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sub menu can go here ------line above is for sub menu do not delete as will affect layout of page. Add all content below this line----- The Server
 by Spencer VignesPublication Date: October 2007 "Tennis courts. They're out there. Almost 40,000 of them at the last count across Britain. Okay, so a large percentage don't have nets, look like they've staged a small civil war, and tend to be used more during the winter for drug deals than tennis. But they're there. In public parks, back gardens, on council estates, at private clubs and, in at least two cities that I can think of, in the middle of traffic roundabouts. Hundreds of square miles of tarmac, grass and astroturf just burning to be enjoyed during the 50 weeks of the year when Wimbledon isn't on TV." The 1971 film The Swimmer, tells the story of Ned Merrill. Played by Burt Lancaster, and on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Ned embarks on a crazy scheme to swim home, via 'the river of pools' through the back gardens of suburban Connecticut. Over thirty years later, a million miles away in the former Yorkshire mining town of Normanton, Spencer Vignes - apparently not on the verge of a nervous breakdown - hits on a similarly barking scheme. Inspired by Lancaster's role in The Swimmer, and with his youthful vim for tennis renewed by Goran Ivanisevic's more recent and thoroughly romantic triumph on the grass courts of Wimbledon, Vignes decides to return to his native Warnham, Sussex... and playing his way back home, on every tennis court he sees along the way. Spencer's 365-mile journey in his 1969 Morris Minor took five weeks to complete. Along the way he played on 148 tennis courts against people of different class, colour and ability, including an 81-year old grandmother, a drug addict, a man in a wheelchair, a pregnant woman and one of England's top junior stars. He was also assaulted by a Black Country drunk who took offence to his tennis clothes, had a falling out with the All England Club over his attempts to play at Wimbledon, gate crashed Tony and Jane Henman's back garden in Oxfordshire (and hit a serve on the court where their son Tim first learned to play), and discovered that Goran Ivanisevic could have Chris de Burgh in a bar room brawl. The Server is the story of his trip, the people he met, the places he visited and his battle to overcome a chronic case of tennis elbow, together with thoughts on the state of the game in Britain in 2002. Praise For The Server "A sideways, exuberant and perceptive journey through the underachieving world that is English tennis." "Vignes plays everywhere and amid the anecdotes, makes points that British tennis needs to think hard about." About the Author Spencer Vignes is a 34-year old freelance journalist, specialising in sport, entertainment and travel, who has written for various newspapers, magazines and press agencies across the United Kingdom and abroad, including The Guardian, Match of the Day magazine, Empire, The Jakarta Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Western Mail and PA Sport.
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