He went on to be beaten by Rod Laver from Australia in the semi-final I am pleased to say Another incident happened right in front of me in the semi-final between Earl Bucholtz of the USA and Neil Frazer from Australia. Earl Bucholtz fell over and injured his ankle when in a very strong position in the match. He had to retire from the match and I was the one who picked up his racquet from right next to me. The strange thing is that my wife Jaqui, to whom I have been married to for 37 years can clearly remember me picking up the racquet because they had a close up of me on television (which I had no idea of) as she is a great tennis fan. Little did she know our paths would cross three and a half years later. Neil Frazer went on to beat Rod Laver in the Final. That was the last time that Rod Laver lost a singles match at Wimbledon. We were paid about £2 and ten shillings (£2.50 in today's money) but I know that I would have done it for nothing as I enjoyed it so much. I am very proud of the fact that the players used to tell us that we were the best ball boys in the world. I do not see very many ball boys or girls at Wimbledon now who would get on to the show courts when we were there. I feel that the standard it definitely lower generally. My wife always tells me that I am watching for the ball boys more that the tennis. It is probable true. I was also a ball boy for a Davis Cup match that was played on No 1 Court at Wimbledon in 1960. It was GB v Italy. Guess who was in the Italian team, yes a certain Nicole Pietrangeli. Unfortunately we lost the match (things don't change). I hope that this has been of use to you. It has brought back a lot of happy memories to me. From: Brian Ball |
