Emotional Homecoming

Last week I was stopped at the local shops by a woman who said she remembered me from a tennis group to which I briefly belonged 30 years ago. I didn’t recognise her, but I did remember her name. We had a chat and found we had lots in common, including having both been married at the same tiny church some ten miles away, in a place most people I know have never heard of! I invited her to my house for coffee, and she came this morning as arranged. We chatted away for ages, and while she was here I showed her this tennis racket, which has an interesting history. 

My father, Dennis Hicks, was a talented tennis player, who played at Junior Wimbledon before the outbreak of the Second World War, and also played table tennis for England and played in exhibition matches. When war broke out he joined the RAF and by the time the war was over he had a wife and a child to support. He and my mother opened a toy and sports shop, which my mother ran while my father worked as a tennis coach. The war deprived him of the chance to compete at Wimbledon because in those days it was an amateur tournament and he was by now classified as a professional, so he wasn’t allowed to enter.

Fast forward to 2014. I am a keen family historian, and I had put my father’s name into Google to see if I could find anything more about his tennis achievements. I came across a web page from the Bonham’s auction house, which had recently digitised its back catalogues. In it was an auction of sporting memorabilia in Chester in October 2006. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Lot 270A, which was this tennis racket – which has a roughly engraved inscription on the handle which reads as follows:

"Used by Dennis Hicks against Fred Perry in 4th round of 1950 Professional Championships of Great Britain Score 6-2, 6-2,6-3. Championship won by Fred Perry."

I had no idea this racket existed, although I do have the 1950 Scarborough tournament programme amongst my family memorabilia. Fred Perry, of course, won three consecutive Wimbledon championships and was the last British man to win Wimbledon (in 1936) until Andy Murray won in 2013. By 1950 Perry was a veteran of 41 and my father was 29.

The racket did not sell at the auction, so I decided to contact Bonham’s to ask if they had any information about its current whereabouts.

The following morning I had an email from the person who had put it up for auction, saying that it had belonged to his uncle, who was a friend of my father. The racket was given to his uncle in payment of a debt I believe, as my father was struggling to make ends meet. The story had a happy ending, because the racket’s owner travelled down to London from Wrexham on a business trip and handed it over to me in a coffee shop, in return for a donation to his favourite charity. I was overwhelmed with emotion and will be forever grateful to him for his generosity. I just wish my father could have known that his racket would find its way home all these years later! 

In the extras are a close up of the engraved handle, and the thank you card I sent to the racket’s owner, which also shows part of the BBC script for Wimbledon in 1952, when my father was a commentator alongside Freddie Grisewood and Dan Maskell.