Where have all the Characters gone!

[KevinStangoe]

Following on from the Scots at Commonwealth Games thread where "Soup" ?? (Shaky!!!) mentions the lack of characters in the game of today. I don't think that this is exclusive to badminton, all sports seem to be lacking.

When i was a junior many moons ago Scottish Badminton was full of characters. Who can forget Jungle!! Jim Ansari was as outspoken and colourful on the court as he was off it. The SBU's own Illie Nastase!! He was always fun to watch and play against. I can still picture that windmill start to his backhand serve.
Dan Travers was also fun on and off the court. Hammie with his cross court net shots you knew were coming but had difficulty reaching. Tony Dawson and Ronnie Conway playing singles against each other and taking hours to finish! Billy Henderson and Dave Curran travelling to tournaments in a camper van! Billy H and his rally car!!

Also have to mention the Godfathers Grandfather and his legacy of the "Cut away Grip" which he did to all his rackets to help his backhand grip.

Anybody got any other names and memories, favourite tournaments etc.

[Martin Dew-Hattens]

Your comments take me back a bit. Can't place many of those names but Dan .....

I shall never forget Dan in MCDonnalds Tokyo attempting to get a cheeseburger in his mouth in one go.
Try it its no so easy. No room to move and difficult to breath. Very funny at the time.

[KevinStangoe]

I think we could run a very long thread on Dan's escapades on and off the court.

Some of the characters i mentioned played mainly in the Scottish tournaments. I'm sure you remember Hammie or to give him his full title Gordon Hamilton.

One more name for the mix, Dave Joiner from Perth. Dave was a left handed doubles specialist for whom the 5 minute break was invented so he could have a fag between sets!!

One for Shaky or Soup as he is now calling himself. Just happened to have an old SBU magazine next to my PC and low and behold there is a big report of the 9-0 win over Holland in the Thomas Cup at the end of 1981. What i want to know is, do you still have the velvet jacket you are pictured wearing?

[soup]

kevin

the holland game was my first international with alec. the result was expected to be 5- 4 either way and we totally played out of our skins.
the velvet jacket??? well i was planning for it's re- launch ie NOW!! Really coming back in fashion. Characters?? For me Mark Neil who was a pretty handy doubles player was a real character. Then despite not having a personaility the bird man of alcatraz (eddie murty) was a real bypass!!! he had such a poor character he was a comedian!! The man (wait for it) that played in the same set of whites for a week at inverclyde without washing them!! Bill Tait bless his soul. Tom Pettigrew.
dave joiner was a real gem. do you know where he is?? inverclyde holds some of my fondest memories along with travelling through to Meadowbank on cold winters mornings by train, to the best place to play badminton.
Oh and then Chalky White, locking himself out of his car on his day off at Inverclyde, wearing his glof shoes. the family arrive to see him and he walks about the front in Largs, with the lowd noise of spiked golf shoes trampling the promenade concrete.

soup

[soup]

kev


having spent 18 years in fashion/sport and sales, i feel your comments on characters are very important for the SBU and the game in general to consider. Ok you can't manufacture characters BUT when you see all the fannying about with scoring systems in an attempt to make the game more exciting, I think they are all missing the point.
in sales, i once worked for the worst man manager i have ever known. he wanted all sales persons to sell in the same way, using the same lingo and took away the most important aspect of anyones strengths, your own personality. Looking back to the strongest period of the game, Dan and Billy were two totally different players as was Bill McCoig. If they had decided collectively to coach at that point, there would have been three different personalities, differing views, ways of playing the game and thinking. three totally unique ways of coaching the game. you could have had billy purley focus on forecourt, dan on rear and bill mccoig on movement tactics and gamesmanship. i don't subscribe and never have to the group coaching camps. yes it's important to bond and have bounce games. jim ansari when i look back was way ahead of his time. the dreaded backhand serve (which was really accurate) and a real passion for winning AND most importantly not short in causing controversy.

INDIVIDUALITY BREAD THE CHARACTERS OF THE PAST.


SOUP