What makes us choose our Ciao names? Wimbledon is just around the corner, so what better time to tell you why I chose mine . . . . . .

When I was probably about ten, I had a wooden tennis racket. These are the days long before Steel, Aluminium, Graphite, Titanium, Hyper Carbon, Liquid Metal and the like had been invented, so I guess I'm really giving my age away here! Dinosaurs didn't quite roam the earth, but we are at least talking about the dark ages. I don't remember where this racket came from, if it was a gift or whatever, I just had it.

Sport was definitely not a part of family life. There was no time, no opportunity and no money. We lived in the centre of town; there were no tennis courts nearby and even if there had been, they might as well have been on another planet.

But for some reason I had this tennis racket. Next door to our house there was a large garage with tall wooden doors. I would spend hours hitting a ball against these doors. In the imagination that you can only have as a child, I was on Centre Court at Wimbledon. I must have driven the neighbours crazy with the incessant bang-bang of ball upon door, yet I don't remember anyone ever complaining! Maybe they were deaf - or just out a lot!

When I was just a bit older, perhaps early teens, we briefly had tennis lessons at school, just enough to learn the very basics. It was only a taste, but it was the one sports lesson that I enjoyed. Sadly, it lasted only one term, but I do remember this very well and as I'm talking many, many years ago, it must have made quite an impression!

I still didn't have the opportunity to play the sport - that would come years later, but the interest was nonetheless there and there was always Wimbledon to watch on the television, eagerly anticipated as the highlight of each year. Ah, the days of MacEnroe and Borg, Connors and Leconte, when the players didn't rely on the power of a serve to get out of trouble, there were rallies on grass, the players joked with the crowd and chalk dust ruled the day!

So I skip a good many years and come to a day at my daughter's primary school, when a coach from the local tennis centre came into the school looking for children to play Short Tennis. If you are lucky, you may get a day in your life that changes your life for the better, although you may not know it at the time. This was one of those days, the consequences of which continue to this day.

Short Tennis is played with small, short-handled, lightweight rackets and large, soft foam balls and is a good way of introducing small children to the sport. It is played on Badminton courts using a collapsible net that is easily set up and packed away afterwards.

It was a simple process to choose the children the coach was looking for; the children were given rackets and the soft foam balls were gently thrown towards them. Those that could connect the racket head with the ball were judged to have the necessary hand to eye co-ordination required to play the game. My daughter was able to do this and was picked from her class with about five others. She was six years old at the time.

From this she went to Short Tennis lessons at our local indoor tennis centre and it was from there that she was invited to a tennis 'sift.' This involved quite a large number of children and during this time they were observed playing short tennis. From this group, a number of children were picked and invited to a series of regular sessions organised by Wiltshire Tennis. It was a proud moment when one of the children chosen for this was my daughter.

This is when the hard work began. Saturday mornings became a regular visit to a sport centre. Several volunteer coaches trained the children, both in groups and individually. They were taught to serve (underarm at this stage) and to rally. Bear in mind their ages of six and seven years old. They were taught to move their opponent around. The most important tactic was not to hit the ball straight back to the person on the other side of the net, but to try to move them from side to side in order to produce errors. The enthusiasm of the coaches was endless, as was their patience with very young children trying to learn a difficult sport.

Then came another 'sift.' This time it was to choose a team to represent Wiltshire in the Regional South West of England Finals. The boys and girls were chosen and my daughter was one of these. It was an exciting time, but hard work too.

The weekly practise sessions increased to twice weekly. The training became more intense, the children worked harder. Speed around the court was concentrated upon. They had gone from being unable to sustain a rally to being able to play a whole match, make fair line calls, observe the rules and etiquette of tennis and keep the score. Eventually, they would be able to play a complete game without adult supervision. All the children were under eight years of age.

The time came for the Regional Finals. We travelled as a family from Wiltshire to Exeter and stayed bed and breakfast ready for the day of the competition. The counties to play in the competition were Avon, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire. Each team consisted of twelve players, six boys and six girls.

At Exeter University the matches were played. The competition was intense and although the children may have been under eight, they conducted their matches in a way that belied their years. They had gained confidence in themselves and learned respect for their opponents.

My daughter easily won all of her five matches and the team as a whole had performed the best of all the counties. The hard work and training had paid off. It was a resounding victory for the Wiltshire team. They proudly received their winner's medals together with a shield for the winning county - Wiltshire!

From these experiences with Short Tennis, from age eight my daughter went on to train with the squads for Wiltshire Tennis. Now she had moved on from Short Tennis to the real thing, playing on full size courts with larger rackets and regular tennis balls.

And so she progressed in tennis, playing many match plays and tournaments in Wiltshire and in the neighbouring counties. She had individual coaching as well as the group County sessions. She once represented Wiltshire County as part of the team and many weekends and half-term holidays were spent taking part in competitions.

I suppose that to her it was a normal part of life, having taken part in the sport since her early years. That not all children did similar activities was brought home one day in school, when the children were asked to write an essay on what they had done the previous weekend. My daughter had played in a particularly tough match that had lasted for about two and a half hours. She had won the match, a three-set marathon. We had travelled from Swindon to Taunton for this competition, and were back in Swindon in time for the County training session that evening. We did not expect her to want to take part in this after such an exhausting day, but not a bit of it. She was eager to attend, and we drove off the motorway straight to the indoor centre where the session was held, just in time to for her to run on to the court for her lesson. Ah, the energy and enthusiasm of youth!

So when writing about her weekend she had lots to report. One of her friends, on the other hand, had done nothing that same weekend except watch T.V. and look after her hamster! That was when she realised what tennis meant to her. It was character building stuff, it kept her fit; she travelled around the country, met new people and had goals to aim for. She had played for the County. Most of her friends did nothing that came even close to this.

At around the time my daughter started to play tennis, after the short tennis had come to an end, my frustration was getting the better of me! I would sit and watch the county training sessions and wish I could join in. I did help her to practise, so I was picking up a racket quite often but as she was only eight at the time, I felt I could cope with that!

I was so desperate at this point to play tennis that I overcame my nerves and enrolled for some lessons. Gradually I improved, at the same time practising with my daughter, watching and learning from her lessons and playing at the tennis centre. Enthusiasm for the sport carried me on, my technique improved together with my fitness. I was into my forties, but finally I was playing tennis! It was late in life to take up a sport, but better late than never!

Well, a few years have passed. My daughter's county career came to an end for various reasons, not the least of which was due to a couple of long lasting injuries, followed by several illnesses, all of which meant she could no longer play to the previous standard. Nevertheless, she is now an excellent club player, and has played regularly in our club's teams, helping to promote the ladies team to a higher division. Thanks to that one day in infant's school, she has gained the ability to play a sport that will give her a lifetime of enjoyment.

What has tennis done for us as a family? We have played tennis together, so it has given us a mutual interest, helping to keep us fit at the same time. We have avidly followed the sport on T.V. and we've been to Wimbledon several times. On Centre Court we've seen Federer, Sampras, Henman, Rusedski, Capriati, Serena Williams and Hewitt to name but a few. We've seen Rafter and Agassi, with Steffi Graf watching her hubby, swinging her crossed legs incessantly throughout his match. Fascinating! Was it nerves for her husband? If so, she needn't have worried, although he did need four sets to win his quarter-final against Escude!

Through tennis I have made long lasting friendships. I've become secretary of a tennis club, adding an interesting and new perspective to the sport. As a result of all this, I feel I have a full and in-depth knowledge of the game.

For my daughter, I know that it built strength of character. Tennis can be a lonely sport and she had to learn to stand up for herself on a tennis court from an early age; sometimes to accept bad line calls from her opponents and often to learn to loose graciously.

Naturally, I would have to recommend it as a sport to play as well as watch. I think it must be one of the most difficult sports to play but extremely rewarding when that forehand you've been practising for weeks finally connects, and you send that winner down the line. It requires hand to eye co-ordination, good basic technique in order to avoid injuries, athleticism for speed around the court, the ability to change direction quickly and balance - to name just a few!

There are so many other sports and activities for children to play and take part in these days that tennis has a hard job to attract youngsters to the sport. There is no doubt that it is not a cheap sport to play, even though it is much more accessible to most people now than it was in my youth. Children who might have a real talent for the game not only need their own desire to play and succeed, but must also have willing and enthusiastic parents to support them, both with time and money. It takes time to attend tournaments and training sessions, to ferry your child to various competitions when you might otherwise be at work or attending your own activities. Equipment, travel, training sessions, entry to competitions, court hire (if you're not lucky enough to have a tennis court in your garden) all cost money and unless your child is exceptionally talented, it is very unlikely that any financial help will be forthcoming.

Those children that are attracted to the sport will disappear from it for one reason or another. The child may be talented, but parental support may disappear; perhaps parents divorce, money is no longer available, any number of circumstances may change that are beyond the control of the child. Maybe the child loses interest, pressures of school work becomes too much to allow tennis to continue to the same level, they see their peers having fun in other ways and feel they are missing out. Or as in my daughter's case, injury and illness take their toll. So it is hardly surprising that we struggle to find the successor to Henman, who was lucky enough to be born with the necessary talent and money to back this up.

Children these days tend to be brought up in an environment where mostly they already have everything they need. They are certainly not starving, and do not have the passion to succeed that might be driven by a need to earn a better lifestyle. The Russian ladies are good examples of this. Not so much Sharapova, as she has lived mostly in America, but her father's ambition has clearly been the driving force. Myskina, Dementieva, Petrova, Panova, Krasnoroutskaya and Bovina - there is now a growing list of Russian ladies playing world class tennis and it does not take too much imagination to speculate why this should be!

Nevertheless, regardless of whether you would like your child to become the next Wimbledon champion, let's get our children out on the tennis courts, playing to enjoy the 'zing' of the ball on the racket strings, to keep fit and healthy, to enjoy the competition win or lose. If played simply for fun it need not cost a fortune and is comparable to other activities. Add up the costs of computer games and the like; substitute for a few basic tennis lessons. Once you or your child has learned the basics, you have an activity that will last a lifetime, will introduce you to new friends and help to keep you fit.

And perhaps by now, if you have managed to follow all of the above, you will know why I am nuts about tennis!

Thank you for reading!