Ian Handford: The local tennis legend who missed out on a blue plaque

Arthur Roberts sent his rising star Sue Barker (he refused to call her Susan) abroad on a one way ticket hoping she would win a match to pay her fare home.  

Forever the hardest of taskmasters, an earlier star, Angela Mortimore from Plymouth, had also experienced his angst in the 1950s. 

Having travelled to Torquay on reading an article offering tennis lessons to "especially Devon youngsters" she met Arthur at the hotel at lunchtime only to be informed he was about to take lunch and if she chose to stay she might start by hitting a tennis ball against a wall, until his return.

On his return he amazingly found her hitting a ball and achieving a return stating "well if you're that bloody blinded, I guess you've got some chance" and having dismissed this rudeness Angela was coached by Roberts and as we all know enjoyed a long and successful career.

Victorious against Ann Haydon Jones at the Open in 1962 at Torquay she achieved her first Grand Slam win years later at the Australian Championship of 1998 before winning at Wimbledon while meanwhile was chosen for the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1993.

Another star rising from Torquay was a young Mike Sangster who, having been born here and attended Westhill Primary and Torquay Grammar School, left school to concentrate on tennis and not his first thought on sport - golf. 

Mike's debut came at the "Grand Slams" of 1961 and then the semi-final of the French Open in 1963 before returning to Torquay and setting up a sports retail shop in Torwood Street. 

This later pupil of Arthur later opened more sports branches in Paignton and Plymouth. Sangster in his time was one of only four Britons ever to reach the semi-finals of the three Grand Slams the others being Fred Perry, Tim Henman and Andy Murray. 

It was in 1974 that Sue Barker won her first top-singles title and in 1975 reached her first Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open.

The following year she won the German Open by defeating the Czech Renata Marsilova in a gruelling final set of 8 - 6 followed in 1977 in San Francisco and Dallas beating Martina Navratilova to reach the Virginia Slims Tour Championship final which was lost to Chris Evert in three sets. 

Arthur Roberts would die in a Torquay nursing home in Torquay in 1986 and would never see Sue go on to enjoy a remarkable career with BBC Television. She eventually fronted the channel’s "Question of Sport" until retirement in 2022 and today lives with her husband in the Cotswolds.  

Yet it was during the 1990s that Paul Uphill, Director of the Palace Hotel, approached me to suggest that Arthur was worthy of a Blue Plaque. 

Strangely, this was the second time the Society had been approached, as Guy Henderson (Herald Express reporter) was noting we rarely honoured sport in Torbay and perhaps Roberts ought to be the first. 

We explained we never start the process, which has to come via the family, a friend or an institution as we need to have a sponsor. 

Yet it was a good point and 20 years on we have now honoured six people linked to sport - three concerning "Plainmoor" one concerned with "Rugby" at Brixham and two from the sport of motor racing past. 

Sadly, Paul never followed up on his wish and today the Fragrance Group Ltd have demolished the tennis Courts and his hotel. 

This highly controversial decision with their promise Torquay would enjoy a new Five Star Hotel on the site (which we supported) could have been where Arthur's name might have placed. 

The only other plaque on that site had been to Bishop Phillpotts, which was recently retrieved in the hope that "Fragrance" would one day relent and fulfil their promise to build only houses where the Courts had stood and never houses on the site of the hotel or its grounds.