Oli Golding

jenks · Social player

Oli Golding

paulisi · Tennis legend

Oli is still keeping himself fit and training at NTC, so this may just be a short term break from competitive tennis.Tara stuck a picture up on instragram after fitness training with Oli and Evan(?)

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Jenks, what are forums but speculation, gossip and hot air laid over a sparse framework of facts? There appears to me to be no malice on this forum but a genuine desire to see our players improve and do well. I know quite a few players do read this and I am sure at times they find our ability to make 2+2=5 quite amusing, but I think generally they pick up on the underlying theme of support for their efforts. Those I know personally do anyway, although they all want to know who the heck is this Stephen bloke!

Shhh · Challenger level

The Optimist wrote:
Jenks, what are forums but speculation, gossip and hot air laid over a sparse framework of facts? There appears to me to be no malice on this forum but a genuine desire to see our players improve and do well. I know quite a few players do read this and I am sure at times they find our ability to make 2+2=5 quite amusing, but I think generally they pick up on the underlying theme of support for their efforts. Those I know personally do anyway, although they all want to know who the heck is this Stephen bloke!

Yes but don't we all. I've heard rumours he has special powers that give himn more hours in the day than the rest of us.......or that he's not one bloke at all but three

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Shhh wrote:
The Optimist wrote:
Jenks, what are forums but speculation, gossip and hot air laid over a sparse framework of facts? There appears to me to be no malice on this forum but a genuine desire to see our players improve and do well. I know quite a few players do read this and I am sure at times they find our ability to make 2+2=5 quite amusing, but I think generally they pick up on the underlying theme of support for their efforts. Those I know personally do anyway, although they all want to know who the heck is this Stephen bloke!
Yes but don't we all. I've heard rumours he has special powers that give himn more hours in the day than the rest of us.......or that he's not one bloke at all but three

Yes, I've heard he's actually a lovely elderly, insomniac, lady, in pearls, who plays scrabble and then 'moonlights' at tennis when nobody's looking.

My theory is he's really The Stig smile

Floody78 · Junior player

In response to those discussing the reasons for this thread, i started it as i feel that Oli has the potential to be a top 100 player and was wondering why he felt the way he did about tennis at the moment.

Certainly no malice.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Maybe if he had made his tweet a bit clearer about how long he intended to have a break, there would have been no need for the thread.

steven · Tennis legend

Now I know how the players feel (ok, not really!) ... what were we saying about people talking ill-informed rubbish on forums like this? *ahem* wink

indiana · Tennis legend

Gee guys, I still think that this has always been a perfectly natural discussion / speculation thread relating to one of GB's foremost recent juniors and still top prospects in a GB TENNIS DISCUSSION And it's certainly news..

It doesn't remotely approach the sort of intrusive speculation found on so many other forums, sporting and otherwise.

It's fine. No need at all for such soul searching.

Spectator · All-time great

I do not understand the need to speculate about Steven's identity. It is clear from his avatar that he is a rabbit of European origins (can't quite decipher the writing to place him more effectively) who has developed the capacity to wield implements in human fashion. This explains many things, including his facility with languages and, above all, his apparent tennis omniscience: he has obviously mobilised family members (of which most rabbits have numbers) to attend tournaments throughout the world, feeding back results instantaneously.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

I wonder if Oli was just bored a couple of days ago and just thought to himself, "I am going to post a tweet saying 'taking a break from tennis' and then I can sit back and watch the entertainment on the forums". I think he does read here.

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

Spectator wrote:
I do not understand the need to speculate about Steven's identity. It is clear from his avatar that he is a rabbit of European origins (can't quite decipher the writing to place him more effectively) who has developed the capacity to wield implements in human fashion. This explains many things, including his facility with languages and, above all, his apparent tennis omniscience: he has obviously mobilised family members (of which most rabbits have numbers) to attend tournaments throughout the world, feeding back results instantaneously.

This is almost certainly true.

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

jenks wrote:
Im am glad someone has mentioned the bold bit. While I firmly believe that this thread has sprung up out of genuine concern for Oli as he is a strong prospect that we all want to see achieve his potential. I do however wonder what he would think if he read it and his tweet was only about a small break to recharge his batteries rather than taking months out to review his career choice which is what it has become on this thread. Personally if i read this thread and i had only ment the former i would be mortified. Maybe people should have been more circumspect until there was some clarification as to what Oli ment in that single tweet.

On retrospect I think that tweet I sent him worrying whether the break was down to glandular fever looks a bit over-the-top now...

steven · Tennis legend

Spectator wrote:
I do not understand the need to speculate about Steven's identity. It is clear from his avatar that he is a rabbit of European origins (can't quite decipher the writing to place him more effectively) who has developed the capacity to wield implements in human fashion. This explains many things, including his facility with languages and, above all, his apparent tennis omniscience: he has obviously mobilised family members (of which most rabbits have numbers) to attend tournaments throughout the world, feeding back results instantaneously.

See, the clues were there all the time wink (and that analysis did make me smile )

The avatar is a scan of postcard I got in Paris years ago - it's an ad for tinned vegetables (the ad made me smile but I never tried the tinned vegetables!) for a company called Cassegrain with the caption "Gros légumes s'abstenir" - there have been loads of them over the years: http://bit.ly/1oQlcW6

The real reason for using it was because:

a) it's silly (i.e. I don't expect be taken too seriously)
b) the rabbit is waiting patiently for something good to be served up, which at the time was what GB tennis fans had been awaiting for many years.
c) most forums could do without being infiltrated by too many large vegetables (or trolls, in other words)

Spectator has made it sound much more fun though

As for Oli, I'm sure he'd have known perfectly well that a thread like this would get set up here if he tweeted something like that and he has always come across as being one of the players who feels the forum is supportive, so I doubt he has much of a problem with it.

As for sports forums in general, any sports star with any sense must realise that part of what keeps people interested in sport is being able to talk and speculate about it and its participants (not least because they talk and speculate about other sports themselves!) and without that aspect, there wouldn't be nearly as much money available in sport.

Then again, most of the players we talk about here don't make much money from tennis (though I'm sure most of them hope to at some point), so probably don't deserve all the speculation. Then again, I think if I was a budding professional sportsperson, I'd rather have people interested in how I was doing than not (even if some of the speculation might be uncomfortable at times), especially if that interest came mainly from people who genuinely wanted me to do as well as possible.

-- Edited by steven on Saturday 9th of August 2014 05:56:41 PM

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

Well said, Steven.

The rabbit idea is at least a change from the Count's robot S.T.E.V.E.N. It's a shame the Count no longer posts, but I suppose his interest was only in Alex Bogdanovic rather than British Tennis generally. By the way, can you remember what S.T.E.V.E.N. stood for, I have forgotten!