Roy Charman Overview

ROY CHARMAN

Head Groundsman, Eastbourne Lawn Tennis Club

You`ve probably seen them at the circus or on the TV, those very clever people who balance spinning plates on sticks. The trick is to get all the plates spinning at the same time. Actually achieving it requires considerable mental as well as physical agility.

As an analogy for the preparation of a sporting event it appears about right.

The juggler(groundsman) usually begins by getting a dozen or so plates uo and running. At some point a judgment is made as to how far to go before getting back to keep those first plates running. Can`t leave it too long or a plate will fall. It could fall and break but, if you`re lucky, you may catch on it`s way down and get it running again.

On the way back up the line all the plates get a couple of turns to keep them going, and then he gets a few more going as well.

The end comes when all those plates are up and running to tremendous applauseand, this is where the analogy breaks down somewhat, he takes a bow.

And then he`s off again to get all those spinning plates down and, with a little luck, they will all end up stacked on the table with no pieces on the floor.