A TROOP of young women – dubbed “courtesy crumpet” by male tennis stars – were hired to give lower-ranked players lifts during Wimbledon in the 1980s.
An unearthed BBC Archives report into the service – which caused “a lot of broken hearts” – shines a light onto what is now a bygone era, for a number of reasons.
With star players sent around in personal limousines, lower-ranked players were given the opportunity to fill out a form for a lift in a courtesy car.
And the crew appointed to drive the players around appear to have largely been women.
The BBC report describes them as “pretty girls” with the team made up of “house wives, out of work actresses, and students on holiday.”
The pay was pretty stiff, with just £150 handed over for two weeks of work.
Courtesy car organiser Pat Banks spoke on the report about her drivers, who received special training before getting behind the wheel.
She stated: “We teach them how to cope with the players in the car before a match or if they’ve lost a match.
“Not to hoot their horns on the grounds of Wimbledon because it makes a noise. All sorts of things.
“And we tell them not to get too serious about tennis players – we’ve seen a lot of broken hearts over the last few years.”
Gossip and rumours of romance were apparently high among the crew with tennis players dubbed ‘GHT’ – or Golden Hairy Thighs – by the fleet of drivers.
Pat admitted the drivers had their own unfortunate nickname, adding: “They call the girls courtesy crumpet… and we do take exception to that as a name.”
A fleet of brand new Austin Montegos was provided at a cost of £200,000 to the manufacturer.
