The Great Fletch

The Age

Saturday October 18, 2008

Reviewer, Dianne Dempsey

The Great Fletch

Hugh Lunn

ABC Books, $32.95

THIS WONDERFULLY entertaining biography succeeds where many fail - it gives the reader a strong sense of the person being written about. Hugh Lunn's account of his childhood friend, tennis champion Ken Fletcher, is written with love, humour and without pulling any punches. Early in his career, Fletcher famously lost his temper at Wimbledon, kicked the ball and watched while it went sailing through the air, only to land on the canopy of the Royal Box.

You gain a strong sense of who Fletcher was by understanding the nature of his working-class childhood that was spent in Annerley Road, Brisbane. His parents were in their 40s when he was born and as an only child he was always seeking out bigger families. His propensity to cherish hundreds of friends was one of his most appealing characteristics.

Lunn says that Fletcher was dismissive of his tennis career, despite being a member of Australia's 1962 winning Davis Cup team and winning the mixed doubles grand slam with Margaret Court.

Fletcher always contended that Court was the best tennis player ever because she pushed herself on, despite a lack of self confidence.

He once told Lunn that whenever she got the wobbles and was missing returns he would say to her, "Marg, just shut your eyes and belt the shit out of it!"

© 2008 The Age

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