Alun Owen

Favourite Player: Roger Federer, followed by Stan Wawrinka…and Swiss chocolate

Favourite Shot: Forehand

One (or two) things not many people know about me:

I played with Ryan Giggs for Wales U18s, played against the famous Man Utd “five” and chatted with Oscar De La Hoya when flying over the Atlantic.

"Born a Welshman and son of a top-level rugby player in the 1970s/80s, it was assumed I would go down the route of the Welsh fly half assembly line (and drink a few bevvies while at it) but I chose football as my main sport (to the dismay of all my secondary school teachers). This left little time for a perceived privileged sport like tennis, where you wore all whites. Thus, my tennis background is self-taught, playing occasionally as a teenager at the local council courts (albeit in between sitting around with my mates feasting on mars bars and coca-cola...not the staple diet of a future footballer. I did not pick up a racket for another 15 years and then, when in my early thirties in Florida I decided to try to play a little bit, and started to fall in love with the game (apart from playing Oscar – an experienced Colombian on clay!). However, as often happens with me, I fell off the wagon and stopped playing on my return to the UK, wasting another 10 years of not playing. Finally, I moved into the village with my wife, four kids, and cat, making a pact with myself that I would play again…and continue to play. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to volunteer for the committee to keep me engaged. It has proved a good decision as everyone has made me feel so welcome and I am thoroughly enjoying my time at the club."