Author Topic: Grandfather on TV at Wimbledon (tennis) - not sure of year  (Read 2900 times)

Offline kob3203

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Grandfather on TV at Wimbledon (tennis) - not sure of year
« on: Saturday 07 November 20 08:27 GMT (UK) »
My grandfather was a sound engineer, and we all recall mum crying out "Dad's on TV!" during Wimbledon one year. The umpire had a problem with his microphone and the game was stopped for a couple of minutes while my grandfather climbed up to the umpire's chair and fixed it.

We've been trying to narrow it down and best we can come up with is that it was the final (or possibly semi-final, maybe even quarter finals) of the women's singles, some time around 1978-1980.

I've found four complete matches on the official Wimbledon channel at Youtube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwx9gNibGUz7vmg3eo-iJwDBy5cRWfTwx - 1980 Evert/Goolagong final, 1980 Navratilova/King quarter final, 1978 Navratilova/Evert final, and 1977 evert/Wade semi-final. Each is a couple of hours long so I haven't watched them, just quickly scanned through and I can't see anything in them.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to how I could track this down ?

(I'm really hoping against hope that there's a tennis fanatic reading this who'll answer "Oh yes, I remember that, it was ..." - ever the optimist!  ;D )
Most roots researched back to the early/mid 1800s. Years noted as 'pre' refer to my direct ancestors, although I'm interested in any relatives:
Mitchelstown, Co.Cork: CORBETT (pre1935), SWEENEY  (pre1935), CUSACK? (pre1894), KEYS? (pre1894)
Mallow, Co.Cork: BROWNE (1895-1935)
Caher, Co.Tipp: BROWNE (pre1895), PURTELL(pre1895)
Cashel, Co.Tipp: FANNING (pre1886)
Llanelly, Carms: GRIFFITHS (pre1934), REYNOLDS (pre1901), WILLIAMS (pre1934)
Ton Pentre, Glams: LEWIS (pre1901)

Offline kob3203

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Most roots researched back to the early/mid 1800s. Years noted as 'pre' refer to my direct ancestors, although I'm interested in any relatives:
Mitchelstown, Co.Cork: CORBETT (pre1935), SWEENEY  (pre1935), CUSACK? (pre1894), KEYS? (pre1894)
Mallow, Co.Cork: BROWNE (1895-1935)
Caher, Co.Tipp: BROWNE (pre1895), PURTELL(pre1895)
Cashel, Co.Tipp: FANNING (pre1886)
Llanelly, Carms: GRIFFITHS (pre1934), REYNOLDS (pre1901), WILLIAMS (pre1934)
Ton Pentre, Glams: LEWIS (pre1901)

Offline kob3203

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Re: Grandfather on TV at Wimbledon (tennis) - not sure of year
« Reply #2 on: Saturday 07 November 20 08:34 GMT (UK) »
I'd thought about contacting the BBC and ITV, but I think I'd stand a better chance there if I could be more precise about the match.

So this is really a "Does anybody remember..." and "which match was it?"
Most roots researched back to the early/mid 1800s. Years noted as 'pre' refer to my direct ancestors, although I'm interested in any relatives:
Mitchelstown, Co.Cork: CORBETT (pre1935), SWEENEY  (pre1935), CUSACK? (pre1894), KEYS? (pre1894)
Mallow, Co.Cork: BROWNE (1895-1935)
Caher, Co.Tipp: BROWNE (pre1895), PURTELL(pre1895)
Cashel, Co.Tipp: FANNING (pre1886)
Llanelly, Carms: GRIFFITHS (pre1934), REYNOLDS (pre1901), WILLIAMS (pre1934)
Ton Pentre, Glams: LEWIS (pre1901)

Offline Romilly

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Re: Grandfather on TV at Wimbledon (tennis) - not sure of year
« Reply #3 on: Saturday 07 November 20 15:19 GMT (UK) »

Presumably your Grandfather was BBC Staff?

Can you tell us his name? (My OH is an ex-BBC Cameraman, who would have worked on it during that timeframe).

Romilly.
Any census information included in this post is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Researching:
Wilson, Warren, Dulston, Hooper, Duffin, Petty, Rees, Davies, Williams, Newman, Dyer, Hamilton, Edmeads, Pattenden.


Offline kob3203

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Re: Grandfather on TV at Wimbledon (tennis) - not sure of year
« Reply #4 on: Saturday 07 November 20 15:50 GMT (UK) »
The name's Edward (Ted) Corbett. He actually worked for ITT/STC - my father says he worked at Wimbledon every year. We recently found his identity card from 1973, indicating that he worked for the PA Hire department.
We know that he also worked as a sound engineer at the Royal Albert Hall - I personally remember sitting with him in the sound engineer's box there when I was a kid, and we've just found his security pass for Miss World 1972 - position: telecoms & PA. (Miss World was held at the Albert Hall twenty times between 1969-1988 - https://www.royalalberthall.com/about-the-hall/news/2014/november/miss-world-at-the-royal-albert-hall/)
Most roots researched back to the early/mid 1800s. Years noted as 'pre' refer to my direct ancestors, although I'm interested in any relatives:
Mitchelstown, Co.Cork: CORBETT (pre1935), SWEENEY  (pre1935), CUSACK? (pre1894), KEYS? (pre1894)
Mallow, Co.Cork: BROWNE (1895-1935)
Caher, Co.Tipp: BROWNE (pre1895), PURTELL(pre1895)
Cashel, Co.Tipp: FANNING (pre1886)
Llanelly, Carms: GRIFFITHS (pre1934), REYNOLDS (pre1901), WILLIAMS (pre1934)
Ton Pentre, Glams: LEWIS (pre1901)

Offline Romilly

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Re: Grandfather on TV at Wimbledon (tennis) - not sure of year
« Reply #5 on: Saturday 07 November 20 16:53 GMT (UK) »

The name doesn’t ring any bells, -  (but not surprising as not BBC).

Utube is probably your best bet.

Romilly
Any census information included in this post is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Researching:
Wilson, Warren, Dulston, Hooper, Duffin, Petty, Rees, Davies, Williams, Newman, Dyer, Hamilton, Edmeads, Pattenden.

Offline kob3203

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Re: Grandfather on TV at Wimbledon (tennis) - not sure of year
« Reply #6 on: Sunday 08 November 20 07:06 GMT (UK) »
Thanks for checking.

Any recording really needs to be the full match because the bit where the umpire's mike is being fixed definitely won't be in any shortened version. So far the only full matches I've found online are those four from the official Wimbledon channel on YouTube. Any other full match uploads at YouTube, unless they're official ones from TV companies, are going to illegal and probably taken down rather promptly. As I've said the only ones I've found are those four official ones.

I've done various google searches and discovered that most (if not all) of the finals and semi-finals seem to be available on DVD, at a cost obviously. Not being a tennis fan, and with such a large number of possibilities, that's a non-starter for me.

So my only real hope is that some tennis fan with a Wimbledon DVD collection will see this and tell me which match.

It's a long shot I know.
,
Edited to add a few links I found (unsure how trustworthy/reliable they are, except the obvious ones) which mostly don't seem to be of much help. Adding them to remind myself what I've already tried.
https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/about_wimbledon/archive_footage.html which links to
https://www.imgreplay.com/client/Wimbledon (you need to click one of the headings to get rid of the error)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/front_page/2823537.stm
https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/questions/programme-information/contributor-access
https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/contact/index.html didn't try contacting them. Maybe once I know which match
http://www.tennisondvds.com/pag2a.html simply a list of tennis DVDs
https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/old-matches-on-dvd-or-download.234089/ indicates DVDs are available for many matches, and it's got a tennis forum

The idea of tennis forums hadn't crossed my mind until I stumbled into one. Posting on one of those might be a worth a try

 
Most roots researched back to the early/mid 1800s. Years noted as 'pre' refer to my direct ancestors, although I'm interested in any relatives:
Mitchelstown, Co.Cork: CORBETT (pre1935), SWEENEY  (pre1935), CUSACK? (pre1894), KEYS? (pre1894)
Mallow, Co.Cork: BROWNE (1895-1935)
Caher, Co.Tipp: BROWNE (pre1895), PURTELL(pre1895)
Cashel, Co.Tipp: FANNING (pre1886)
Llanelly, Carms: GRIFFITHS (pre1934), REYNOLDS (pre1901), WILLIAMS (pre1934)
Ton Pentre, Glams: LEWIS (pre1901)

Offline Romilly

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Re: Grandfather on TV at Wimbledon (tennis) - not sure of year
« Reply #7 on: Sunday 08 November 20 09:41 GMT (UK) »

BBC Redux has a store of transmitted programs. (Try Googling BBC Redux).

However, you have to be current BBC Staff to access it.

Perhaps someone on this Forum is?

Best of Luck, Romilly.
Any census information included in this post is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Researching:
Wilson, Warren, Dulston, Hooper, Duffin, Petty, Rees, Davies, Williams, Newman, Dyer, Hamilton, Edmeads, Pattenden.

Offline ThrelfallYorky

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Re: Grandfather on TV at Wimbledon (tennis) - not sure of year
« Reply #8 on: Sunday 08 November 20 16:01 GMT (UK) »
Would Wimbledon not be helpful? (Nice little story in it for them)
Threlfall (Southport), Isherwood (lancs & Canada), Newbould + Topliss(Derby), Keating & Cummins (Ireland + lancs), Fisher, Strong& Casson (all Cumberland) & Downie & Bowie, Linlithgow area Scotland . Also interested in Leigh& Burrows,(Lancashire) Griffiths (Shropshire & lancs), Leaver (Lancs/Yorks) & Anderson(Cumberland and very elusive)