EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: The Lawn Tennis Association is hit by a volley of complaints in an incendiary 27-page letter detailing an extraordinary list of allegations including alleged criminal activity
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As the tension of Wimbledon’s second week intensifies, spectators are anxiously scanning rain-filled skies, hoping that the storm clouds will scud safely past. But it’s too late to stop a savage thunderclap from breaking over the hapless bigwigs who run the Lawn Tennis Association, the sport’s governing body.
I can reveal that they’ve been hit by an incendiary, 27-page document, sent to the association’s disciplinary officer, detailing an extraordinary litany of alleged failings said to have occurred at the £1,000-a-year West Hants Club in Bournemouth.
The club, which boasts 16 tennis courts, four squash courts, fitness studios, a gym and swimming pool, has effectively been controlled by the association ever since it acquired West Hants’ freehold for nearly £800,000 nearly 30 years ago.
But, according the claims made in the document – compiled by ‘very concerned members’ – that has not inhibited the creation of what they describe as a ‘completely toxic environment’. They are worried that the club and the LTA may be at risk of being brought into serious disrepute.
The LTA have been hit by an extraordinary litany of alleged failings said to have occurred at the £1,000-a-year West Hants Club in Bournemouth (file image)
The letter summarises the club’s chief executive, Peter Elviss, as ‘authoritarian’ and ‘impervious to and intolerant of criticism’.
Previously chief executive of exclusive Queen’s Club, Elviss’s tenure there coincided with a ferocious battle which pitched members against the LTA, which had bought the club’s freehold when it was in financial difficulties decades earlier.
After the LTA announced that it was putting Queen’s up for sale for £40million, members reacted with fury. A High Court battle was only averted after the LTA agreed to sell the club to the membership for £35million.
Battle lines at West Hants are not dissimilar, though this time Elviss and the club’s board want to register West Hants as a charity. This appals his detractors, who argue that the club has no right to dispose of its property in this way – without members’ approval.
The LTA tells me it has responded to the letter and ‘continues to engage’ with the aggrieved members, adding that it is willing to investigate ‘relevant allegations’ – if provided with ‘specific details’ and ‘appropriate evidence’.
A spokesman for the West Hants Club tells me: ‘The West Hants Club is forward-looking and is embracing a family culture with modern governance, which has upset a small number of our members.
‘We have been in discussion with them for a number of years and have answered all their questions, so it was disappointing to read a long list of allegations, all of which we deny.
‘Expert advice has been taken prior to all the club’s changes and all procedures have been correctly followed. We will continue to run the club for the benefit of our growing membership which stands at more than 3,000 people, the vast majority of whom are extremely happy.’
Ned’s mission… proposing in his pants to Hayley
It’s a brief encounter she’ll never forget.
Hayley Atwell’s fiance, Ned Wolfgang Kelly, was trouserless when he proposed to the Mission: Impossible star in Venice, I hear.
‘My fiance was in his pants in the kitchen, and there was an accordion playing outside our window — which was timed perfectly but not planned,’ she reveals. The Londoner, 41, (right, and with songwriter Kelly, top) got engaged in April.
‘We had rented this Airbnb that had lots of shelves with porcelain ducks on them, so it was quite a surreal set-up,’ she says. ‘I said to him, ‘Venice was my first most precious destination’, and I’ve always had a weird connection with it.
‘So, he took me there, and it happened there.’
Hayley Atwell’s fiance, Ned Wolfgang Kelly, was trouserless when he proposed to the Mission: Impossible star in Venice, I hear (pictured together in June)
Hayley Atwell attends the Australian Premiere of Mission: Impossible earlier this month
Maureen Lipman has a theory as to why she was awarded a damehood in 2021. Could it be due to the influence of royal friend, biographer and name-dropper Gyles Brandreth?
The actress, 77, says: ‘Sheila Hancock was made a DBE and so was Joanna Lumley. And we’ve all worked with Gyles Brandreth. Just saying . . .’
Dame Maureen, meanwhile, reveals that following the death of her last partner, Guido Castro, in 2021, she has a new boyfriend. ‘He’s a blessing,’ she says.
I want it all… Queen’s £41m sales
Freddie Mercury’s music generated £41 million of sales last year — 31 years after his death. Queen saw sales go up £1.7 million on the previous year, meaning the band’s company had profits of £22.2 million.
Although Mercury died aged 45, his estate still owns a 25 per cent stake in the company, Queen Productions Ltd, which earns royalties from the group’s hits.
The success of the Oscar-winning biopic Bohemian Rhapsody keeps the cash rolling in, with the members sharing a pot of £12.9 million — or £3.23 million each for Brian May, 75, Roger Taylor, 73, John Deacon, 71, and Mercury’s estate.
Masterchef judge Gregg Wallace, 58, seemed more interested in the tobacco than the food at the Boisdale Life Editor’s Lunch and Awards in Canary Wharf, East London, yesterday.
‘My grandad used to smoke cigars at Christmas,’ he tells me. ‘When he died, my gran didn’t think it was Christmas until someone smoked a cigar. As I was the oldest grandson, she gave the cigar to me.’
Made In Chelsea star Jamie Laing has discovered his new wife, Sophie Habboo, believes mermaids were not merely folklore.
‘Sophie and I went to see The Little Mermaid the other day,’ he says. ‘Sophie turned to me and asked if mermaids are real.’ She explains: ‘Do you think dinosaurs were real? It’s the same thing.
‘Dinosaurs are not real now, mermaids are not real now, but perhaps a million years ago they were.’
Often described as Britain’s most handsome man, David Gandy has revealed that he would eat his packed lunch alone at his comprehensive school in Essex, where he was bullied for being well-spoken.
The model, 43, who set hearts aflutter when he starred in a Dolce & Gabbana advert wearing nothing but tight white pants, says: ‘I’m not sure if anyone enjoys being a teenager. It’s a tough stage.’
Speaking on the Desert Island Dishes podcast, he adds: ‘I took solace and ate my little sandwiches in the library and read James Herriot books.’
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