SAVVA – CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FOUR – 1980s

For nine years, the Westmead runners had been trained privately or attached to either Bletchey or Coventry.

In late 1978, Nick had been offered the chance of a first training contract. Suddenly ‘Savva – Wembley’ had started to appear on racecards. It would prove a short term relationship.

By late 1980, Nick had decided to give up his deal at the Empire Stadium to concentrate on breeding.

Nick said: “I ruined two good litters at Wembley. The track was just on the point of transferring over from grass to sand and basically they were racing on pure mud.

“The other problem was that my pups were badly outgraded. I got so fed up that I asked General Manager Peter Shotton for the reason. He replied, ‘its because you have a schooling track, it gives you a big advantage.’

“I realised that I was wasting my time and left soon afterwards. It was not a good experience.”

But the Westmead pups were about to be hit by something far more dangerous than muddy racing surfaces.

By the early 1980s, a new disease, Parvovirus, was striking down litters on either side of the Irish Sea.

Westmead was spared until the Feb ’83 litter by Glenroe Hiker out of Westmead Satin. A month later Westmead Seal produced a similarly blighted litter by Special Account.

By the time the pups were two months old, the lounge of Nick and Natalie’s home resembled an animal hospital.

Nick said: “Parvo arrived with us quite late. We had tried to prepare for it and our vet recommended that we get the dam inoculated with the cat Parvo inoculation since the dog one still wasn’t on the market.

“He inoculated one bitch while she was in whelp but the entire litter died a few days after they were born.

“When we did finally get Parvo in the Satin and Seal litters, it didn’t strike until after the pups had finished getting milk from their mothers.

“Then virtually overnight they dropped like flies. We had them all on saline drips and blood was coming out at the other end.”

Typically, Parvo killed entire litters, or ravaged any survivors so badly that they didn’t make the track.

As a testament to Nick and Natalie’s hard work, they didn’t lose a pup and several went on to contest open race company.

Nick didn’t breed any more litters at Westmead for the next two years. His only litter, by Ks Prince out of Westmead Alva was whelped down by Mel Bass.

“Basically, we were just waiting for a vaccine to be developed” he recalls.

 

The early 1980s also saw a big rise in puppy thefts. Prior to the introduction of earmarking in the UK, pups were virtually untraceable.

Without wishing to unfairly discriminate, the vast majority of thefts were subsequently traced back to ‘travellers’ – it would not be fair to label them as ‘gypsies’.

Given the proximity of several travellers camps in the area, Nick attempted to pre-empt the theft by training an Alsation guard dog to run with the pups.

He said: “We knew that they would attempt to get the guard dog out of the way by killing him, probably by poisoning, so we trained him not to take food from anyone but us.

“Unfortunately, the travellers threw in poisoned meat and two saplings ate it and died.

Incident two took place in June 1981 when two seven month old litter brothers were taken from the paddocks.

Nick said: “I knew a gypsy quite well and he tipped me off that I would find them on a travellers camp near Cambridge.

“We found them on the camp but one of the travellers claimed that he had bought them from another traveller for £60. There was nothing we could do to prove it and I bought them back for £100.”

The two Westmead County pups, County Border and County Final both went on to win minor opens.

Incident three took place after Nick returned home from Wembley on a wet and windy night.

He said: “We arrive home to see pups running everywhere and we discovered that two were missing. I was furious and I went down to the local travellers camp armed with a shotgun.

“I shouted out that they had better let the pups go or they were in for big trouble and I fired a couple of cartridges into the air. The next morning the pups were found running loose near the travellers site.”

Unfortunately, although the thefts slowed up, they weren’t eradicated by earmarking.

The next incident took place in 2004. The main gate to the kennel was damaged and a traveller drove in on a horse drawn buggy. He burgled Andy Ioannou’s caravan stealing a phone and some money.

He also took off with two pups from the Larkhill Jo and Mega Delight litter (Westmead Billy and Westmead Joy).

Nick says: “Fortunately, we spotted the horse and buggy driving away. We went to the site and spotted the horse. We went back with a policeman and found the pups.

“They had tried to paint their ears with paint but thankfully we recovered them.”

Two litters later and the tinkers were back again, this time they stole a sickly blue bitch from the second Droopys Kewell/Mega Delight litter.

Nick said: “They must have realised that she was ill and phoned up to say that they had bought her in innocence and did I want her back.

“I told them that she would probably die anyway and that I was sending the RSPCA around to prosecute them. The whole thing got a bit messy and in the end I think I paid £30 to get her back.”

Unsurprisingly, Nick remains on his guard. Despite improved fencing and installing surveillance cameras, he knows that he could be targeted again.

He said: “I have the best guard dog I have ever had, but after all this time I am always on my guard.”

 

The scene was Doncaster flapping track in the early 1980s. There was a plunge on one of the runners. The field drifted. Then there was a rush of money for another who was cut to odds-on. The first dog started to drift and connections went in hard again. The second crowd lumped on again.

Punters and bookies realized that his was going to be a serious buckle as both sets of connections then started to hesitate. Who on earth were they taking on?

As is the way on the flaps, they started to check each other out. Who was putting the money on? Who was the ‘jockey’ who had brought the dog in? Who was trying to hide in the shadows?

“Oh no” realized one set of connections, “we are taking on Geoffrey De Mulder”. Geoffrey’s connections also twigged, they would be taking on another leading open race kennel (who still have a licence – hence the anonymity) with one of the top stayers on the NGRC circuit.

The traps opened and the two hotpots bombed away. They cleared the first two bends neck and neck, and crossed the winning line with a circuit to go.

But as they approached the next two bends a big fawn moved up into their slip stream. Going into the backstraight he eased between them and – BANG – he’d gone.

There was no official winning distance though it would have been well into double figure lengths.

The two sets of connections returned to the carpark to see who took control of the dog. As the figure of ‘Big Phil’ Bradley emerged, the penny dropped. ‘It was a f****** Westmead!’

Although Nick loved his time on the flapping traps, he never went back, with the exception of the incident above.

He said: “It wasn’t because it was against the rules. But from the day we took out a licence, I just enjoyed seeing my dogs names on the racecards and in the newspapers. I was so proud of them, I would have raced for no prize money.

“Doncaster was merely a rehabilitation outing after Special Account had broken his hock. He had been off the track for six months and I wanted to know what condition he was in

“He had gone okay at home, but basically I wanted a ‘private trial’. If the hock hadn’t healed properly and he was a shadow of the dog he had been previously, it isn’t how I would have wanted him to be remembered; he would have been quietly retired.

Geoffrey saw me after the race, he’d had a dog called Golden Sand in the race. He said, ‘which one was that?’. I told him that he knew all the dogs in my kennel, who did he think it was?

“He concluded that it must have been Special Account’s brother Westmead Gem. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that Gem was running at Slough on the same night.”

Although the Doncaster outing proved a great gauge for a 640 metre Walthamstow open that Special Account won immediately afterwards, Nick’s original caution proved well placed. He broke down again soon afterwards and was retired.

 

Glenroe Hiker was a failed stud dog when he arrived at Westmead in the autumn of 1980.

Now four and a half, he had made his name three years earlier when winning the Dunmore Puppy Cup. In 1978, he showed brilliant early pace in the English Derby and was second favourite to Lacca Champion when fifth in the final.

But there had been nothing of note produced in his first year at stud in Ireland. After around a dozen and a half bitches, the phone had stopped ringing.

But Nick saw something in the dog that he liked – and as soon as Colm McGrath realised that fact he gave him Hiker as a gift.

Among the 11 bitches covered by Hiker in his first year in England was Westmead Satin. The haul also included brother Theo’s bitch, Lady Myrtown.

Two years on and Nick realised he had stumbled on something special. The Satin litter featured Westmead Dena (GRA Stakes) and Westmead Chase (Autumn Cup), plus the most important litter sisters ever bred at the kennel, Westmeads Alva and Tania.

Theo struck gold too Rikasso Mick, won the British Breeders Stakes, and the Midland Grand Prix as well as breaking track records at Milton Keyes and Leicester.

Brother Rikasso Hiker won the Circuit and Midland Flat setting a new 474m clock at Hall Green.

Hiker took off and the winners came from unexpected sources. Owner Mel Bass, put Westmead Rhythm to Hiker and asked Nick to train the best two dogs from the litter.

Westmead Cannon, who Nick also reared, won the 1986 Produce Stakes, the Breeders Forum Stakes and the Peterborough Cesarewitch.

His brother Cannonroe won the Oxfordshire Stakes.

Mistley Trojan was also a prolific winner for the kennel. By Hiker out of a daughter of Westmead Silver, she won the Classic Select at Harringay and the Wimbledon leg of the Anglo-Irish.

By the mid-1980s, Glenroe Hiker had established himself as the no.1 sire in Britain.

Hiker was put to sleep following a short illness in March ’87 having made a significant contribution to the bloodlines, and finances at Westmead.

‘Big Phil’ Bradley spent eight and a half years at Westmead in two spells, the first began in the early 1980s and lasted six years and a half years.

He says: “When I first arrived there were only about 20 dogs and I thought it would be easy, but I soon learned that Nick was very demanding.

“I worked six days a week and they were long days, from half six in a morning and often it would be 2am before you got to bed if you had been open racing.

“Nick would also have me running around like he thought I was some sort of athlete. When we were schooling I’d have to put the dogs in the traps, and then run over to the pick-up before the dogs got there. If I didn’t get there in time, he’d go absolutely potty.

“But it was interesting and we had some great dogs, starting with Special Account, going onto Westmead Move; it was a golden era for the kennel.

“I once worked out that during my two spells working with Nick that we won nine classics, including Tralee Crazy’s win in the St Leger.

“I’m claiming that one for myself because Nick was away in Australia at the time.

“More than anything, I loved being around the pups and would play with them. Nick used to give me regular bollockings, he’d say, ‘stop playing with them, they are not pets!’.

“So I would leave it until he went to London in the afternoons and would sit in the paddocks with the pups. I loved it.”

An experienced kennelman who also worked for Adam Jackson at White City and champion trainer Linda Mullins, Phil remembers being instantly impressed by Nick’s knowledge and thoroughness.

He says: “I soon realised that he was very capable for things like first aid and injuries. He would put stitches in wounds and knew how to use all the veterinary equipment.

“What did surprise me was that he didn’t use any of the muscle men. If an of the dogs had muscle problems, he would just lay them off for a while.

“I suppose the one thing above all others that I will remember about Nick as a trainer was that he was an absolute perfectionist in everything he did.”

Phil has fond memories of his time at Westmead, a sentiment reciprocated by the family.

Daughter Nicola, still refers to the former kennelman as ‘Uncle Phil’ and recalls the times that she, sister Lisa, and Phil would barbecue bananas on their home made fire.

Phil says: “They were great kids. It is a shame that they had no real interest in the dogs. Nick tried to get them to help out, but they were more interested in painting their nails and wearing make-up, like all young girls of that age.

“There were some furious rows between Nick and Natalie over the girls not wanting to work in the kennel, which Natalie was against anyway.”

 

Over the years, Westmead bred dogs have won every one of the traditional events designated as ‘classics’- bar one.

Among those events with at least one tick next to them are English Derby, the Scottish Derby, the Laurels, the Scurry Gold Cup, the Gold Collar, the Cesarewitch, and the Oaks. Which just leaves. . . the Grand National.

There have been few Westmead hurdlers over the years, though the remarkable Westmead Prince almost completed the classic set.

The strong running black didn’t win his first major flat event until his second season.

Then at almost four years of age, he was switched to jumping. He duly finished runner-up in the 1981 Springbok before also ending up as the bridesmaid in both the English and Scottish Grand Nationals. There was some consolation in beating Wimbledon’s best in the Gold Cup.

Even more remarkably, Prince came back as a five year old and finished second in the 1982 Grand National.

 

After a bad start to the decade due to Parvo, the kennel bounced back thanks to two very good litters out of Westmead Satin.

But it would be her daughter Westmead Tania who would produce the Westmead litter of the decade in November 1984.

They were among the very first litters sired by Derby winner Whisper Wishes out of the maiden Westmead Tania.

Westmead Move was just 19 months old when she landed the Upton Rocket Stakes at Walthamstow with sister Westmead Call back in fourth.

But the event that really brought the litter to the fore was the 1986 Anglo-Irish International.

The Anglo team featured the three littermates, Westmead Move and brothers Olivers Wish and Westmead Wish. Only just two years old, they were given little chance.

The first leg was at Wimbledon. Ireland fielded a very strong team headed by Odell Supreme and it was the Ned Power trained dog who just held off Olivers Wish by three quarters of a length with Move in fourth and Wish in fifth.

The second leg was at Shelbourne and Nick only just made it to the track after being delayed by fog.

He said: “We were booked to fly out of Luton in a chartered plane but the fog shut down the airport.

“If it had been a normal race, I would have just withdrawn the dogs but I felt a lot of responsibility that I would be letting everyone down and I managed to get a last minute flight from Heathrow.

“We had a mad dash car journey to get there and the dogs travelled as excess baggage. It was very very stressful but we made it to Shelbourne in time to take part.”

Ireland’s Odell Supreme completed the double with a trap to line victory but with the three Westmeads taking the next three places, they won the leg by 15-12 points and the overall contest by 28-26 points.

Although Move was the star (see separate), Olivers Wish would prove a top class greyhound in his own right.

The following year he won the Grand Prix, Stewards Cup and was runner-up in the Regency.

It was Olivers Wish’s love of soft going that resulted in one of the kennel’s biggest gambles in the final of the Grand Prix.

Nick said: “A couple of weeks earlier Bob had had a couple of glasses of champagne and had punted two of the bitches for big money even though I thought they both needed a race.

(Bob would later admit that the bet of £30,000 on the 4-6 chance Westmead Move and £20K on Westmead Call was his worst ever lapse of judgement in 40 years of punting)

“I was quite angry with him because I thought it reflected on the kennel, that we didn’t know what we were doing.

“Fortunately, Grand Prix Final night was very wet and the going was soft which Olivers Wish badly needed. I advised Bob that he could get some of his money back and he duly had a good bet at 7-1. Thankfully he didn’t let us down.

“I’ve had a few dogs who really performed better on soft going, Westmeads Badger and Paddy are the other two who spring to mind.”

Brother Westmead Wish went on to finish runner-up in the 1987 Sporting Life Juvenile, Wimbledon and Manchester Puppy Derbys as well as winning the Greyhound Stud Book Trophy at Maidstone.

Another sister Westmead Call won the Bedfordshire Derby and Wessex Vase setting track records at both Henlow and Poole.

Former head man Phil Bradley says: “Call had two styles of running and because I used to enjoy going coursing, Nick would ask me to take her along.

“She wasn’t entered in competitions, we would only send her up as a spare dog for a ‘bye’, but she never beaten. I could have sold her 100 times over.”

 

Given Westmead’s modest kennel size compared to the country’s leading open race kennels, it was a surprise to many pundits that Nick agreed to field a team for an extremely competitive Trainers Championship meeting at White City in 1983.

It included the powerful kennels of George Curtis (evens) and reigning champion trainer Adam Jackson (5-4). Team Westmead was eight British bred dogs, half of which were still puppies.

Certainly the bookies gave them no chance with 10-1 readily available before the first heat.

In fact, the team from Edelsborough would win three races and none more impressive than puppy Westmead Alva who clocked the fastest time of the night – 29.68 for the 500 metres.

Another three littermates from the Glenroe Hiker/Westmead Satin litter made decent contributions with sisters Tania and Dena both finished second. Another sister, Melinda, was the only Savva runner to finish out of the forecast places all night.

The other victories went to Kris Is Back and Cannondale with Westmead Ruby and Stormy Flight both finishing runners-up.

Others wins on the night included a double for George Curtis (Cashen Son, Sandy Lane), and one win apiece for Jackson (Flying Duke), Terry Duggan (Mountleader Mint) and Joe Cobbold (Echo Spark).

Remarkably, the Savva team, six of whom were born at Westmead, finished some 15 points clear of closest rival George Curtis

Final scores: 55-Natalie Savva, 40-George Curtis, 32-Adam Jackson, 31-Joe Cobbold, 28-Terry Duggan, 22-John Coleman

Not bad for a team missing the fastest greyhound in training at the time, Special Account, who was lame.

 

It was in late 1986 that the Savvas agreed to feature in a Thames TV documentary called ‘Greyhound’.

The idea was to follow a litter of greyhounds from conception with regular progress reports and footage from key moments including the whelping, earmarking, different periods of growth, leading up to schooling and their first races.

Nick and Natalie thought long and hard before agreeing to take part. The financial gains (£1,500) were inconsequential compared to the aggravation and loss of privacy involved – but they thought it would be good for the greyhound industry.

It was the period midway through the exploits of the brilliant Whisper Wishes/Westmead Tania litter and Tania was chosen as the intended dam of the ‘TV litter’.

Tania duly came in season in the Spring of 1987 and Nick booked her to the leading Irish based sire, Sand Man, handled by John Fitzpatrick in Portlaoise.

Unfortunately, Sand Man was approaching his 14th birthday and he refused to cover the bitch.

Under different circumstances, Nick would probably have returned home and missed the mating, but the film crew were already making plans for the whelping.

Nick said: “I asked Fitzpatrick if he had anything else at stud in the kennel. He said that he didn’t. He did have a son of Sand Man, who he thought a bit of, but he was racing the next day, and it all seemed a bit too much hassle.

“I asked to see the dog – who turned out to be Flashy Sir. He was a duplicate of his father, identical size, colouring, everything. I asked Fitzpatrick if I could use him on Tania – he said I would have to buy him first.

“So I asked if he was for sale, and Fitzpatrick said he wanted £5,000 for the dog.

“Flashy had won five of his first 15 races and it seemed a bit steep. I asked Fitzpatrick if the dog was worth it, and he said he didn’t know but he thought so.

“I also realized, both looking at the dog and seeing how the kennel operated, that they were so busy they couldn’t possibly have trained him to his optimum.

“I didn’t look at his card before but accepted Fitzpatrick’s word and decided to give him what he wanted, and he gave me £500 back for luck.

“We then had to find out if he could cover a bitch!

“I said to Fitzpatrick, ‘You’re supposed to be the best at this sort of thing, and I have a lot of experience too. If we can’t get him to cover her we should be ashamed of ourselves.”

The mating took place and the following night, Flashy Sir set out to win his new owner his money back. He was beaten. It wasn’t a great start.

Flashy Sir joined the Westmead team when Nick returned to England the following day.

In hindsight, Flashy Sir was probably the best thing to come out of the whole episode (see profile) because there were many trying times ahead.

The first came with the whelping of the litter. There were complications and Tania was rushed to the vet for a caesarean – great drama!

Nick said: “Tania had passed the first pup with some difficulty, they were above average size, but then stopped. It might have been the lights, cameras or there being so many people in the kennel that put her off, we will never know.

Six pups were born, Camera Flash, Flashy Madam, Flashy Tania, Just Flash, Sound Man and Yes Sir, and the cameras, sound men, directors and assorted assistants were on hand to witness the event.

Over the following months the cameras appeared on a regular basis to witness the pups being earmarked and then to shadow their progress up to schooling age.

Natalie says: “The crew took over the whole place when they were filming. There were so many of them, it became a real nuisance.

The programme was due to conclude with the first of the pups making his debut in a graded race at Milton Keynes.

 

The programme was finally aired on December 13 1988 and it was a joy to behold – greyhound racing at its kindest and best. It remains possibly the greatest programme ever about greyhounds. Unfortunately there was a venomous sting in the tale.

The programme concluded with a still shot of Westmead Tania who had died while whelping down her next litter.

Immediately, the atmosphere changed – a documentary about the joys of breeding greyhounds became a story of a greedy breeder exploiting an animal for profit.

The following day’s daytime TV programmes were quick to condemn the Savvas who were distraught.

Nick says: “Tania actually died over a year after the film was made. The director had originally promised me that there would be nothing negative about the industry.

“I pleaded with him not to include the piece about Tania but he said the decision had been made by his boss to include it. He had no choice- apparently.

“What actually happened is that I had rested her for a season after she had whelped the litter and she was in wonderful condition when she came in season again.

“We didn’t realise at the time, but the vet must have cocked up the caesarean.

“When she was due to whelp down she showed no sign of wanting to pass the pups. She went past her ‘due date’ and was very lethargic.

“By the time the vet was able to open her up the womb had already burst open. There was nothing we could have done, or any way that we could have known.

“Had there been the slightest doubt in my mind, I would never have bred with her again and she would have enjoyed a long retirement alongside the other brood bitches.

“Looking back, I am convinced that we made a mistake by allowing the cameras to go to the vets for the original caesarean. I think pressure of being filmed got to the vet and that’s why he must have messed up the operation by failing to stitch her up correctly. I’ve had other bitches have caesareans with no problems.”

Indeed, of all the brood bitches that have been part of the Westmead story over many years, Tania was the particular favourite of Natalie.

She says: “Losing Tania was very distressing, I had a very close bond with her. She hated being on her own with her pups, she would come to the whelping kennel door and cry so I used to sit for hours talking to her.

“I was away when she had to be rushed in for a caesarian. I was always convinced that it wouldn’t have happened if I had been there with her. I was terribly upset when we lost her.”

Most of the litter were saved and two dogs and three bitches were registered. They were reared by Alva and Seal who each had small litters whelped the same month.

 

Over the years there have been tens of thousands of schooling trials at Westmead – including just one for the German Shepherd guard dog.

“I’ll never forget it” chuckles Nick. “He started off really well but after 300 yards he started thinking to himself.

“He pulled to a stop, grabbed hold of the hare wire and pulled it off the pulleys bringing the trolley to an immediate stop.”

Although the athletic abilities of the kennel’s long line of Rottweilers have never been tested, ‘Rocky’ fully embraced the spirit of Westmead.

Nick said: “One day I found him in the same paddock as a litter of babies and my first thought was panic.

“But he was lying on the ground with the pups crawling all over him and biting him and he never flinched.

“As they got older he used to run around the paddock with them. I’m sure he thought he was their dad.”

 

In 1987, Irishman Tom Prendeville arrived at Westmead at the start of what he would later descried as “five of the best years of my life.”

Tom says: “Although Nick was known as a top breeder, I don’t think many people realised what a good trainer he was back then. It only took me a few days to realise that the man was a dedicated genius.”

Although he was an experienced dog man, the new head lad was surprised by what he found.

He said: “In Ireland, the dogs had lots of walking. By comparison, Nick seemed to do very little with his dogs, though they had lots of gallops.

“The way he had the place set-up, it could be run by one man, even for exercising the dogs.

“Nick was a great man to work for. He did the same hours as me, he picked up the shit in the paddocks the same as me – and did all the dirty jobs that some trainers would think was below them.

“We would go out drinking together or with some of the other lads, particularly Paddy Dunne. Nick was always great company.

“As a trainer, he just had that instinct for getting it right. Sure, I can remember mistakes he made, but there weren’t that many.

“Yet the times he would have a dog in a competition, and it would just improve all the way through and peak in the final was just amazing. I could never work out how he did it.

“He would check over his own dogs, he seldom used a vet, but would trust his own judgement.

“I remember we had Balligari is the Laurels and he was walking lame on the car park. Nick was convinced that there was nothing really wrong with the dog and said we would run him. I never found out what the problem was but he went on to win the final anyway.

“Nick was also years ahead of other trainers in his methods. I remember taking Westmead Claim to Wembley for the Produce Stakes. He won the semi final on the Friday night but on the Saturday morning he was pissing blood.

“I said to Nick ‘well that’s him out of the final on Monday’, but Nick put him on a drip. I’d never seen anyone do that before and sure enough the dog ran and was desperately unlucky to finish second.

“It was a great period of the kennel. Although Nick had won lots of things already, I don’t think he ever had so many good dogs in the kennel at the same time.

“Apart from Claim, there was Alva’s other litter that had Bens Baby and Havoc in it. We also had Westmead Harry, and my favourite dog in my time working for Nick, Phantom Flash.

“I remember that when he was being reared he kept going lame on a shoulder. In the end Nick locked him in a small paddock to restrict his exercise.

“The owner kept telling me that his pup was going to be a superstar. but I’d convinced myself that he couldn’t possibly make up into a good dog because of all the setbacks. I don’t think I could have been further wrong.”

 

Few of Nick’s staff have embraced the social life of Edelsborough more than Tom Prendevillle. Such was his capacity to shift a pint that the local landlord challenged him to take on his highest consuming regular.

Pride was at stake and Nick appointed himself as the big Irishman’s official trainer.

He said: “I bought in some salted herrings which I told Tom to eat – I even added some more salt when he wasn’t looking. In the end he pleaded with me to give him more bacon instead.”

The session started in the afternoon on Tom’s day off. After a night’s racing Nick returned to the pub to see if Westmead honour had been upheld.

Nick says: “By the time that I arrived, Tom had drunk 21 pints and looked in good shape. The other guy had turned yellow and wasn’t in a good way at all. It was a walk over.”

The consummate pro, Tom was back at work at 7am the following morning. His opponent wasn’t seen in public for another fortnight.