Chris Matthews, owner of the tennis events company, COMPETE, has been involved with tennis all his working life. Educated at the Royal Hospital School, Holbrook in Suffolk from the age of 11, it was there that he first picked up a racket and played the game. He says that he has never had any formal coaching, the main reason why he never developed further than as a reasonable club standard player. But he has since qualified and/or worked in every aspect of tennis, including ball boy, Wimbledon seating steward, coach, linesman, umpire, event organiser and referee, as well as an officiating tutor, mentor and assessor.
Chris joined the Royal Navy in September 1972 with the sole intention of becoming a Physical Training Instructor. That he achieved in 1976, the youngest ever to qualified in that demanding branch of the service at the time. Of his time in the Navy he says, “Physically demanding though it was, I enjoyed every minute of it. I was basically being paid to do a hobby and I travelled as much with Navy and Combined Services (joint Army, Navy & Air Force) sports teams as I did in the proper line of duty for Queen and Country!"
An all-round sportsman, his best sport was hockey, not tennis. But he also represented various teams at football, rugby, cross country, boxing, badminton, volleyball and tennis, all sports that he had learnt at Holbrook.
Chris left the Royal Navy in February 1996 after more than 23 years and became one of the few tennis officials working at tournaments full-time.
He’d become a tennis umpire and linesman in 1982 whilst still serving in the Navy and became one of the top officials in the country. He officiated at his first Wimbledon in 1984 (initially as a linesman), gained an ITF umpiring badge in 1990 and then worked at numerous tournaments both home and abroad.
But after two years officiating full-time, and driven by his desire to spend more time with his children, he “came off the road”. He joined TeamBath in 1997 as their first Tennis Development Manager at the University of Bath. Indeed his interview for the job fell during the first week of the Wimbledon fortnight. “At the time, it was a pain in the backside, having to take a day off from the Championships to travel to Bath for the interview” he says. “But what a great ice-breaker for a tennis job” – Interviewer: “So Mr. Matthews, where have you just come from today?” Chris: “I’ve just come from officiating at the Wimbledon Championships....”.
For the next twelve years, Chris, amongst many other tennis duties for the University, organised over 40 tournaments a year and administered every LTA tournament from international competitions to Junior Grand Prix events, something he still does today on behalf of TeamBath (one of just four UK International High Performance Centres) and the LTA . As a ‘one man band’, it was Chris that instigated, organised and refereed the popular TeamBath Tennis Festival back in 1997, something he still does to date.
He retired from on-court work - umpiring and lining - in 1998 due to his new work commitments at TeamBath. But he continued organising tournaments and took his tennis referee qualifications. Once again, he rose to become highly respected in both these fields and took (and passed!) his ITF referee’s badge in Holland in 2010.
Chris left TeamBath in August 2009 to set up COMPETE and focus on his refereeing.
Over a 16 year career, his on-court officiating led him to be “abused” by some of the best players in the world! As a net-cord judge (remember those days?) he was hit in the side by a rocket service-return from Boris Becker; as an umpire he was hit in the head by a mis-directed shot from Jennifer Capriati; as a base-linesman he was hit on the shoulder by a lump of phlegm from Goran Ivanisevic(!) and as centre-service linesman, hit very close to the unmentionables by a 140 mph ace from Greg Rusedski. Ivan Lendl once told him that he (Lendl) would make sure that Chris never officiate another match in his life, Patrick McEnroe (who could be far worse than his brother John on his day!) once suggested to his opponent that they ignore everything Chris said from the umpire’s chair for the rest of the match and Jeremy Bates very nearly got himself defaulted by Chris for a verbal tirade that would make even an ex sailor blush!
But he did have many good matches too! John McEnroe at the World Doubles one year called him his pal in front of 5000 spectators and a TV audience of millions. Chris had just foot-faulted the world number 1 for the third time in the match and McEnroe turned on him, pointed threateningly and yelled, “THAT IS ENOUGH PAL”! J
Chris thoroughly enjoys pulling a competition together, be it a one-day matchplay or a week-long, multi-event tournament. But when pushed on the subject, for him the bigger the better!
His experiences at local, regional, national and international events have taught him to understand and respect the requirements of the players for fairness and professionalism. He also appreciates that parents require good organisation and good communication so that they in turn can plan ahead and organise themselves.
He attributes his organisational skills to what he learnt in the RN and is highly respected in this by players, parents and tennis colleagues alike. He is always happy to help or advise others working on their own particular events and if asked, his main piece of advice to them is to plan early and to work methodically through each stage of their competition.
For Avon & Wilts LTA, Chris currently referees the Bristol Junior Hardcourt Championships at Easter and the Wiltshire Junior County Closed in the summer. For a full list of COMPETE competitions, players please click here
