Ace Taylor had the time of his life at Wimbledon

SEVENTEEN years ago, I was hosting a popular series on Sky Sports called Time Of Our Lives.

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Jeff Stelling had finished his section of famous retired footballers. I continued with a range of other sports and their famous champions... Olympics, horse racing, boxing, cricket, speedway, Formula One and tennis to name just a few.

With Wimbledon tennis fortnight beginning tomorrow, my thoughts return to that year and a show with three famous English players Roger Taylor, Mark Cox and Bobby Wilson - the latter sadly died in September 2020, aged 84.

My job was to track down our guest stars as well as present and interview.

I did not know whether Roger, now 83, would remember me. We had not spoken since 1967 when I was a 22-year-old sportswriter in Fleet Street.

I was given tennis as a byline reporter by the Sunday Mirror that summer, which included Wimbledon and the Davis Cup. I was also with Hayters Sports Agency (around the corner in Shoe Lane from the Mirror's then Holborn headquarters), where I ghosted Taylor's weekly column in I think it was the Daily Sketch.

Taylor was such a good looking tennis player that he was considered by the James Bond film owners as a successor for Sean Connery, even though he was not an actor.

Roger was a very late riser in those days and I used to wait patiently outside his West London home until I was beckoned in.

He was always very helpful and appreciated my discretion and his privacy.

For my Sky show, I managed to get his updated telephone number (that is what journalists do) and waited for a few days for his return from a trip to the USA.

I started the phone call: "Roger, this is Gary Newbon. I do not know if you will remember me?"