Wensum Column: Fakenham writer Jim Harding discusses Wimbledon and his time teaching PE at Fakenham Grammar

In his weekly column, Fakenham writer Jim Harding discusses Wimbledon and his time teaching PE...

As I write, the Wimbledon fortnight has just begun and I’m immediately taken back to my youthful era when our television seemed to follow match after match at the courts. Our family played tennis a bit on the local hard courts and I was inspired by so many great players, most of whom seemed to be either American or Australian.

That has changed significantly, of course. My heroes were the likes of Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Jimmy Connors and Stan Smith. I never connected with John McEnroe, probably because of his manners - or lack of them. Arguably he was the best of the lot. We lived just down the line from Wimbledon to enable me to make the occasional visit by train so I managed a few memorable days out.

As mentioned previously, when I was appointed to teach PE at Fakenham Grammar, I was delighted to know that the school hired a coach or two every year to take students down to attend the tournament. It became a favourite sport and as the school had both hard and grass courts there was great enthusiasm to play. I must say that from a PE teacher’s angle, it was quite difficult to pass down skills to teenagers, many of whom were inclined to ‘overhit’.

Our courts were surrounded by fairly high barriers of netting but the tendency to lose control when hitting a shot seemed to be part of just about everyone’s learning curve. If anything, boys were rather more aggressive than girls in this respect. Anyway, hunting for lost balls became a regular part of most tennis PE lessons. As a competent player - nothing more - it thrilled me to see the progress that some were able to make in the summer weeks which the timetable devoted to this brilliant game.

So much of it depended on control of the racket and I had to acknowledge that most of them would not be able to practice any of the skills associated with this between lessons or at weekends- as they might manage to do for other sports. I guess it made tennis a more difficult game to master- despite its basic simplicity - than other racket sports. For inclusiveness, everyone progressed more quickly when it came to badminton, if only for the fact that a shuttlecock floated through the air and was somehow more manageable than a tennis ball. Badminton was played indoors at our sports centre and connecting with a shuttlecock, even with force, meant it did not usually fly far or get lost.

A tennis ball was quite a different proposition. I enjoyed both tennis and badminton and appreciated their differences but this takes time and I guess a school can only go so far in nurturing a love and success in practising particular sports. The hope is that youngsters will find a way to continue playing beyond their school years, probably via a local club or sports centre. In that regard, Fakenham, despite its small size, has fairly good provision.

It’s not often appreciated that a school can be so important in nurturing talents which already exist to a degree in many youngsters. But there’s a limit, of course, which is predicated on a number of factors such as parental encouragement, local facilities, costs and time. Hard-pressed families inevitably have their own priorities so that sports can often be pushed aside.

I used to spend hours just kicking a ball about in the dead-end road outside our house, sometimes on my own and sometimes with friends, which contributed to my enthusiasm for football. This obsession was a great help when I went to school and was able to take part in organised games and perhaps be slightly ahead in terms of basic skills. Anyway, I went on to play for my county, Surrey, at youth level when managers were the principal guides.

Looking back, this route led me to a greater understanding and development which I’m thankful for enabling me to play the game at a higher level in succeeding years, both here and in Australia. It may not be overstating it to suggest that those early practices were crucial in shaping my reasonable success at playing the game as an adult, and even being paid to do so for a period.