Goolagong at Kooyong 1976

Evonne Goolagong Kooyong 1976

Through family friends we had members tickets to Kooyong and at the 75, 76 and 77 championships I was able spend many full days there.  On this day, for some reason I don't recall, Moms PND and I got to sit court side and someone let me use their 35mm camera.  They came out OK for a first time effort - just a bit dark.  Here Evonne has just destroyed another opponent and she went on to win the Open that year.  As with all these early tennis images the thing that strikes you is the lack of equipment and the big bags of stuff all the players carry with them now.  The funny thing here is she is clutching a couple of cokes for later as though that's all she's going to get!

A few years ago, (on a whim) I thought I would check what newspaper images existed for the championships in the years I went.  I checked out the News International newspaper site and sure enough I was able to find myself in the crowd sitting behind the server in some early round match in 1975.  Pretty funny. 

Another weekly image from my archive. Click on it to make it larger.

In addition to the images I've posted on Flickr and those I've periodically posted on PND, I have now produced a Big Blurb Book: From the Archive 1960 -1980 of some of the images I really thought were special.

Melbourne Cup 1973

Another weekly image from my archive. Click on it to make it larger.

It was race day in Melbourne this past week and the annual big race produced the closest finish in history.  I am not 100% certain this is the actual race from 1973 but it was taken in the right month and there would have been little other reason to visit the track.  I bet that skyline looks a little different now.

I'm not a big horse racing fan, but I did place my first bet - I didn't do it someone else did it for me because I was too young - a few years after this.  I think it was in something called the Cheltenham Cup and the horse was "How Now" which came in a close second.  I had him to place and I think I won about $6.  I quit while the going was good.

In addition to the images I've posted on Flickr and those I've periodically posted on PND, I have now produced a Big Blurb Book: From the Archive 1960 -1980 of some of the images I really thought were special.

I now have an iPad version of this book for sale ($4.99) on the Blurb site which you can find here: STORE

I have to say, even on the iPad the book looks pretty good.