International feel as Taylor ties the knot
THERE was a truly international flavour to the wedding of Northants county skipper Mark Taylor last Friday.
Taylor waited until he was 40 before finally tying the knot with his long time partner Jill Livingstone whose dedication to the local teaching and hockey scene is said to rival that of the Northants supremo... albeit in her own field.
It has been a vintage year for Northamptonshire tennis weddings in 2011. Both men’s and ladies county captains (Amie Norman), the captain of Northampton League men’s champions County A (Barry Wilson) and coach Mark Blincow who once reached a national ranking of 11. How fitting that Blincow was among Friday’s guests...
Liberal thanks were showered, confetti-like, to everyone attending the ceremony at St Mary The Virgin church in Burton Latimer and afterwards at Rushton Hall, spread to an array of attendees from as far afield as the USA, Canada, Scotland and the bride’s own homeland in Northern Ireland.
As a final touch, best man and Taylor’s own Wellingborough School pal Paul Robinson, who as a player once broke Greg Rusedski’s serve twice before losing in the semi-finals of the 1996 British Nationals, has lived in Sweden for the last 10 years. Robinson also played as a doubles partner to Tim Henman and it doesn’t get much better than that...
Tennis pals Francis Lam, John Hollis and Claude Badowski have all spent plenty of time of late ‘across The Big Pond’ while the list of players with coaching qualifications stretched as long as an overhead smash from Corby based French/Irishman Kevin Hoey.
In addition to Hoey: Mark Blincow, Richard Ward, James Haley, Steve Biss, Wayne Tideswell, Carl Barrick and Stephen Comber helped to swell the numbers in that capacity while Kettering club-mates Chris Brigstock, Graham Pigott, Tim Davies and Graeme Milligan were also in the fold, the latter as one of the ushers, along with other names from Taylor’s colourful past: Neil Shorrock, Ben Foster, Jonathan Stokes, Matt and Richard Bernard and Richard Fitton.
Taylor’s broad sporting base and ability to make life at times both entertaining and problematic was summed up by Robinson recalling a story of a Saturday afternoon trip to football.
He said: “I had been on at Mark for ages to take me to watch my beloved Nottingham Forest play and he finally agreed. After turning up late and then picking up a couple of guys we set off up the M1.
“I was really happy about this until we reached and then drove by Nottingham and on to Sheffield where we spent the afternoon watching Sheffield Wednesday play Leicester City instead...”
Taylor himself was able to at least tinker with the popular Irish conception that the happy couple, who are spending a couple of days in Paris this week, first met at the Boat Club, Belfast’s premier sports club in the bride’s home town some 12 years ago.
“It is true I was over there coaching at the time but we actually met in a pub nearby!” said Taylor.
The bride’s post-graduation course at Newcastle then at least bridged a watery gap although unlike Cupid’s arrow, it could have initially been a little more accurate, take up his best man duties for Robinson.
Fortunately, however, the Newcastle to Peterborough East Coast link remains a steadfast and direct service and Kettering is then just a short hop away.
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