Nature Valley Eastbourne

Yesterday I went with Bob Tickler to the grass court tennis championships held in Eastbourne’s Devonshire Park.

Bob is no expert on tennis though that has never prevented him from expressing his views but his take on its organisation, facilities and play is of value. Personally I prefer the smaller less corporate venues like Eastbourne to stuffy up-itself Wimbledon though there is no shortage of commercialism in the numerous advertise hoardings and banners.

Bob’s comment was that if you have a sponsor and advertising revenue you should do more to ensure tickets do not fall into the hands of the ticket agencies. The fat lady next to us -a tennis aficionado – was aghast at how much we paid as there were still empty seats.

The first game was between fifth seed Fernando Verdasco and American Sam Querrey.

Querrey is a tall, lanky player in the mould of Roscoe Tanner.

Verdasco had more strokes but a poorer temperament. He soon became enraged by the inaccurate calling of the line judges. Next to us was his coach, a friend and gorgeous partner who rather enraptured Bob.

I said to the lady next to us that Querrey would win – as he did in straight sets – as he had the calmer temperament.

Next up was Angelique Kleber against Simone Halep, two players with pedigree.

Both players accompanied each shot with a coital shriek. Kleber played some superb ground shots, particularly on her forehand, to win 6-4, 6-3.

I guess the dominance of Serena Williams and then a younger generation prevented the German, now 31, from winning more trophies.

By now it was baking hot and there was little shelter.

To their credit there were regular announcements to rehydrate -which we did with Pimm’s – and find shade in the grounds.

The next match between Kiki Bertens of Holland and Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus was not of the same quality as the previous one and so we decided to leave before its end.

This meant we missed Kyle Edmund disposing of Dan Evans.

At £50 the face value of the ticket the day would have been good value. At £117 it was not.

However the tournament officials did their best better hot weather than the rain of the past few weeks – and the play of Angelique Kerber was memorable.

There is a large space with Cafe and bar and the outer courts are accessible.

Best of all we had a lovely train journey through the South Downs rather than a crowded District Line to Wimbledon and were home well within an hour.