Dennis Cunnington, the tennis correspondent of the Press Association for many years, has died.
Dennis witnessed the advent of open tennis in 1968 and he covered many Wimbledon championships after that.
He also covered the British tournament scene when it was much more significant than today, as well as British Davis Cup ties.
Dennis was also an official of the British Equestrian Writers’ Association and the Badminton Writers’ Association.
For the BEWA, he organised their annual awards lunch for many years.
At the Badminton Writers’, he was a former chairman and active committee member, and he always invited friends from the worlds of tennis and equestrianism to be on his table at the BWA annual lunch.
Alan Smith, President of the BEWA, writes: Dennis brought the enthusiasm that he showed for everything he did to equestrian coverage and to the British Equestrian Writers’ Association.
For years he had taken on the most arduous project in BEWA’s annual calendar, organising the awards lunch, battling to get us the best deal — and especially the best wine — that he could. Dealing with the proliferation of bodies involved when it was held, for many years, at Olympia during their December international horse show was, literally, meat and drink to him.
But he was always pressing to have it, instead, at his beloved Queen’s Club. Even when the lunch was going to be at Olympia, he still insisted on having our committee meetings to discuss it at Queen’s.
I could not be more pleased that when, finally, we did move to Queen’s last year, it was a tremendous success. Little did we realise then, that it would be his last. Dennis will be much missed by so many.