My hobbies when young were mostly associated with sport, particularly football and cricket, plus a lot of time spent on my bicycle, while at Grammar School I added athletics – long jump and discuss, but not cross country running!
I played football for my house, Cranmer, at Bishopshalt Grammar, and also was house cricket captain (later played cricket for the old boys – the Old Uxonians). Other activities were reading and stamp collecting, plus many many Saturday mornings at the Rayners Lane cinema (it didn’t look like this then!) one stop down the Piccadilly line from my station, Eastcote.
My father, a very good tennis player, who normally won the tennis competitions at the holiday camp we used to go to, had me taking professional tennis lessons at the Orchard Hotel in Ruislip when I was about 10, but I also took up table tennis quite seriously and entered the Daily Mirror junior championship. I returned to tennis some 40 years later!
When living in Barcelona in the 1960s I learnt to ski (poorly) and went often to Andorra at weekends, and once to Puerto Navacerrada just outside Madrid. Many many years later Diana and I went to Switzerland to ski, however, I fell running for a train at Hooton station in the Wirral, and ended up arriving with an ankle in plaster – which people, other than Diana and I, thought very amusing. Tried my hand at badminton but decided it was not for me-
I played a lot of squash in Hong Kong, playing in a league, and also regularly with Jack Haggarty. I was required to play hockey in order to be accepted as a member of the Hong Football Club. I arrived for my interview with a colourful black eye picked up playing that crazy and dangerous game. Called on in an emergency to play for Swires at cricket and football, when I was in my late thirties, I found out you can’t just pick up a bat or put on football boots after 20 years, and expect to be any good. I remember as losers at football we had to drink beer from a large chamber pot at the Hong Kong Football Club, which I would not recommend.
Returning to the UK in the 1980’s I took up golf at nearly 50. Did in fact win some trophies, two of which, large tinny things, Jo refused to have in the house so they lived in the garage for 20 years in Jesus Pobre and were in the storage area in our underground car park in Javea. I rescued them and photographed them before destroying them. In 1997. These are they, being for winning March 1998 Stableford and the other for winning the June 1998 Medal
Golf Cups
I also won this which I am allowed to keep in the apartment
GCM Golf Centre April 1997 Medal Equal First
In the 1990’s I took up tennis at a tennis club at Richmond in Surrey, and with the club had a tennis holiday at Lew Hoad’s tennis club in Mijas (Spain). Diana and I went for a holiday to Portugal to play tennis, and this time I arrived and left injury-free. When I lived in Woking in Surrey in the 1990’s I kept my tennis going by playing at the indoor courts at David LLoyds Tennis , which is where I met a lovely guy called Chris, who later married Jo and me!
On retirement to Spain, we joined the Javea Golf Club, and Jo joined the JUGS (then standing for Just Us Girls) while I played sometimes with the JAGS group. Jo and I have had a few golfing holidays in Spain (and played in Costa Rica), also I’ve played at many local courses in Alicante and Valencia
Jo and I also played tennis regularly, firstly with a local club and later at the courts at Javea Golf. We retired in about 2014 and still wonder about taking up padel tennis if Jo thinks she can run again.
We built a boule (petanque) court on the land in Jesus Pobre and will hopefully continue to play in our later years. We have played table tennis and are keen to return to this, probably with the U3A. Also, we are considering bowls now we are in our 80’s!
Whilst retired in Spain, and on a more sedentary note, I spent two years delving into my ancestry back into the middle of the 18th Century. The four branches (from Northumberland, Norfolk, Devon and Northampton) all eventually ended up in Chelsea, London, where my mother was born and married. Hence my support of that football club since I was six and accepted as old enough to walk to Stamford Bridge to watch them, with my father, uncles and cousin from a house my grandmother owned in Luna Street near the Worlds End Pub in the Kings Road, Chelsea. I have over 1,000 people on my Ancestry.com site. Now I’m building this up on this site under Ancestry pages (WORK IN PROGRESS)
No famous people in my past, but members of the family fought in the Opium Wars in China, the East Indies, the Crimea War and one was shot and injured near Cadiz in Spain when fighting Napoleon. Far from being the first family adventurer to explore the world, I was beaten by over 100 years to China and Spain. However, it is perhaps from this branch of the family I inherited the travel gene!
Having written some short stories many years ago, I thought it was time I should try something more ambitious. So I started to write novels in 2013 and completed three which I published as eBooks. Since I am rewriting them and can be found on the other website Chinese Circles. Also, there are two of my short stories which were published, one of which, was read out on Bay Radio in Spain which can be heard here on that same website.