Wonderful World of Tennis / Editor / 27 July 2009 / Leave a comment

One of the great joys of my days trotting the world covering sport was the England press football team. On the morning of internationals the travelling media would take on the newspaper and TV men from the home country. We always had our own sponsored kit (courtesy of Umbro thanks to letting their rep have a game), proper referees and linesmen and nearly always played in a local stadium.

But best of all was the chance as a pretty ordinary Sunday League player to find yourself sharing a midfield with Trevor Brooking, or feeding passes to Garth Crooks up front, or sitting and holding in front of the defence while Terry Butcher issued instructions on where to stand and who to mark.

The point you realised about the likes of Butcher and Brooking was that they had won dozens of England caps and spent years at the top of the game because, apart from being richly talented, they simply loved playing. Butch, especially, was an inspiration. The years might have robbed him of the legs to play proper internationals, but when he pulled on the England press shirt he was every bit as committed as that day in 1989 when he fought through a desperate goalless draw in Sweden with blood staining his head bandage to make sure Bobby Robson's team qualified for Italia 90.

Now Andy Murray might not have needed blood soaked bandages yesterday when he turned up at Eastbourne to play in the County Week festival, but in its way the pictures that appear today of him competing in a wide open park say promising things about his assault on the peak of world tennis.

Murray, and his brother Jamie, turned out for the North of Scotland against Hertfordshire. You couldn't find a bigger contrast to his last public appearance on court at Wimbledon. There were no spectators, no linespeople, not even an umpire.

What's more this wasn't a stunt. There was no TV cameras, no radio, no planned media. The only photographer was the local freelance who must have thought it was Christmas and his birthday all rolled into one when he found out who was playing. One minute he was struggling to get paid thirty quid from the Eastbourne Gazette for his work, the next he had a set of pictures to flog to newspapers and magazines all round the world.

What Murray's surprise appearance tells you, crucially, is that here is a young man who first and foremost is in love with his game. It also says that he's fully rested and fit after Wimbledon to be able to enjoy a day's fun tennis (he beat Hertfordshire investment manager David Corrie fairly comfortably, as you might expect).

And that augurs well for the US Open in little more than a month's time when Britain's best player will get back to the serious business of trying to win his first Grand Slam event. Murray is [5.1] second favourite behind Roger Federer at the moment and if he's turning up at Flushing Meadows fit and full of appetite that might just be a decent punt.

If you want a longer shot then have a look at the wide open spread between [2.5] and [30] for him to end the year by nudging up to number two in the world rankings. It's tempting to put up a bet at around [20] and see if you can get it matched.

Five things you might not know about Eastbourne

1. If you've ever sat on the windy, rainswept beach you'll be amazed to learn it's officially the sunniest place in Britain

2. After 1066 it was given as a gift by William the Conqueror to his half-brother Robert, Count of Mortain. No suggestion he played tennis, though!

3. Hitler's plan for invading Britain, codenamed Operation Sealion, envisaged Eastbourne beach as the landing ground.

4. The town's biggest scandal centred on Doctor John Bodkin Adams, who was tried at the Old Bailey for the murder of an elderly widow. He was found not guilty, but evidence said he'd been left gifts - including two Rolls Royces - in the wills of 132 patients in ten years

5. Nearby Beachy Head is notorious as Britain's worst suicide spot with an average 23 people jumping off each year. It's fourth in the world table behind Mount Fiji in Japan (70 per year), the Golden Gate Bridge (30) and Niagara Falls (23)