Alan Chalmers

Location: Midhurst, West Sussex
About me...

For 35 years I have run a small book dealing business specialising in literature related to Lawn and Real Tennis; thus I have naturally become a well-schooled tennis historian; I have taken my business to more than 100 tennis tournaments around the UK and Europe trading my books of all eras. This has been a wonderful way to make a living during which time I have met and chatted with a huge number of great tennis players whose Wimbledon titles go back as far as 1924.

About my Talk...

As I am a stand-alone speaker and don’t require any equipment to deliver my talk I am happy to entertain as an After Dinner Speaker as well as at less formal venues.  I speak preferably within the southern counties, as I live in West Sussex.

If you find yourself without a speaker at short notice, I may be able to help so please give me a ring.

Fee:

I charge £125 including travel expenses within 20 miles of my home address.  For venues further afield, I make a travel charge @ 24p per mile.

My Contact Details:
Phone:

01730-816116

07860-395798

BEHIND THE SCENES ON CENTRE COURT

For 40 years I was the All England Lawn Tennis Club’s steward on Centre Court with the responsibility for organising and overseeing the seating arrangements and security of the great tennis players whose guests came up to watch the matches. With 4 matches a day this involved much complicated reassigning of seats to the next lot of guests, amongst whom were many top celebrities. My first was Frank Sinatra and amongst the many others were Barbra Streisand, Larry Adler, Lewis Hamilton, David Beckham, Sting, and Kate Middleton’s family. I met and chatted with all of these and especially the great former Wimbledon champions stretching back as far as 1924. My talk is in two parts, firstly about how the AELTC is run and how they run the Championships. Secondly I talk about the great matches and players with many associated anecdotes on a decade by decade basis (1920 to 2018) which allows me to start and finish the talk in precise segments.

Testimonials & Reviews

“Alan charmers was an excellent speaker especially when selling himself as a book buyer . His knowledge of real tennis is undisputedly right of the top of the tree so it is not unbelievable that when speaking in public , he is funny, he informative , very well spoken and his diction is exceptional which is something I look for in my vocation and he would get 10/10.”

Antiguajoe – December 2023

Alan Chalmers Contact Details:
Phone:

01730-816116

07860-395798

Send a message to Alan Chalmers