“I am proud to come from Devon,” says Sue Barker. “Is there a better county? I don’t think so. I have been in most parts of Britain and there are some fabulous places but Devon beats them all. Perhaps I am biased.”
Sue was indeed born and brought up in Paignton in an ordinary family and enjoyed permanently being by the seaside.
“I think growing up in that environment made me an outdoor person although I must say that as a family we used to curl up together on the settee and watch black and white television, especially of course when tennis was on. I loved watching Wimbledon on TV and never guessed that one day I would actually play there.”
Sue went to the Marist Convent School in Paignton and was delighted to discover that the school loved tennis as well.
“Everyone seemed to be tennis crazy and we even had a trip to Wimbledon which was fantastic,” Sue recalls. “I played and loved every minute of it. Having had a lot of encouragement from the school and at home I won a junior schools championship. “When I when I was ten I was selected for special training by Arthur Roberts, who was one of the most successful coaches in the sport. He had coached the great Angela Mortimer who was Wimbledon champion in 1961.
“Arthur was brilliant to me and I learned so much. He was a hard taskmaster but very fair and always encouraging. I remember that when I was old enough he started entering me into tournaments overseas and used to tell me that he was booking a one-way travel ticket and that I would have to earn the return ticket by working hard and having some success in the tournament.”
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة June 2020 من Devon Life.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة June 2020 من Devon Life.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Legends Of Lockdown
A new online exhibition features an array of Devon’s lockdown legends exploring their lives and communities during the pandemic restrictions
Look Out For Intelligent Slime!
Think you know your waxcaps from your dog vomit slime mould? Exmoor’s conservation team needs our help to record the pretty and the not-so-pretty wildlife living in this unique national park. finds out more
Retirement redefined
Millbrook Village’s Leah Jackson talks to AMELIA THURSTON about how wellbeing and quality of life are at the heart of the later living community
Look to the future
SU CARROLL talks to Sir Antony Gormley about his contribution to Devon’s artistic life
Natural beauty
Working with nature and the cycle of seasons, a new flower farm is blossoming in a fold of the beautiful River Teign valley
THE DIARY
SU CARROLL recommends the best events across the county this month
My kinda city...
With the perfect balance of country and city life, Exeter still shines as the jewel of the West. STEPHANIE DARKES shares her insider insights into the city that stole her heart
Letting themselves in for hard work...
Renovating your entire house is tough. Renovating someone else’s seven-bedroom Grade-II listed Georgian farmhouse and turning it into a high-end holiday let is even trickier. CHRISSY HARRIS went to Kingston see how it’s done
Lessons from history
History author Ian Mortimer has taken readers on travels through time from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution. STU LAMBERT asks him how our country and our county changed in Regency times
A Reform character
The owner of North Devon’s longest standing brewery is about to take on a new challenge, as CATHERINE COURTENAY discovers
