Dan Maskell on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Daniel Maskell (11 April 1908 – 10 December 1992) was an English
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
professional who later became a radio and television commentator on the game. He was described as the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's "voice of tennis", and the "voice of
Wimbledon".
Early life
Maskell was born in
Fulham, London, England. His father was an engineer, and Dan was the seventh of his eight children.
His family could not afford to take up a place at
Latymer Upper School
(Slowly Therefore Surely)
, established =
, closed =
, sister_school = Godolphin and Latymer School
, type = Public schoolIndependent day school
, head_label = H ...
, a grammar school in
Hammersmith, so he was educated at Everington Street School instead. He captained the school football team, and was a
ballboy
Ball boys and ball girls, also known as ball kids are individuals, usually human youths but sometimes List of dog sports, dogs, who retrieve and supply balls for players or officials in sports such as association football, American football, ba ...
at
Queen's Club during the school holidays. Maskell soon decided to concentrate on tennis, and left school in 1923 to become a full-time ballboy at Queen's Club.
Tennis career
Maskell became a junior teaching professional at Queen's in 1924, aged 16, and was given a five-year contract in 1926, teaching
real tennis,
rackets
Racket may refer to:
* Racket (crime), a systematised element of organized crime
** Protection racket, a scheme whereby a group provides protection to businesses or other groups through violence outside the sanction of the law
* Racket (sports equ ...
, and
squash
Squash may refer to:
Sports
* Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets
* Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling
* Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...
in addition to
lawn tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cove ...
. The main tennis championships were then open only to amateurs. Maskell arranged the first
World Professional Championships, played at Queen's Club in October 1927, which he won by defeating
Charles Read. Maskell became British professional champion in 1928, and won the title another 15 times until 1951.
He was coach of the winning British
Davis Cup team of 1933.
He served in the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
in the Second World War. He became a rehabilitation officer in 1940, assisting wounded aircrew to recover their fitness in
Torquay
Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...
and then
Loughborough
Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England, the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University. At the 2011 census the town's built-up area had a population of 59,932 , the second large ...
. He was promoted to the rank of
squadron leader
Squadron leader (Sqn Ldr in the RAF ; SQNLDR in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly sometimes S/L in all services) is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is als ...
, and appointed
OBE in 1945 for his wartime service. After World War Two he continued playing tournaments he won the
Slazenger Pro Championships
The Slazenger Pro Championships its sponsorship name is a defunct men's professional tennis tournament that was played on outdoor grass courts from 1946 to 1964. The tournament featured both singles and doubles competitions.
History
The tournam ...
, (1946-1947) and the Cheltenham Pro Championships in 1946.
After he was
demobilised
Demobilization or demobilisation (see spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and milita ...
, he returned to the
All England Club
The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, also known as the All England Club, based at Church Road, Wimbledon, London, England, is a private members' club. It is best known as the venue for the Wimbledon Championships, the only Grand Slam ...
, and continued as a tennis professional. He coached members of the
British Royal Family, including
Princess Alexandra,
Prince Charles,
Princess Anne
Anne, Princess Royal (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born 15 August 1950), is a member of the British royal family. She is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the only sister of K ...
and
Prince Andrew
Prince Andrew, Duke of York, (Andrew Albert Christian Edward; born 19 February 1960) is a member of the British royal family. He is the younger brother of King Charles III and the third child and second son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince ...
. He was chairman of the Professional Tennis Coaches Association, and became the first professional to be admitted as an honorary member of the All England Club in 1953. He retired as a tennis professional in 1955, but was then employed by the
Lawn Tennis Association
The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the national governing body of tennis in Great Britain, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
Founded in 1888, the LTA promotes all levels of lawn tennis. It believes that tennis can provide "physica ...
as its training manager until 1973. He was appointed
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in 1982 for services to tennis.
Commentating career
Maskell began commentating on the
Wimbledon Championships
The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is pla ...
in 1949 as an expert summariser for BBC Radio alongside
Max Robertson, before switching to television in 1951 with
Freddie Grisewood. He remained the BBC's main tennis commentator until his retirement in 1991. When commenting on a particularly exciting piece of play or an outstanding shot, he often said "Oh, I say!", which came to be regarded as his
catchphrase
A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...
.
He was also the BBC commentator when tennis resumed as an Olympic sport, first as a demonstration sport in
Los Angeles in 1984, and then as a full-medal sport in
Seoul in 1988.
The last Wimbledon match that he commentated on was the 1991 Men's Singles final in which
Michael Stich
Michael Detlef Stich (, ; born 18 October 1968) is a German former professional tennis player. He won the men's singles title at Wimbledon in 1991, the men's doubles titles at both Wimbledon and the Olympic Games in 1992, and was a singles r ...
defeated
Boris Becker. The last tennis match he commentated on for BBC Television was the 1991 Grand Slam Cup final between
David Wheaton and
Michael Chang
Michael Te-pei Chang (born February 22, 1972) is an American former professional tennis player and coach. He is the youngest man in history to win a singles major, winning the 1989 French Open at 17 years and 109 days old. Chang won a total of ...
. At Wimbledon in 1992, Maskell was presented with a silver salver by the
Duke of Kent
Duke of Kent is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, most recently as a royal dukedom for the fourth son of King George V. Since 1942, the title has been held by Prince Edwar ...
. Maskell claimed to have attended every day of play at Wimbledon from 1929 onwards, and that he had first attended Wimbledon in 1924 when he saw the women's singles final.
Private life
Maskell married his first wife,
Constance Cox
Constance Cox (25 October 1912 – 8 July 1998) was a British script writer and playwright, born in Sutton, Surrey.
Life and career
Cox was born Constance Shaw in Sutton, Surrey, in 1912. She married Norman Cox, a fighter pilot, who was kille ...
, in 1936. They had a daughter, Robin, and a son, Jay. Outside tennis, he enjoyed skiing and golf. His son, an accountant who qualified as a private pilot, was killed when his small aircraft crashed in
The Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...
in 1970. His wife drowned while swimming at
Antigua in 1979. Maskell married his second wife, Kathleen Latto, in 1980. He published an autobiography, ''From Where I Sit'', in 1988.
He suffered from
prostate cancer in later life. On 10 December 1992, he died in his sleep, of
heart failure, at
East Surrey Hospital
East Surrey Hospital is a National Health Service hospital in the Whitebushes area to the south of Redhill, in Surrey, England. It is managed by the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.
History
The hospital has its origins in the Reigate C ...
in Redhill, survived by his second wife and daughter.
He was posthumously inducted as a member of the
International Tennis Hall of Fame
The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, grass tennis courts, an indo ...
in 1996.
The Dan Maskell Tennis Trust was founded in 1997 as a restricted fund of The Tennis Foundation, and became an independent charity in 2010. Its aims are to raise money to help disabled people to play tennis in three main areas:
wheelchair tennis
Wheelchair tennis is one of the forms of tennis adapted for wheelchair users. The size of the court, net height and rackets are the same, but there are two major differences from pedestrian tennis: athletes use specially designed wheelchairs, ...
, deaf tennis and tennis for people with learning disabilities.
Dan Maskell Tennis Trust
/ref>
References
* Jonathan Martin, ‘Maskell, Daniel (1908–1992)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 201
accessed 24 June 2013
The Independent
The Telegraph
External links
Loughborough University Archives
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maskell, Dan
1908 births
1992 deaths
English sports broadcasters
English male tennis players
People from Fulham
Sportspeople from London
English tennis commentators
International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees
BBC sports presenters and reporters
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Professional tennis players before the Open Era
British male tennis players
Tennis people from Greater London