FEBRUARY NEWS

February 1, 2012

Ken Fletcher was inducted into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame on Australia Day  -- 26 January 2012 -- during the Australian Open in Melbourne just before the semi-final match where Rafa Nadal defeated Roger Federer.

The  Induction Ceremony was  broadcast later that night on Channel 7 nationally during the break in the Nadal/Federer match (along with Melbourne’s Australia Day fireworks).  

It all took place in Rod Laver Arena, and Rod Laver himself, Kenny's old friend and nemesis, was there in the audience in the President’s Reserve -- sitting with his old doubles partner Jimmy Shepherd -- to witness Fletcher's Induction. And Rod made an appearance in the video presentation screened as part of the ceremony.   They closed the roof of Rod Laver Arena for the Induction Ceremony at 7 pm and  a giant photo of Fletch in action  was projected over the entire court. On the big screens above the crowd, Tennis Australia played a video presentation of Ken’s tennis life showing old b&w footage: Ken and John Newcombe winning the Wimbledon doubles; Ken and Margaret Smith when they won the Grand Slam of Mixed in 1963. And lots of photos of Ken – while singer Beven Addinsall belted out I Did It My Way. He did it better and louder than Frank Sinatra himself and later he performed Advance Australia Fair so magnificently he made our national anthem actually sound stirring for the first time. Beven did such a rousing rendition the whole crowd stood applauding.

Earlier in the evening, before the Ceremony, the Tennis Australia president, Steve Healy, hosted a dinner in the President's dining Room next to the glass cabinet holding the Cup. I sat at a table with tennis legend Roy Emerson and his sparkling wife Joy. Until then I had no idea whether Roy -- who beat Fletch in the 1963 Australian Open final and who now lives in America -- had read The Great Fletch. But he told me it was a good book about the amateur days. He said he was very pleased at Fletch being honoured. Also at our table were Kenny's girlfriend Cathie Creagh with Chuck and Helga Feeney. When Roy was introduced to Chuck, he exclaimed: “You’re the bloke from the Fletch book!” Sitting at the crowded round tables circling the arena I spied various people from the tennis world:  There was Rod Laver’s old doubles partner, Jimmy Shepherd, once of Moorooka, who has just returned to Brisbane to coach tennis after 43 years in America. Jimmy was very close to Fletch's old mate Frankie Gorman who as a young man was tragically killed in a car accident. Also there were Jimmy Moore, a former Wimbledon player and now international tennis referee, originally from the Atherton Tableland; dentist Lance Mesh who flew down from Buderim on Queensland's Sunshine Coast; and Billy Lee Long who flew down from Cairns in Far North Queensland. Also from the Fletch book was "Concentrate Susan" -- Sue Baker (nee Cameron) whose late father Nugent, of Sherwood in Brisbane, mentored Ken as a boy and took him to be coached by Harry Hopman. Nugent Cameron’s granddaughter Victoria Baker flew in from Sydney. Susan wore jewellery given to her by the Sung family who had sponsored Fletch in 1965 Hong Kong.

Also at the tables were sports greats like Ashley Cooper and his wife Helen Wood; Ken Rosewall and his wife (former Brisbane girl) Wilma; Greg Chappell; Neale Fraser. The former BBC Voice of Tennis, John Barrett, was at the dinner (and said how much he loved the Fletch book, as did the two gentlemen with him)… before all the guests all filed out to watch the Induction on centre court. 

Ken’s two children Julien and Jenni unveiled the bronze bust on the court while Federer and Nadal waited to enter and play. Julien told the crowd it was a pity it didn’t happen while Ken was alive, but now it had happened and that was the important thing. And he thanked Tennis Australia.

The video presentation (which was later broadcast on Channel 7) included interviews with Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Ashley Cooper and Alan Jones (who was unable to attend because he is appearing on stage in "Annie the Musical").  Among other things, Ashley said that, “at his top Fletch had the best forehand in the world”. Rod Laver said Ken was very talented but didn’t train much or prepare for matches (true). And Emerson said all he could say was Fletch had "a hell of a forehand" and was  “a real character and he always made me laugh”. The clip finished with Emerson saying “… Ken was a character, read his book”!

The Governor of Victoria and two Victorian university vice-chancellors were seated at the dinner. I didn’t know it was going to happen, but, as I ate the Scotch fillet, I was called out by the MC Craig Willis (The Voice of AFL) to tell the dinner guests a bit about Fletch.  I told how during the Wimbledon Mixed Doubles Final Ken told Margaret Court how to return Tony Roche’s serve – “Marg, just shut your eyes and belt shit out of it”. And how he learnt to play as a tiny boy by tucking the giant racquet under his armpit and hitting the ball up against the small backboard on the old ant-bed court behind his parent’s rented Annerley house at 524 Ipswich Rd in Brisbane. He thus developed the great forehand – but didn’t hit backhands because if the ball went over the fence Mrs McQuinny wouldn’t give the ball back. And the Istvan Gulyas story at Stade Roland Garros when Gulyas (known by frustrated opponents as the road-runner)  got to every ball and hit it back over. Finally this was too much for Fletch, and he belted the ball high up into the air and out into the Bois de Boulogne, yelling across the net: “Get that one, you Hungarian bastard”.

Click on the link below to read the excellent preview that Mike Colman wrote  in the Sunday Mail newspaper on 16 January 2012.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/tomic-latest-link-in-great-heritage/story-fn6ck6i3-1226244453910 

And on ABC Radio 612 in Queensland, Spencer Howson interviewed Hugh Lunn about the ceremony and Kenny's career. you can listen to an edited version by clicking on the link below.

http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/2012/01/fletch-honoured-his-mate-hugh-lunn-remembers.html?site=brisbane&program=612_breakfast

And on Wednesday 25 January, Fran Kelly on ABC Radio National talked to Hugh about Fletch:

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/

But...

 Fletch has not yet been honoured in his home town, even though he is the best tennis player ever to have come out of Brisbane (Annerley Junction).

There is a move on to name a Brisbane park after Kenny. The park is at our own tennis centre at Tennyson. It would be a fitting way to honour both his tennis achievements (which include five Wimbledon titles, the only man ever to win the Grand Slam of Mixed doubles [with Margaret Court], and his name is etched on the Davis Cup) but even more so, it would acknowledge his personal achievement in bringing US philanthropist Chuck Feeney to Brisbane to give $500million to medical research and hospitals in Australia, more than half in Queensland.

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The Great Fletch Made Great

    26 JANUARY 2012

  Kenny Fletcher has at last  been honoured in the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame (to read Tennis Australia's official announcement, click on link below). Fletch was Inducted in a special ceremony on the Centre Court during the Australian Open on Australia Day 2012 and his bronze bust will be put on display on a pillar in the avenue of honour at Melbourne Park.

 It is a Great Honour which Ken earned with spectacular performances on tennis courts in most countries of the world, and then by bringing the American philanthropist Chuck Feeney home to Brisbane with him in 1992 which led to gift-giving and science-building on a scale Australia had never witnessed before -- so far $500million worth, which leveraged three times that much..

For the Tennis Australia updated story with a photograph of the bronze bust of Ken Fletcher, click on this link:

                      If you want to know more about Kenny, you can read the eulogy on the news page of this site.

SPEECH

If you want to see the film of  the speech I made to graduates at the University of Southern Queensland in 2011 at the Empire Theatre in Toowoomba, the university put it up on youtube. It's in two parts, the links are below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMCi4lJI-jA&list=UU4Dr63DZknX3bfVJyVQLhYw&feature=plcp

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX-jgKfemic&list=UU4Dr63DZknX3bfVJyVQLhYw&feature=plcp

 State of Origin -- The Musical

I have written a Musical using all Qld songs and story that would involve the whole state. Only trouble is I don't seem to be able to get to anyone in the industry or govt who makes a decision on something like this. Anyone know anyone? How do you get something like this discussed in Qld??? Govt websites tells you nil.  Any suggestions to my  email address.

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 August 2011

The play I wrote of OVER THE TOP WITH JIM  was performed in Wynnum, Brisbane, by boys from Iona College plus girls from three local Catholic schools in August.

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 July 2011

My new radio serial was performed live on stage at the Queensland Music Festival 2011... and was  broadcast on ABC Local Radio throughout Queensland on Steve Austin's evening show. You can still listen to it  podcast at ABC via the link below.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/07/18/3272095.htm?site=brisbane&microsite=accessallarts&section=latest&date=(none)

So what is it all about? The crew that does ROCKWIZ on SBS TV on Saturday nights asked me to write a five-part serial which was performed on stage in Townsville, Caloundra, Brisbane (twice) and the Gold Coast as part of their "Queensland Country Comfort Hour Show". The serial had to be heightened-reality, funny, contain music and sounds and be uplifting for Queenslanders everywhere after cyclone and flood.  The divine Julia Zemiro was the star. The serial was just 10 minutes in the second half of a full evening's concert featuring Brian Nankervis, Julia Zemiro, the Rockwiz band of James Black, Peter Luscombe and Mark Ferrie. Plus Brisbane actor Andrew Buchanan, Sydney actor Bruce Spence and a four-woman chorus called The Nymphs. Every show featured a  surprise guest: one night it was Don Walker from Cold Chisel, another night Patience from The Grates, Phil Emmanuel and Christine Johnston from the Kransky Sisters.  It was all part of the Queensland Music Festival 2011.

Details: www.qmf.org.au

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My LATEST BOOK is "WORDS FAIL ME: a journey through Australia's lost language"

WORDS FAIL ME is the sequel to "Lost for Words". After "Lost for Words" came out, readers inundated Hughie with more old words and phrases, plus stories, so he put them together in WORDS FAIL ME. 

WORDS FAIL ME revisits the rich, inventive and roguish language Australians used to speak before globalism stole it away.

So many phrases arrived, it was like trying to take a sip out of a fire hose. Some were so obvious, if they were snakes they would have bitten Hughie by now.

WORDS FAIL ME intertwines the sayings and phrases of yesteryear with true stories and anecdotes which recapture what Australia used to be like back when. These contrast with modern language madnesses: the road signs, the asterisks, the gobbledegook, jargon and corporate-speak that have replaced the way we used to speak. we used to have our own lingo --- clear, joyful and exaggerated.

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Forgot to mention department: Two of my books -- Over the Top with Jim and Lost for Words -- were named in the "50 books you can't put down" as part of "Books Alive".

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New York TENNIS Magazine said of "The Great Fletch" -- "Think Russell Crowe in tennis whites".

The SMH said: "The life of a working-class kid from Brisbane who, with only his talent and charm, conquered the world... so compulsively entertaining... imbued with warmth and charm".

Kris Humphreys wrote in the Sunday Age: "This book had me wishing I could race out and buy tickets to the tennis... Ken Fletcher was the James Bond of the tennis world mixing it up with film stars and royalty, yet worried that his mum would disapprove of his glamourous life."

Graem Sims, "Inisde Sport": ..."As good as it gets... you will be genuinely moved by the mad, magic rollercoaster of his life. They don't make 'em like The Great Fletch anymore."

SPIES LIKE US

The talking book of Spies Like Us has been released by ABC Music.

The 5-CD set is introduced with Macca singing his own song  Spies Like Us, which perfectly captures the James Bond era in which the story is set.. Ian McNamara wrote the words and the music.

The 48 episodes ~ which were broadcast on Macca's national  ABC Radio show, Australia All Over in 2009 ~ are read by Melbourne actor Peter Curtin, who did the Over the Top with Jim radio reading. 

Spies Like Us starts with arrival in Hong Kong in 1964, follows Hughie and Ken Fletcher's escapades with girls, gambling, tennis and journalism, through to Hughie's dramatic entry into China, Russia, then through Berlin and on to the swinging sixties  in London where Ken once again tries to conquer Wimbledon.

The talking book is for sale in ABC Shops plus music shops.

   ICONS

Six authors were voted Queensland Icons in the vote to celebrate Queensland's 150th anniversary in 2009. The authors, including Hughie, were in the influential artists category.  Those who have "left a lasting impression on the people of Queensland".

The authors were David Malouf, Hugh Lunn and William McInnes plus Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Judith Wright and Steele Rudd.  Some of the other cultural icons were the Bee Gees, Powderfinger, Geoffrey Rush, Keith Urban and Savage Garden.

In other categories the demolition of Cloudland and the Bellevue, and the Fitzgerald Inquiry were named.

You can check out all 150 winners at www.q150.qld.gov.au 

Working for Rupert review

Hypercritically reviewed in The Australian the memoir Working for Rupert finally received a good review -- in Mexico!! Washington-based journalist Ignacio Cruz Herrera  wrote an article about Murdoch's Wall St Journal take-over in 2008:

'Among the dozens of books written on the most influential Australian in history there are at least a couple of biographies instructive, that of Neil Chenoweth and William Shawcross, but without a doubt the most instructive, emotional, enlightening and ironic is the Australian journalist Hugh Lunn's Working for Rupert.'

The book on Kenny Fletcher's dazzling life

ABC Books published my biography on my mate Kenny on October 1 2008.

I have always wanted to write a book about Kenny’s amazing life because few Australians (if any) have ever done half the things he did, or ever knew half the people he befriended around the world.

He was unusual in that he literally had hundreds of very close friends. Such as the revered war hero Leonard Cheshire VC, the billionaire philanthropist Chuck Feeney, and Australian tennis legend Frank Sedgman.

He won Wimbledon with John Newcombe and Margaret Smith Court.