Hailsham Tennis Club members treat president to birthday tea

The members turned out in force in wet weather to help him celebrate, with cakes and fizz. As ever, the president was not too shy to take the floor and give an emotional speech about “the best tennis club I have ever known – and I've known a few!”

Graham joined the club more than half his life ago, and when he joined, he dominated the club championships, with 11 singles wins in 14 years, on one memorable occasion losing to his son Steven, who has gone on to become a tennis coach. He also added nine doubles championships.

When he arrived at the club, Graham remembered that it had two hard courts and three grass courts. But the grass courts were hard to maintain and had limited availability because they could not be used in wet weather – nearly all year!

Graham and Harry Marks were instrumental in getting the surfaces changed to astroturf which could be used all year round, as well as installing floodlights so that the courts could be used in the winter evenings.

In 2012, Graham and Harry set off on a quest to see Andy Murray win a Grand Slam. They went to Melbourne for the Australian Open where Murray lost in the semi finals to eventual champion Novak Djokovic, and to Paris for the French Open where Murray was eliminated in the quarter final.

At Wimbledon, Murray was in the final, but lost to Roger Federer. Graham and Harry followed him to the US Open, where he finally did win his first Grand Slam event.

There were many tributes from all his friends at the club as well as some video messages from his friends from the tennis club in Gournay-en-Bray, Hailsham's twin town in France.

At his ripe old age, Graham still plays at the club and assists with coaching, and he hopes to continue for some time yet.