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OBITUARY – Dennis Cunnington

 

British sports journalism lost one its top-ranked players on 19th July with the death of former Press Association tennis correspondent Dennis Cunnington. He was 84.
 

July 24, 2009
Loughborough-born Cunnington, who was also still actively involved with both the Equestrian and  Badminton Writers' Associations, joined PA in 1956 and quickly carved out a niche reporting on tennis for the agency.

For the past decade or more, he was actively involved as a columnist on Tennis Today magazine where his regular Tennis Watch feature was extremely popular with readers around the counties.

Henry Wancke, Editor of Tennis Today, said: "His interest in the sport was manifold but he was always keener on the grassroots game and was proud of his involvement in establishing wheelchair tennis. He was best known in recent years for his contacts with the counties and was well respected by county officials around the country. In that context he will be sorely missed by his many friends and colleagues and I certainly will miss him greatly."

But he had a keen interest in most sports and was on the spot when British heavyweight legend Henry Cooper announced he would quit boxing after losing his British, European and Commonwealth titles in a controversial defeat by Joe Bugner at Wembley in 1971.
 Cunnington was ringside in the company of long-time PA colleague and boxing correspondent Bill Martin who recalled: "Dennis scooped me! He went into the dressing room after the fight and Henry told him: ‘That's the lot'."
It was tennis where Cunnington, a former chairman of the Lawn Tennis Writers' Association and one of only six Vice-Presidents, consistently served PA at the top level throughout a career in journalism that had started on the Nottingham Journal and also included a spell in Manchester. He also worked for Pardon's who supplied cricket copy and scores to national papers. He arrived at PA when they bought out Pardons.
Traditionally, PA covered sporting events at home, but all that changed under the leadership of innovative editor-in-chief David Chipp who despatched Cunnington to California to cover the 1978 Davis Cup climax at Mission Hills where Britain lost 4-1 to the United States.

Sadly, Cunnington, who witnessed the advent of Open tennis in 1968, was denied the thrill of ever seeing a home player fighting for the Wimbledon men's trophy on the last day during his career-half-century of finals at the All England Club.
It almost happened in 1973 when the pre-tournament build-up was dominated by a power battle between the International Lawn Tennis Federation and the Association of Tennis Professionals.
Thirteen of the 16 men's seeds withdrew from Wimbledon in a row following the suspension of Nikki Pilic by his national association, the former Yugoslavia. That left the way clear for Roger Taylor, but the British hope just failed at the penultimate stage.

 

 


Dennis was a great supporter of promising young sportsmen and one top Australian player came to stay during Wimbledon many years ago. "She arrived on the day we had some earth delivered to the house but she was out there, sleeves rolled up, helping to spread it."

Away from the courts, Cunnington was a big fan of Nottingham Forest and Brian Clough and did not let his Fleet Street colleagues forget the club's European Cup triumphs of 1979 and 1980. When it came to participating, he had a reputation as a pretty useful all-rounder at cricket.

He captained the PA cricket team from 1957 to 1963 when they played in sight of Wembley's twin towers and only a few miles from the home in West Harrow where he lived with his wife of 60 years, Margaret.

He also organised the annual Christmas re-union of former Press Association sports staff - at Queen's Club, of course.
Cunnington, who was a sergeant in the Sherwood Foresters when serving his National Service, died after losing his battle with cancer. Apart from Margaret, he is also survived by brother Eric, 80, and sister Elsie who is 96.

The family plan a private funeral on Monday July 27. No flowers by request but donations in memory of Dennis to 'Action for Children', care of G. Saville & Son Ltd, 107 High St, Harrow HA3 5DL

 

William Kings, chairman of the Badminton Writers' Association, writes:

For many years Dennis was a stalwart member of the Badminton Writers' Association - and just the sort of wise old owl any organisation needs.
A past chairman and, on retirement, an honorary member, he is remembered for his wise counsel and keen interest in Association activities even during illness.

When the London Daily News was launched their correspondent applied for membership and the committee were all for it. But Dennis said ‘Let's grant associate membership. We don't know if the paper will last." Of course it didn't - but happily the applicant later became a full member and has now followed in Dennis's footsteps by becoming chairman of the Lawn Tennis Writers' Association.
One year when the English National Championships were held in Coventry he called on one of his massive network of contacts to gain press passes for Highfield Road.
The singles quarter-finals had been held in the morning and the semi-finals weren't till the evening so half a dozen of us gave the doubles a miss and trooped off to watch Coventry City. We never found out how he swung it. But we watched the game and were back at the badminton in time for the semi-finals.


 

Dennis liked nothing better than attending our committee meetings. These usually involved convening at his beloved Queen's Club. And he was a constant supporter of our BWA annual lunch, inviting friends from the world of tennis and equestrianism to be on his table. When he couldn't attend this year he paid for two young players to attend instead. That was typical of Dennis. A real sport.
The social side of sport was always close to his heart. He was happy to debate anything over a whisky ‘and just a dash of water' and liked to be consulted on the menu for the BWA lunches.
As a near neighbour in Harrow I used to take him for his Saturday morning ‘chemo' at Bishopswood in the Mount Vernon Hospital complex in Northwood. Even then food was high on the topics of conversation. He nearly always came out boasting that they had offered him an excellent lunch - and more often than not, despite the treatment, he had usually had it!
And he never lost his sense of humour. During one of our last conversations he warned me ‘If you are going to get old then don't get ill!'

Alan Smith, President of the British Writers' Association, added: Dennis brought the enthusiasm that he showed for everything he did to equestrian coverage and to the British Equestrian Writers' Association.

For years he had taken on the most arduous project in BEWA's annual calendar, organising the awards lunch, battling to get us the best deal - and especially the best wine - that he could. Dealing with the proliferation of bodies involved when it was held, for many years, at Olympia during their December international horse show was, literally, meat and drink to him.

But he was always pressing to have it, instead, at his beloved Queen's Club. Even when the lunch was going to be at Olympia, he still insisted on having our committee meetings to discuss it at Queen's.

I could not be more pleased that when, finally, we did move to Queen's last year, it was a tremendous success. Little did we realise then, that it would be his last. Dennis will be much missed by so many.

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