SPEAKER_00 0:00

I want tennis to be the most popular game at schools. It isn't. You've got to get to the grassroots, change the system, get tennis back into universities. You know, you've been to America. I mean, you watch a college football match, there's a hundred thousand people watching a college match.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

That's the difference.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Hello and welcome back to Beyond Tennis. My next guest represented Great Britain at Wimbledon, alongside both of his brothers, created the Slaton Squad, producing players like Tim Henman and Jamie Delgado, built the David Lloyd Leisure into one of the largest gym organizations in the world, and personally brought my family over from Spain 40 years ago. Ladies and gentlemen, David Lloyd.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Yeah, nice to see you all again. Yeah, I haven't seen you for a while. Are you keeping well? No, no, I am keeping Carwell, yeah. I'm doing well, and uh it's great to come back. You know, I landed on Sunday, yeah. And a friend of mine then calls me, said, Oh, I got some tickets for the Chelsea and Man City. Of course, I'm Tottenham, which is. Oh, we don't talk about Tottenham at the moment, no. They're terrible. So I went and had a great time with a friend of mine, Tim Harmon and Colin Pierce and a lovely box. So you're living in Florida, now watched, yeah, yeah, and watched Chelsea. They were awful.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

They were awful, weren't they? Yeah. Awful. Yeah, I do enjoy seeing Arsenal kind of flounder a little bit though.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Yeah, I think Manchester they play so well. Yeah. But no, I live in Florida, and it's it's uh but we're starting a new business here, which is nearly, nearly ready to roll. We've got lots of sites and stuff, which is where about the sites. We've got uh two in Scotland, we've got Glasgow, great site, and we've got one in Aberdeen, lovely site again, they're all good sites. Uh Colchester, yeah, uh Bister, okay, yeah, Peterborough, and Cardiff. Oh, awesome. So we've got six sites, and we'll build them out in the next one.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

And this is the sports gardens.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Yeah, they're they're more it's they're pay as you play, no membership. Uh it it's it's fun action, uh lots of things for the kids. We've got go-karting, we've got zip lines, then we've got golf simulators, and we've got pickle and pedel because uh as you know, both those games are noisy, yeah. And so you can have them in a noisy uh environment. So you can have kids screaming and shouting. Paddle paddles going huge at the moment, yeah. Huge, yeah, huge. And and it's very noisy though.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Yeah, yeah. Okay, so we're in Beyond Tennis, we go through your tennis journey. Um, looking through it last night, we could be here for the next two days talking about your whole tennis history, but we'll try and go through it chronologically. Okay. So I start with all my guests. Yeah. Uh how did you start tennis? When did you get a racket in your hand for the first time? Can you remember that?

SPEAKER_00 2:35

I can, I can. I was actually a very good footballer, strangely enough, but I got a uh very uh rare um knee problem called osteochondritis, which is a both grown on your knee. I got it when I was about 11, and it's so tender you you you can't touch it even. So I I had to stop playing football and I was good. So I learned to fish, yeah, which as you do off South Empire. So I'm you know fishing for place off South Empire. So I stopped playing football then, and then when I when it got better, I I went more into tennis, and so then I started.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

So you started around about eleven, was it?

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Yeah, 11 or 12, where John still started John and Tony started at uh five or six.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Okay, because yeah, just you mentioned there John and Tony, amazing to have, and again, I don't know too many examples through history of three brothers going on together.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

We're the only ones that played the same Wimbledon. Yeah, to compete singles, yeah. No one's done it before or after growing up together.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Like I I'm part of three brothers, there's a lot of people who I know I know them all.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

I know your mum and dad well, and they were I had so how was that kind of growing up with the with the other two and training?

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Did you were you kind of competing against each other?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Or yeah, we played up, but we were good really, and you know. Um John he knows it, he's even better now. But John was born with a real natural racket talent, okay, yeah. Like like Jamie, racket talent, you know, real skilled racket talent. Yeah, but he was lazy, right? As simple as that. So he did the dishes sitting on a chair. I mean, so you know, and I was the opposite, didn't have much talent, but I never gave in, and I ran like I was very fast and never got tired. And so, if we'd have put what I had into what John had, then I think he would have had a world champion. It's very rare you get the two together. That's when you get the the greats of the world. So and Tony really, you know what, he didn't really love to play. He was a great player, but and he's a great coach.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

But he didn't he didn't want I loved competition. Some people do, some people don't. Right. And then if you don't like it and you don't want to be in it, you're a boxer in a ring. I mean, you are.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

I didn't realize you all three of you play the same year then at Wimbledon.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

That's the only brothers ever do it.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Wow, in the singles.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

In the singles, all the same year, yeah. That's exactly. And I think Tony and John that year got to the quarterfinal of the doubles. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Wow. I mean, you you and John had a fantastic record in the Davis Cup with the doubles as well.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Yeah, we had a great time playing. We had uh you know lots of great matches, and probably the one I remember is the one we played for two reasons. One it was at Wimbledon, yeah. It was on court one, and uh that was the old court one, which was a great country against Italy, yeah. Yeah, and we we I don't know how many match points we say, probably six or seven, and we won 6-2 in the fifth, and it was it was one of the matches that are in the greatest sporting tennis moments, yeah, yeah. No, not the sporting, uh yeah, the greatest the BBC sporting moments, yeah. So that's the only thing I that's the only thing I've kept. I kept a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

What round was that when you played Italy?

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Semi-final.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Oh, semi-finals of the world group, okay. Yeah, didn't really.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Well, no, it was one group then. Yeah, it was one all together. Just all the way through. Yeah, I mean we had we we we played six matches to get to that match.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Everybody played then.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

And going back to your junior days, it was a bit I won junior Wimbledon.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

You won junior Wimbledon. I did. Wow. Not not not the not the open one, the closed one, but the British one, yeah. The British one, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

So yeah, you've had a great junior career. And you you what what was your schooling? When did you end your schooling? What age?

SPEAKER_00 6:05

I I I left school at about 15 and a half, just before I took, I took I'm I shouldn't be saying this, isn't it? I took three GCSEs. Oh actually they were at O levels then, yeah. And I passed two. Uh I got maths, which I'm good at maths, yeah, of course. And I passed history. I love history.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And were you travelling around internationally?

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Yeah, I I worked and and uh I worked actually very close to here in a place called Peterson Knights, which is in Mansion House. And I worked in the sports shop there, earned some money and did paper rounds and restrung rackets, and that saved enough to play a bit.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

And what what what sort of age did you stop playing professionally tennis?

SPEAKER_00 6:45

I stopped, in fact, the last year I played, I played with a chap you would know, Chris Bradnam. Yeah, yeah. And we qualified for the doubles.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

And we qualified, and our first match was on the centre court against McEnroe and Fleming.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

And I must be like 36 then, 35, 36. So they they made me qualify, which is fair enough.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Oh, so you're playing right in 2030s then, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Yeah, I played up to about 34, 35. Yeah, and then that one I just did it because Chris asked me, did he want to play doubles? I said, Yeah. And so we qualified and played.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Yeah, so I mean, I mean, I'm easy. I've said it already before, but to have three brothers play at Wilmot is absolutely crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Yeah, I mean it it is. I didn't know that, you know. I was just checking the other day, and then then they said, Oh, shoot.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Well, I had Jamie Murray on a couple of weeks ago, and I was asking him what it was like playing for your country alongside your brother. What were the I asked him actually what was the benefits and the of of playing with your brother and what were the kind of negatives of playing? Yeah, what what would you find? Because you and John played a lot number of days.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Yeah, this is a the great triple pursuit question. Yeah, uh the first Davis Cup match John played was in Munich with me, yeah, and Roger Taylor played, and Roger and I brother-in-laws. So we were brother-in-laws and brothers in the same team. That's never happened either. I mean, that's madness. We lost to Germany in a very, very tight match in Munich.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Yeah, but what was it like playing with your brother?

SPEAKER_00 8:13

It was great because for once John did what he was told, which I loved. So that's the last job match. So we combined very well because he had all the flair, yeah, you know, and I had the grit, and uh, I was very fast. Yeah, so we we we played pretty well.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Yeah, and John went on the US Open singles finals?

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Got to the final of the Australian Australian Open, right? Yeah, and he should have won actually. He was leading Vitus in the final four-two in the fifth. I I read that they were training together for hell two weeks. He got he was very close to Vitas.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then moving on, it's impossible not to ask you about your David Lloyd building of the clubs that you did after your tennis playing.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Well, no, I actually did it when I was still playing. Oh, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

I was gonna ask that how you moved into that.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

When I do business speeches, it's one of the things I say that it's a pity sports people, a lot of them leave it too late, a lot of them have bad managers and they lose their money. But I think they should start it at the back end of their career. So they're doing it as they're still there, because two reasons. One, you're learning, you're learning as you're doing playing, but the other other thing is that people still know your name. Of course, yeah. If they did go too late, yeah, then yeah, I mean, Andy's still very, very, very famous, and he's gonna carry on that way. Yeah, but I think if you do it when you're so at the end of it, then I think it gives you in good stead. So I started it um in about 1980. Now, everywhere I went, I I looked at the clubs everywhere. I just went in, I was a sponge where you know the toilets were where this was. Then I worked in clubs as well. Yeah, I worked in Canada and I worked in and I played for a Dutch club, and I saw the beautiful wooden domes that they played in, and and uh I said I've got to do this.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

I was what was it what was in the UK at that time? Nothing, zero indoor courts and not. Queen's club. Queen's club was indoor.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

That was it. No one else.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

So you saw this abroad and kind of thought Yeah, and I thought it must work.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

But you know, I thought, oh, this I've got to do this, I've got to do this, and I you know, but then I came back and I was a tennis player with virtually no education. I saw I thought it would be easy to raise the money, but of course it was two years of uh very hard time. People used to look at me like I was where did you go to school? I said, Well I didn't. Oh well, bad luck.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

And then things like this, and then so what were you you had to raise funds, obviously to Yeah, I had to raise funds.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

I got I started to get the equity together, which was great, and then um I got one famous meeting, I'll never forget it. John Barrett, I made John Barrett was my best man at my my my wedding and he uh knew a lot of people and he introduced me to Nat West, and Nat West said, Yeah, we'll give you the loan. And they said, We want to also introduce you to Nat West County, County Nat West, which are private equity, and they would like to invest. So I thought, okay, I had I had the money Birchy secured anyway. So I went into this meeting. I do all the figures myself, everything was done hand, and I I I lived and dreamed it, and I knew how much a toilet would cost to run. I knew it all uh because I'd done it. And so I go to this meeting quite close to here in Lendor Street, and I go in and I I can't the room was uh a beautiful old-fashioned uh banker's room, mahogany, beautiful pictures around the wall. So I walk in the table was as big as this room here, and it there it was, and the chap welcomed me in. He was like uh dressed in a morning suit, you know, with all white gloves and everything. I thought, I've made it here. This is London, yeah. This is this is this is gonna be it. So I sat down and he came in with a beautiful silver platter with lovely porcelain chain china and had a nice cup of tea. And then these three guys walked in, sat opposite me, and I thought we're gonna make it today. So we sat down and the first guy says to me, Where's the nearest bus stop? So I said, Okay, um nearest bus stop. Okay. So I said to him, I took a punt. All these bankers do. I said, Do you play golf? And he said, Yes, yes, I play golf. I said to oh, good. I said, How'd you get to your golf club? He said, By car. I said, you know what? Strangely enough, that's how they're gonna get to my club.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

As it happened, there was a bus stop outside.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

So we went through this and and you you'd already kind of uh found sites and things.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

I found the sites and they all knew where the sites were. Then and then the next question was from the other guy said, the other guy said, What's it worth as a warehouse? I said, I'm not building a warehouse, yeah. And this is what what I came across. Anyway, cut a long story short, they said no, walked out of the room. If they'd have put their 125 million, because that's what I was asking for, yeah, guess what it would have been worth?

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Oh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

55 million counting that West didn't it didn't last too long, yeah, yeah. And that's what happened. Yeah, so that was so I learned those two years of trying to raise the money. You know, I could I could sell coal to Newcastle. I mean, I I I wasn't gonna give in.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

And it so it it taught me a lot of lessons, you know, and we eventually did raise the money. And then once the first one opened, which was Heston in 1982, yeah, then people threw money at you. Oh, how much you want? How much do you want? And it was with a great success, and we built it all up, and then we built lots and lots of clubs, and then we IPO'd, yeah, and that was great success in 1993. Yeah, oversubscribed, I don't know, 20 times, and it was great, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Well, I had Jamie uh on last week, two weeks ago, and he was talking about that time that I wanted to ask you about setting up the Slater squad, which is kind of linked in with the clubs, I guess. But he said that they'd started at Heston and then moved to Rains Park. Um, but on the Slater squad, you you obviously, for people that don't know, you set up a junior academy and with a goal of being Wimbledon champion or trying to build a Wimbledon champion. You had Tim Henman and my brother Jamie came through that. What were your motivations to set that up initially?

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Well, we were going to do it, and then I got a call from a very famous uh banker type guy, Jim Slater, yeah, who was made he was a very famous investment guy. Right. And he called me and he said, Would you be interested in doing academy? He said, I've gone to the LTA and they've turned me down. Um I said, Okay, I'd love to.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

So I went to talk to him and sorry, he'd gone to the LTA for to to to do the scheme.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

He was a big chess player, right? And he did it with chess, and he turned British chess into a second rate uh in standard to having grandmasters. Right. And he did it with what he called a laser laser beam, yeah. And he was a laser beam, and and I was very similar with the business, it had to be really laser beam, and and that was his big expression. And he said, I went to the LTA, we'll win to help, willing to fund, and they said we don't we don't want to do it, and so he came to me.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

When were this being late 80s, yeah?

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Yeah, yeah, and then he said, So I said yes. So we had the clubs, yeah, and so I paid for all the tennis, yeah, and he paid for all the school. Yeah, and we chose Reeds because his right-hand man was a guy called Peter Greaves, who went to Reed's school. Reed School started as a school for uh single parent families and all, yeah, yeah. And and the the head master there, David Prince guy said, I've got to take him out of school at two. I've got to and he agreed. Not many schools would have done that.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Yeah, and so we had a so you had an understanding that they were trying to build tennis plays.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Then we had three awful outdoor courts, that's all we had.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Yeah, yeah, they've now got these seven.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

So he bought into it, and that's how it started. He put the money in for the for the school, and I put the money in for the tennis.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Yeah. And we And how many how many boys?

SPEAKER_00 16:10

I think we had eight at the beginning, then we built up to twelve, and then we had obviously we had uh you know what the great success of the scheme, in my opinion, was not uh not Tim Hemman, who was great, Jamie, who was great. We had a lovely player called James Bailey, who won the Australian, and he went off his unfortunately lovely man. And it was the fact that these kids I had the hardest job and behind me, I call him call him Jaime, I always call him Harmy. And uh it was to tell them, and I made this I made this decision at 14, I would tell them, in my opinion, would they be able to make a living out of tennis? I could not be responsible for them carrying on when I knew they couldn't make a living, yeah. And my standard then was top hundred in the world to make a living, yeah. And if they got to the top hundred, I knew they were making as much as a lawyer would. Yeah. And so they could stop there to keep going the tennis, not the education. And so at 14 I had to make that call. Yeah. And it was really the parents used a lot of they they were so keen. Oh, you're doing going it right, and it these gonna be great. I said, Look, I'm only telling you my opinion. If you want to leave and go and go somewhere else, I'm still carrying on the education. I'll I'll pay to until 16, but they now had to focus on education and not tennis. Yeah, and it was a really hard thing to do.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

One of the things that Jamie brought up, and and and it kind of got me reminiscing looking back was that at the time that there was an LTA school at Bisham.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Yes, and there was the That only really started after we started, you know, because yeah, because we won all the tournaments. Well, that's but that's what I was going to ask you. We started from winning nothing, yeah, and then we won every single under 12 and every single under 14.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

And the LTA said, oh, because I had a big Jamie said that he felt that competition, and he said, look, we were always, you know, obviously looking after ourselves, but was there that competitive element of the colour?

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Which you need in life, which you need in life. The reason was Paul Hutchins, who's a lovely man, he believed that you you shouldn't take them that young. So I said, Paul, read who wins the orange bowl. Yeah, read their names. It's a who's who of tennis, and they're under 12. So there must be a follow-through from 12 to winning. Jimmy won it, Chrissy won it, they all won it.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Andy Murray won it.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Andy, and I said, it's not logical to wait till they're 14 to take them. Yeah, so that we had an argument. So that's why we were younger. I didn't really. Then they went to Bisham Abbey and then they started them younger, yeah, yeah. And that was what happened. Yeah, and so there was healthy competition. Yeah. And the lads were we had a great time. We had it, we had an army trainer, and we had we we we you know, we did them, we tested them for height, which is obviously going to be Jaime's problem. When, and you know, for Jaime to have been even better than he was, he had to be as fast as Michael Chang. Yeah, and I couldn't make him as fast as Michael Chang, doesn't matter how hard I tried. Jaime's racket talent was as good as I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Yeah, well, we spoke a little bit about his his career, and obviously he was really satisfied with what he did, but he did say that maybe he didn't put the physical work in because he found it so easy, probably. He found like and he said, look, subconsciously, I was winning matches, so I was probably thinking Yeah, well because he had all the talent.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Why didn't I you know racket talent's one thing, the Macarrow talent, but Makaro, in my opinion, failed himself. Yeah, he should have won 20, 15, 20 majors with his ability talent, but he didn't have the mental talent. Yeah, but when you get both, then you you know you talk to me uh you know Lendel. Lendell didn't have much racket talent, but what he had was an unbelievable mind. Chrissy, a mumble-wheel mind, Djokovic. Yeah, incredible. This is the difference, you know. And then you and the reason why tennis is so great to watch, you'll have the guy with the racket talent, like the Mackerro, playing Borg with the with the mental side. Suddenly you've got a great match. But going on to the point about it, you know, I still speak to Mark Moresso, he's a he's a he's he's like a I to him like a son. And so Andy Andy Blackman, you know, Adrian, uh, you know, he's made a great success of his life. So these kids are coming out and have been successful, not necessarily at tennis.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

And even the ones that yeah, they didn't play tennis, Ben Ben Harris.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

That's why they were really nice people and they'd grown up well, and that and that that gives me as much, if not more, pride than the Tim's and the Hymas.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Luce Moore as well. Yeah, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 20:39

Yeah, well, he's a lawyer now, and he's tall. You remember him? He's a little tiny fella. Yeah, he's I don't know how big he's now, but yeah, he's giant.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

So yeah, at the time, again, you you're kind of touching on the relationship with the LTA, you're quite outspoken about it.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

I know they didn't mind they didn't like me at all.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

So, what was that? What was the the kind of do you think they weren't doing things the right way, or what was script?

SPEAKER_00 21:00

I told him I told them the truth, you know, and I still to this day. I still and and and well you've Scott's James, you know, uh uh Murray, uh, you know, she she came to work for me. Yeah, Judy. I mean, I I played tennis with Judy, she was a very good player, Judy Erskine, she was then, and she was good. And she came, she was our tennis director in in in in the club we opened next generation in in Edinburgh. Yeah and then I was David's Cup captain, and I went to the LTA with her to make a presentation because I believe, I don't think the national body's job is actually to produce the players. I think it's their job to find the funding to push out an independent uh I like it, I do it like a hub of a wheel. Yeah. The centre is there, but the hub of the ring has got to be very strong. Yeah. And therefore you've got to have uh I think slightly independent squads that can make their own things. uh around the country feeding in feeding into the centre.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Yeah and that wasn't happening at the time?

SPEAKER_00 22:05

No, no, it still didn't happen. They're still controlled by the LTA. I didn't want them I wanted the LTA to be the bank under conditions, like a franchise basically, and working this builds up it builds up the competition within the squads.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

And obviously if they don't get it, they don't get so much money. Whatever. I mean you can easily do it. And I put that presentation with Judy to the LTA and they they did they did I have to give them their due they did semi try one at one unit. Right. But they didn't carry it on. And still to this day you know you've got the National Tennis Centre which is great cost 40 million should have cost of 12 or 13 I could have built it for them but that doesn't matter. And where that money went I've no idea but um I still believe that the the rim you know the college system in America that's why the American tennis is not as good as it was in the days when the the college system was so strong. Yeah everybody played the college system and the competition with the college system was intense. David Lloyd Legend when we started it the clubs were all part of the group but they were all independently the managers could make decisions and they were in competition with the other club. They used to phone each other every day how many members you got today? How many cokes you sold? Competition healthy competition. So were you kind of involved in each how many clubs were there at the time then uh we we were by the floater we had about 14 I suppose but they were all linked on a company we were way in front of our time they could talk on the computer this was 82 yeah yeah 82 83 84 that sort of we talked down the computer line without paying for the phones yeah and we were lifetime yeah they could be see how many guests came in at Glasgow when they were in Range Park competing against each other.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Absolutely and every month they got judged how how do you think nowadays how easy do you not easy it's probably the wrong word but how what the challenges of a somebody trying to set up a Slater squad reads I think they could do it.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

I think it's just got to have the will will of it and I think you've got to have the backing of the LTA financially and I think the more But you you you obviously did it without the backing of the LTA financially I did it well I mean you know I I I did that and and I that competition proving that we could take them at a young age I mean Haim was I found I I saw Jaime at eight and a half well I wanted to ask you yeah he he spoke about the time that he spotted him I don't know I remember it to this day is that Cheltenham Cheltenham Mulvern area to Cheltenham yeah I remember sitting with your your your your your mum I think I was speaking to um and persuading her that he could be a great player and that he should be coming on I think he was playing better to persuade David Prince to take him a year young yes because he was too young to go in the school yeah he was 10 I think when he came yeah and and so I and they they bought into it and and that I think changed the way the LTA well I know it changed the way the LTA thought for the better. Yeah you know healthy competition is always good.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

Yeah yeah so then then becoming David's cup captain.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Yes so that was uh how long were you David's cup captain for seven or eight years I think we had a great time yeah you had a good good great team of players and stuff well we started in division three yeah well I had Greg on and he was talking about that journey I think he just started when he well I had I I was instrumental in bringing him in in really and I went to the government and everything because I knew a lot of people yeah and we had to get people to write letters that's how we got in because he was Canadian. Yeah well no he's obviously Canadian but well he was Canadian now I mean we got we managed to get him an English passport British passport so that that must be quite some stories travelling around in the the lower I mean that at the beginning it was a tough it was a tough call because obviously you had Tim you had petch and you know they weren't really happy with it died coming in from outside and there was you know there was anger uh and it was a hard the first match was at Eastbourne against Monarch I think it was if I remember rightly and it was tough because you know they didn't want to eat together and then you had then you had the the coaches who were you know you had David Felgate you had and they they were more competitive than the players. So I had to somehow try and balance the books and it's it's they had a good record doubles together though Tim and Gregna great pair yeah I told them I told them both I said you guys I know you don't like each other you've got to play Wimbledon you will win it. Yeah they refused didn't play but you got them to play one tour event didn't you I think it was a Battersea maybe no the tour event they played was in Stuttgart and that's when they started and I put them together and they played great at the beginning Greg said I I'll play on the right I said Greg with your back end forget it. He said no I I never missed one I said but please but he wouldn't listen yeah yeah and the first match they played the first set was in Newcastle and Alvin I'll tell you to talk about Alvin anyway he said I'm playing so they started off and they lost the first set to Medford Devon whatever I said guys you've got you've got to change sides and they did and they didn't they won the match and then they went on they never lost a Davis Cup match that's amazing yeah an amazing record but for you sitting in a chair what what what was it like because you'd you'd known Tim from what 12 years of age yeah I didn't speak much about Tim because but you you'd known him all your life I got to know that that he wasn't the person you need to talk to he was blinkered Tim had Tim was blinkered yeah I mean Tim had Tim had had slightly more slightly more hand he was great anyway slightly more he would have been a world champion yeah but his mind he never gave in yeah never put a bad practice was he like that as a kid yes he never put a bad practice in ever but he had Mark Morriso most talented kid I've ever seen along with Jaime I mean to get him to train was like shaking him come on come on Mark and and and and Jaime as well laid back and you know but where I wanted the the guy to be able to run nonstop till he dropped and Tim was that I can always tell that the you know you know if you get you get to know you can always tell the guy that's faking it oh I'm I'm tired get up I I live with my brother you know he famous Davis Cup match in Roland Garros he's losing he had to win this match fifth match he's playing a guy called Diblica and Deblica is got in cramped and John didn't see him he's the other one oh cramp I got cramped I said John you haven't got cramp and I I went down to the courtside and basically because I was a player then not not a not not the captain I nearly shook him and he said oh okay and he won yeah and then he got over the mental side so he didn't he didn't get that cramp anymore it's up here yeah so most of the conversations I haven't with the people in your David's cup role was mental side of it mental side that see see my uh you know I'd I let him get on with it unless he asked yeah and people said why I said look he he knows what he's doing he's playing I'm not playing yeah if he asks I know he wants it yeah if he's not why interfere he's better than me and Greg the opposite I had to calm him down I got Greg Greg he was tw he always twitches but the thing he twitched most was when he tied his shoes so he gets on the court and as soon as he's nervous he undoes his shoes ties them up as he's waiting for the game I think so what we did was we we tied we basically glued him so he couldn't untie them so so he didn't have to bend down and tie them up he had to keep his shoes on for two weeks so that took took something out of him because he was you know you know you know you saw him but he had a great great Davis Cup player as well and it you know I maybe I we should have beaten America and and that was the Todd Martin one on it is it yeah that would have changed British tenors I promise you in what way because the nation follows winners yeah and we although we we like to console the losers but you've lost you're not playing in the next round yeah and we would have we could have won the whole thing that year I mean America was the big match yeah and you know we were 2-0 down and the boys won the doubles then Tim played a great match he always did against Todd Martin yeah yeah and then Greg's playing Jim Courier who's playing great tennis and it was an unbelievable match and he lost I think nine seven in the fifth ten eight in the fifth maybe but I I you know I blame myself a little bit why because if I had the choice of the court and I shouldn't have listened to the players both players said we wanted this medium fast yeah and I should have said no you have him fast yeah forget it. Yeah yeah and you know what looking back I don't think courage would have beaten Brazil I don't think we'd ever have broken his serve on a fast court yeah yeah and in those days there was no tie break yeah so he can't lose yeah and I went with them and and the court was medium so it allowed them to get the serve back a bit yeah and that was my fault. But I listened to the two players and they should have known more than me but again sometimes players like like Greg thinks he could play on the right when he couldn't because he thought he could and then you're gonna tell them yeah I should have said nah we're playing on the fast court and it didn't LTA wise you you're you're Scott's obviously CEO now that was a role I thought you might have been interested in many years ago I know I know it's a job I I to this day regret I didn't get before Scott so how close were you did you ever have conversation or oh yeah they they they said you've got the job yeah and then then they said you've got to have an interview I said fine and I had the interview and then they said well bad luck we're giving it to I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go into memes uh and I said but you anyway so you know what so you were close I didn't realise that yeah I no I again it's something you know you've you achieve a lot in life but I think I could have done something all those years ago very special. Yeah because you know what well at the time you had all the indoor courts as well not only that I I wouldn't I didn't mind what people thought at the at the moment you know you you know what you have to change things you know when you know when a football team like my team Spurs and when they change manager 99 times out of a hundred everybody goes the whole of the backroom staff go 20 staff gone yeah yeah they all go yeah but the LTA they don't do that the guy comes in and he keeps the same people well if the same people have failed for 25 years why are they going to succeed now? So I would have basically stripped the tree you kind of said I would have stripped the tree back to the roots and let the roots grow because the roots are still there.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

So what do you I mean going back to like the 90s what do you think they were not getting right that you well it's bureaucratic.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

I mean it was it was run by the that that that the the system there was a great guy in French tennis called Philip Chatrier and he changed French tennis and he did and you know that's why the course course named after him he was a great man he was married to a lovely English lady actually and I got to know Philip very well and he basically saw the same thing and he he did it what he did bought all the players the ex-players bought the French magazine yeah I don't know what it's called but the French um like our lawn tennis you know so he so he got to the public yeah and so he they had a slightly different system so they got to the public and the public allowed the the the the system to change yeah we can't do that because we've got councillors you've got to be a counsellor county councillors that's the problem what they should do is the cat they should persuade the councillors to change the system to be a business so there is a board of directors that make the decision the councillors can come and watch their tennis they can come to Wimbledon and they're there in the county level but not at the senior level yeah yeah and that was the problem it's still the problem and that's what you have to do you have to change the system to be run and every business is judged by its profits. Now the profits of the LTA because he's not a cash bizate given given it by the by the Wimbledon tournament which again's wrong that can be judged by two things.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

Number one is not how many players are winning Wimbledon how many players are playing the game how many kids are playing at school yeah that's the change I want tennis to be the most popular game at schools it isn't yes yeah and that's why we had so many great lady players out of Britain we had great tennis at the schools they don't have it anymore you've got to get to the grassroots change the system get tennis back into universities you know you've been to America I mean you watch a college football match there's a hundred thousand people watching a college match yeah yeah that's the difference so you've got to change it it's brave man to do that I didn't care because I yeah I didn't need the money I'm not boasting but I didn't at the time I do now by the way anyway so change it and they did it and they still haven't and it still goes on it's better but it's not the right system to produce I want to see Holland has more registered tennis players than Great Britain has it how does it really yeah how well maybe maybe it doesn't now I mean the one Scott Scott likes that statistics he's probably built it up more but I want to see three or four million registered well you know with Bishop Abbey three or four million registered tennis players you know more more grow go grow the difficulty look I I I I I I I was thinking it's quite still quite an expensive sport in this country which kind of you know just to have just for an operator to hire somewhere it's ridiculously I'm I'm with you I think you need to get more people in well I don't know the answer of how to do that.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

No lot of ways I went to the LTA when I was the running the clubs and I offered them I offered them I said we've got to do this I will give you free court time every single day at every single club between seven in the morning and nine but you've got to get them out of bed. Yeah kids have got to come yeah yeah swimming did it my daughter was a swimmer had to get up at four o'clock in the morning I can't why is tennis different why is tennis oh come down at 10 o'clock and have a cup of coffee first load of rubbish yeah load of rubbish yeah get up there and so I offered that and that's what should happen now David Lloyd Leisure and all the other clubs get given Wimbledon tickets they can't have their tickets unless they have a they won't get them unless they have a solid programme and they give free courts in the mornings when no one else is using them to the people and give it to a local coach who is hungry yes and get him in there.

SPEAKER_01 36:47

Free it's free that's it that's all I mean something I don't know why it's come to my mind but the mayor of London just announced that there was going to be a sports day a junior yes what do you show so you should like social plus yeah and and and and and and and Alan Shearer apparently starting to that's what you've got to do.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

But you know what it shouldn't be for private people it should be it should be there.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Yeah absolute standard you go to Spain when I go to Madrid you walk through Madrid city centre you'll see 30 tennis courts just public courts all full well you in the old days when you when you flew over Miami yeah the whole area was lit up with tennis courts yeah what do you think I mean I I again I had Jamie Murray a couple of weeks ago he was only he plays a lot of paddle now and I I love paddle I'm getting into that what I said to him was I was a bit concerned a bit worried for tennis that I I'm now meeting people in the street that I've known for 20 years that have never mentioned tennis to me once and they're saying do you want to play paddle? So do we think that's gonna be tough for tennis to stay keep up with that or it is tough.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

Yeah it is tough it is very tough and therefore you what you've got to do just a bit worried for the tennis no I agree with you 100% and and same America's very worried about the pickle every it is there's thousands there. You've got two tandem sports yeah and America and Britain tend to be like that yeah and you've got pickle in America and pickle in India by the way and and padell here with Europe. Yeah and but you've got to be careful they're so easy to do yeah and I was talking to someone the other day on an investment uh side and Padell in Sweden they called it the Stockholm theory theorem and it's because there's too many now I heard yeah they built a lot during COVID apparently too many yeah and what was going to happen if we're not careful here is a squash situation. Yeah everyone done it a farmer now has got Padel courts well fine but they've got to put other things with it because it will they need other things. That's what I'm agreeing which leads us into what you're you've got some plans now for the sports cars talk to us a little bit about that what's the well I'm the ethos behind it and yeah well I'm you know I I'm just two two things have happened one I I wanted to do these adventure parks uh and I just I'm not in competition to debut Lloyd Leisure at all not at all I mean competing oh long time ago in the 90s yeah yeah I I'm not it's not it's a completely different thing so we're pay as you play no membership come and go lots of families great picnics and all that sort of stuff now what's changed is both games are noisy yes noisy yeah and if you go to uh Venice Beach in LA at a weekend uh at the pickle it's amazing there's people watching there's a noise there's people shouting yeah yeah that's the game was the same well tennis the only time they ever the greatest match I ever played was at Wimbledon against the Italians in that Davis Cup match suddenly the audience started to shout because the Italians were so the British people suddenly lost error no don't know that suddenly they yeah and that's what changed it a little bit but they don't shout in the rallies that's the difference and so now I thought oh we we can put these games both in because the parents could be doing that and then the kids can be on the go-karts and so that's what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01 40:10

So it's more like kind of sports gardens and lots of different sports we've got about 28 different things.

SPEAKER_00 40:15

28 I can't even think of 28 we've got golf simulators which now do everything yeah these golf simulators they do games they do everything I see that's they're not just a simulate they're not just for golf they're for everybody now we've got a thing called exercise cube which is the one of the it's not even big as this room uh three-sided with an open way here and it's unbelievable on reactions and things and it and they they've got it they've got it in a hospital in Germany uh that they can prove or are proving that it's incredibly useful for people with Alzheimer's or onsetting because of the the your you're using your quick yeah and it's keeping this going we're gonna have that it's great it's unbelievable some of the I've never done Instagram until this problem with David Lloyd Ledger so I thank you well I've been in I've been loving your videos I thank him for that because I've never done it I've never believed in networking I've never anyway so it it it's opened my eyes to social media yeah and it it's an amazing media but you've got to make sure it's controlled in my opinion because the kids you know you've got to control it. But I've had so much contact with people and they're sending me things and I'm looking I look at everything you know this is I still get letters from grandmother saying well my my my young grandkid he's a good tennis player and I always reply I always try and put them where they should go I know a local coach there or whatever and so I'm getting all these things sent to me and some of the things one guy sent me one and it's great I'm looking at it it's a it's a golf hat inside the golf hat is is a is a uh like a a simulator that actually it it rests on your brain and when you're exercising it actually reads what's going on in your head. Oh my word and and it can those those things technology nowadays is amazing. So I I want to put them all into one place. Yeah I I'm doing DNA testing and again and it the the the results are incredibly good and it can tell you exactly what you need to eat exactly what exercise you need to do if you've got a possibility of a of a like like you can tell if your parents have got dodgy knees you're gonna have dodgy knees fact. Yeah is that absolutely unless you have an accident yeah and therefore you can know it therefore you can stop it. You can maybe not stop it you can make it better yeah and that's what we're gonna do. So we're building diets around the DNA testing and we're doing not that necessarily to lose weight it's because you're short of turmeric for I'm short of turmeric for some reason. So now I have turmeric and everything. It's not brain surgery and then you can have supplements as well so you put them all on under one roof then you've got something special and this exercise cube it's it's it's it's mind blowingly good in a small space.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

Yeah and I heard you say in one of your videos that uh it's gonna be quite accessible so it's not going to be too expensive.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

It's gonna be about which I love I love that 17 pounds an hour do whatever you want. You can't get under go-kart in for 25 quid yeah yeah yeah so 17 pounds an hour just to try any of the activities come in and we got great food the food's gonna we I met two lovely people one's one's British who are running great restaurants in where I live yeah and they're gonna do all the food everywhere worldwide and and it's it's built like a like a garden. So the indoors is synthetic grass outdoors is synthetic grass because you we want to get wet with all picnic tables we've got food court that you come in and it's very high end street food. Yeah there can be healthy ones it can be yeah your hamburgers but good ones and you just pick 'em up go and have a picnic on the grass.

SPEAKER_01 43:50

Now how many clubs in total are they going to be?

SPEAKER_00 43:52

We're gonna build seven in the next two years.

SPEAKER_01 43:54

Wow. It's gonna go past but the UK and US We've got one in U one in the US in Boca.

SPEAKER_00 43:59

Okay. The rest are seven here and one there.

SPEAKER_01 44:01

Whereabouts in the UK you're looking at?

SPEAKER_00 44:03

Uh Aberdeen, Glasgow, Bister, Colchester, Peterborough, Cardiff, and lots of more coming out.

SPEAKER_01 44:13

It's it's tough, tough to get the land.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

We've had great associations with the councils. Again, we're giving free time.

SPEAKER_01 44:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

Yeah. So they're benefiting. They've got land together.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

But you say you've given free time to a council's.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

We in in in the contracts we're signing, yeah, long-term leases, they're getting used. We did that with David Lloyd Leisure. Did you?

SPEAKER_01 44:31

I didn't realize that.

SPEAKER_00 44:32

Absolutely. So the councils can use it.

SPEAKER_01 44:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:34

The people they can, if it's disabled, we can do disabled. If it's the young kids at schools, we can do that. All free.

SPEAKER_01 44:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

I mean, that's that's what it's all about. Yes. Giving back. Yeah. So I'm in partnership with the council. Yeah. Not against them. Yeah. I don't want to fight David Lloyd Leisure either. Why am I fighting? What am I doing? I'm making more people. I'm giving, you know what? I just want to get people to have a good time. And a half day pass, which we think is going to be the big one, is going to be 28 pounds. So you can come in from 8 in the morning till 1 o'clock, 28 quid. Well, you kind of got a cup of coffee for that in America.

SPEAKER_01 45:11

Well, I'm sure it's going to be a success. It's just different worlds. I know it's going to be a success if you're involved, David. It's definitely a success.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

We're going to try.

SPEAKER_01 45:17

Brilliant. Well, that's your tennis journey. Thank you very much. Thanks for your time. You're not done yet, though. Okay. Because I've now got what we call our match tie break, which is what we ask all of our guests.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

I was good at tie breaks.

SPEAKER_01 45:28

You said yeah, you had a good record, right? In this one. These are the same questions everyone gets. So really you're testing me. Okay, ready. Number one. Who is the greatest tennis player of all time? From my from your position.

SPEAKER_00 45:42

It's a toss-up between Leva and Djokovic.

SPEAKER_01 45:44

Rod Levor and Djokovic.

SPEAKER_00 45:46

Okay, what was uh Well Leva won all those, he won two Grand Slams.

SPEAKER_03 45:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:52

Only two people have won Grand Slam, him and Donald Budge.

SPEAKER_03 45:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:55

Leva won two times. Now, when he won his first one, he won it and then turned pro.

SPEAKER_01 46:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:03

He didn't play again until 25 Grand Slams later. And he won it again.

SPEAKER_01 46:08

And he won it again.

SPEAKER_00 46:10

So he's got to be the best in the middle, hasn't he? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:12

So so he he wasn't he was like, Djokovic.

SPEAKER_01 46:16

You like Djokovic?

SPEAKER_00 46:17

Djokovic. He's won the most. I great attitude. I'd like him to win one more. So the Maggie Margaret Smith is. I used to play with her. I used to train her before Wimbledon. So yeah, anyway. So that that I I think those two.

SPEAKER_01 46:30

Those two. Fantastic. Um, and who's your favourite tennis player of all time? Who is your favourite, your personal favourite?

SPEAKER_00 46:37

Uh Lou Hode. Lou Hode. Yeah, I got to know Lou very well. He died very young.

SPEAKER_01 46:42

He he he opened tennis academies as well, didn't he? Tennis schools. No, no, no. Oh, he did in Spain. He did in the city. He had Lou Hoad Club, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:48

He did it as more as a club. But he was a lovely, lovely man. And we used to go out on the Jew a cup. And I played him. I had match point. And he was 38. Match point, and I I had a good forehand. I hit an unbelievable out forehand to his backhand volley. No, I can I can still picture it. And I got it low below the net level. He sort of wobbled in. He's 38. And he hit a backhand body. He went poof down that, down the line, on the line, and he won. That was it. And he won the tournament.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

And that was that, and that was that. What is your favourite shot to hit? What's your favourite shot to hit?

SPEAKER_00 47:21

Forehand topspin lob.

SPEAKER_01 47:23

Forehand topspin lob. Okay, that was your your go-to. Good. Who's the best player never to win a grand slam?

SPEAKER_00 47:31

I don't know the answer to that, to be quite honest.

SPEAKER_01 47:34

No, no worries. No. No. We've had a lot of different answers. Oh blamey. There's Verevs, there's there's now Bandians, there's Rios, there's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:43

Rios, probably.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

That's been quite a positive answer.

SPEAKER_00 47:46

Yeah, but I think you're probably thinking about it. Rios Enclay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

Yeah, he was quite good. Not a question. Yeah, this one's not tennis related. What's your favourite musical band of all time?

SPEAKER_00 47:55

Ah, the Beatles. The Beatles. And the best singer, Roy Orbison.

SPEAKER_01 47:58

Roy Orbison, yeah. You got to know quite a few of the singers coming into the club. Yeah, I did know that.

SPEAKER_00 48:02

I mean, Roy Orbison, I followed. I I saw Roy Orbison when I was seven, sixteen, seventeen at South Enodian, and he was obviously the lead. And the second second to him was Beatles. Yeah, Beatles. By the end of the tour, they were the best.

SPEAKER_01 48:15

That was my mum's favourite as well. Yeah. Um, this one actually, you'll be yeah, for you, you could give a good answer for this one. Best non-professional tennis player that you've met or heard of. So that is a non-playing celebrity, maybe, that was the best at tennis.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

To play with or to uh standard?

SPEAKER_01 48:31

Standard wise, standard wise.

SPEAKER_00 48:32

The best sort of celebrity one is actually Tony Blair. Was he good? Was he? He could he could have been good. Yeah. And he was good. And he again. And did he come to the clubs? I'm not played with him in Barbados because he used to uh rent Cliff Richards's house, which I built for him.

SPEAKER_01 48:49

Cliff Richards was a good tennis player as well, no?

SPEAKER_00 48:51

Good. Yeah. Tony was very good. Yeah. I'll tell you one one, I don't know how long you're to one quick story. Yeah, please. So so uh we've play we've played a game with Tony and on Cliff's Cliffs Court, we played a doubles, and then the other two went, and Tony said to me, He said, because I used to talk about the Slater. I used to I knew him very well. We we talked long, long and long and yeah with a beer, and anyway. He said, I want you to do the the drill you did with uh Tim Hemman, the thing you call Dinks and Lobs. I said, Tony, I don't think you want to do that. Yeah, he said, I want to do it. I said, Okay, okay. And I used to shout at everybody and go, so I'm doing this and I'm screaming at him, don't go no and I'm shouting, as you know how I shout, and I'm thinking flashing through my mind, headlines in the paper tomorrow. Lloyd kills Blair on call. I thought, oh no. So so so so we're doing it, and he's dead. He is well, you know how tired you get. I don't I don't care. Yeah, dead. And he comes up. So I just had some water, Tony. So he has some water. So about two minutes later, he says, Can I do that again? I said, Tony, you're gonna have a laugh. We did it again, yeah, yeah. Never gives in.

SPEAKER_01 50:05

Never gives in. That's why he got to where he was.

SPEAKER_00 50:06

The greats never get anything in life, they never give in.

SPEAKER_01 50:10

So I remember you won't remember this, but I would have been nine or ten years old, and I remember you coming on court in your suit and tie and doing a dinks of lobs for me. And I was absolutely breathing out my ass at the end of it.

SPEAKER_00 50:22

Well, that that's what I mean. I I did that to Arvin Parv in his first ever Davis Cup match. I got there early because I was the captain, and Arvin was there, and I didn't really know Arvin very well. I relied on Jeremy Bates to tell me which players would play him well because I was again the Davies Cup captaining, which it is now, should be a full-time job. Yes, mine was a part-time job. Yeah, I did it for 10 weeks of the year, and it wasn't enough. Yeah, you know, so so Arvin came. I said, Arvin, you know, I can't run much now, but I'll get changed and we'll we'll do some drills. So I do a drill in ten minutes. Arvin's, I can't play anymore. I said, Arvin, what are you doing? I said, no tennis player should there's one excuse. You you you might not be able to play, but there is no excuse for you not being fit. None, none, none.

SPEAKER_01 51:09

Yeah, true. Um, great answer. Uh who's your dream doubles partner over history? If you could play a doubles match with one person, John Lloyd.

SPEAKER_00 51:18

John Lloyd and Mark Cox.

SPEAKER_01 51:20

I played with both of them, they were great. And they were the dreams. Great. Good, good, good. Great. One rule in tennis you'd change tomorrow. So if you could change one rule in the professional game tomorrow, what would you change? No nets on the serve. Yes. They do that in college tennis, actually. Yeah. Yeah, I like that one. That's good. We haven't had that one. Um, and then lastly, who would play you in a film about your life? Who would play me? There's a bioclic on your life. Who's gonna play you in a film about and um actually because I want I want somebody from your younger days and somebody to play you now. It's a two-part film.

SPEAKER_00 51:52

Okay, Mel Gibson.

SPEAKER_01 51:54

Mel Gibson. Okay, yeah, okay. That's the younger days, is it?

SPEAKER_00 51:58

Stocking and quick.

SPEAKER_01 51:59

Yeah, the younger days, fantastic. I like that. Very good. Well, thank you. That's your match tie break. Very good, very good. Um, and then lastly, as I mentioned to you, I we've we put a question out for questions for you from the community. So I've had two or three people send some mess some questions in, which some of them we might have answered already, but let's give it a go. Okay. So this one came from John Morris.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:20

Knowing what he knows now and how David Lloyd leisure, would he still have sold the clubs back in the day?

SPEAKER_00 52:27

I didn't want to sell.

SPEAKER_01 52:28

You didn't want to sell?

SPEAKER_00 52:29

Never would have sold. But my duty, and that's what people forget, and I teach them today, there's one thing, and I learned from a really good guy called David Cohen, who ran uh Fleming's uh brokerage your duty is to your shareholders, number one. Not to you, not to any other person, to your shareholders.

SPEAKER_01 52:53

So it's for their benefit, like it's their benefit.

SPEAKER_00 52:55

They put the money in, that's it. And I was made an offer my shares were 135 on the stock exchange, doing great. I managed to get a deal with Whitbit for four pounds. Yeah, I had a duty of care.

SPEAKER_01 53:09

Yeah, it had to be done. Yeah. Um now another one, this is actually from a tennis guy called Alex Osterreif. What advice would you give to yourself at 13 years of age?

SPEAKER_00 53:20

Learn a backhand, top spin backhand.

SPEAKER_01 53:22

Learn a top spin backend.

SPEAKER_00 53:23

Yeah, I couldn't hit a top spin backhand, otherwise I would have been a very good single player. I was pretty good anyway. You know, I beat Jimmy, I beat, I beat some good players, I beat Elon Starze, I beat uh Brian Gottfried, I beat I beat some good players.

SPEAKER_01 53:35

Yeah, but not so you reached third round, Wimble, didn't you? Is that right? Yes, yeah, yeah, and semi-final doubles, semi-final doubles and about at all. And there's another quack question from Alex. What advice would you give the parents of a top tennis talent? So uh a top 13 or 14-year-old, what advice would you give uh the parents now?

SPEAKER_00 53:51

Get the best coach from from reputation and test him and then get out of the way.

SPEAKER_01 53:55

Get out of the way, yeah.

unknown 53:57

Good.

SPEAKER_00 53:58

That's why Radicar knows where she is.

SPEAKER_01 54:00

Yeah, yeah. Um, this one's come from Paul. What was the main motivation for building the David Lloyd clubs? We kind of covered a bit of that before, but what was the main motivation?

SPEAKER_00 54:10

Well, I I you know, I was I was I grew up and and and uh you couldn't play tennis. I used to switch, you know, sweep the snow off the courts and stuff, and then I went to work in Canada and everyone was enjoying it, playing indoors and having a great time. I thought I've got to do that. It was a dream. You know what? One bit of advice to everybody read the poem if read it, study it, and learn it. Yeah, it's over the gates of Wimbledon. Yeah, if you dream, but don't make dreams your master. I had a dream, but it didn't control me, I controlled the dream. And I made my dream happen. And if you get it and I I put it in my book I wrote, if you if you really have a dream and you really want to do it, what I've told everybody, add 20% to your expenditure, take 20% off your income, and if it still stacks up, don't let anyone in the world persuade you not to do it.

SPEAKER_01 55:05

That's great. Well, that's fantastic. Well, thanks so much, David, for your time. Um, and I also want to thank you for my parents as well. So thank you for all the support that you gave us as in a junior tennis. Great, great parents. It's been great. Yeah, so thank you very much. Thank you. And tune in for the next episode of Beyond Tennis. Like, subscribe, do all those things that you have to do. Thank you so much. Until next time.