But he is a great favourite with the players and as he is retiring after this Wimbledon a leaving card is

But he is a great favourite with the players, and, as he is retiring after this Wimbledon, a leaving card is at present being passed around and signed by the competitors. The British player Mark Petchey explained that the locker-room acts as a sanctuary "It's social place, where you can get away from the crowds. The showdown by the showers, however, was hardly the Thriller in Manila and it was by no means the first time that heated words had disturbed the sanctuary under Centre Court. "I can't help but recall, in the week of his death," said Ken Rosewall, "that Pancho Gonzales himself was quite a fiery one in the locker-room." Any particular incidents? "None to be published." Surely Eddie Hewitt, a long-time fixture as chief locker- room steward, would have many tales to tell. Buckingham Palace and the Kremlin may have opened their doors to the public, but not the men's locker room.

"Little snippets about what goes on in there get out," Peter McNamara said, "but never the whole story." So last Tuesday, when the news broke about Patrick Rafter and Todd Woodbridge almost coming to blows in after a doubles match, it seemed that the lid had finally come off this secret world. And on holiday, when people ask what I do, I tell them I'm a teacher.. WE HAVE just about seen it all, from Tarango's tantrum to Henman's henpeck, yet there is a corner of Wimbledon that remains forever All England. When I hooked my hat or my net, they muttered in amazement that I suffered the same mundane problems as the average fisher.

It gets hard to enjoy your angling when your audience expects every cast to be perfect and catch a large fish.So now I keep a very low profile, preferring to perpetuate the myth rather than destroy it. If it fails, they attribute it not to bad advice, but to their own inadequacies.The more my advice is successful, the more people believe I'm one hell of a fisherman. It reached the stage where, if I fished on the local river, a crowd of youngsters came down to watch. Because they believe they are working with inside information, so to speak, they approach the problem with fresh enthusiasm. But they expect an answer, so I give them one.And here's a funny thing: it works more often than not. If you catch a lot of fish, that's no more than people expect.

If you don't, they question what the hell you're doing writing about it in the first place.Even in our little village, locals come round with all sorts of technical questions about the correct sort of hackle to tie a blue-winged olive, or how to catch carp when all the standard methods have failed To tell the truth, I generally haven't got a clue. I only sea-fished occasionally so this wasn't much of a problem, though in turn it made me more competitive than I cared to be.This same phenomenon occurs when you're an angling writer You're an expert, like it or not It's a no-win situation. Suddenly, everyone wanted to beat me, and when they did so, they boasted to their mates about how they had caught more than the national champion. The following year the winner picked up two cars.)But winning that competition uncovered something I had never experienced as a no-hoper. They had no pictures, which in fishing circles is like missing the winner of the men's singles at Wimbledon. Fortunately, trolling through the files revealed a snapshot of me drinking coffee in the office And that was the picture that went in (Ironically, my main prize was a colour television.