You're not really good enough to be in this Davis Cup team."Ī furious Lloyd said he would not play against Austria unless Mottram stayed in a different hotel. But Mottram approached the net and told the elder Lloyd: "Stop complaining. Mottram had been warned by the umpire for taking too long between points, and following another delay, David Lloyd urged him to get on with the game. His team-mates chuckled at his optimism.Ī week before GB faced Austria in Bristol in June, the Lloyd brothers played Mottram and Australian Phil Dent in a doubles match at Beckenham that descended into rancour as David Lloyd and Mottram argued on court. Mottram travelled with the squad but a back injury prevented him from playing, so current All England Club chief executive Richard Lewis filled the second singles berth alongside John Lloyd.Ī 5-0 victory brought a perfect start, while David Lloyd enjoyed a big win in a Monte Carlo casino, which he considered a sign that Britain would go on to win the competition. 'Buster stays in a different hotel or I'm not playing'īritain's first Davis Cup tie in 1978 was in Monaco in March. Murray to find form for Davis Cup - Henman He was a nutcase but a great player." More Davis Cup and tennis stories He did perform well and we had some laughs. I think he came around more to us, which was great. "Once he was in the team environment on the court, he changed. That's difficult when you're in a team event but we had to support Buster because he was so good. When Boycott batted he wanted to bat all day and the things around him didn't matter. His brother David added: "Buster was the Geoff Boycott of tennis, very individual and he wanted to win for himself. He was just a bit quirky and a bit nuts." "He would make comments with a smile on his face and I don't think he really meant them. It got out into the press and the LTA had to apologise for it. It was sent on behalf of the British Davis Cup team. "One year Buster sent a telegram to support Margaret Thatcher over something to do with the unions. John Lloyd said Mottram enjoyed provoking reactions. What he thought was a small thing suddenly became a big thing," Hutchins said. "What I felt then and what I still feel is it was just silly of Buster to have got involved but, equally, the political side used Buster for all that they could get from him. It alienated him from sections of the British public and Hutchins attempted, unsuccessfully, to persuade Mottram to distance himself from the party. He was only 22 but not shy in expressing his political views, and was linked to the far-right National Front, then a growing force within British politics with race a tinderbox issue. The son of tennis players Tony Mottram and Joy Gannon, Christopher 'Buster' Mottram attracted much controversy off the court. Mottram - 'the Geoff Boycott of tennis' Buster Mottram giving the V-sign to the crowd after his win over Colin Dowdeswell at the National Hardcourt Championships in Bournemouth in May 1975 It's like Kevin Keegan saying he won't play for England under Ron Greenwood."ĭavid Lloyd, then 30, described Mottram as "a hopeless team man".īut despite the ill-feeling, within a month Hutchins and Mottram had settled their differences and Britain's best player agreed to return to the squad. one of those players who thinks he's bigger than his country bigger than everything. "He has gone too far this time, even by his own standards," the younger Lloyd told the Daily Express. John Lloyd, then 23 and Britain's number two singles player, threatened to go on strike if Mottram had his way, suggesting "Britain will find herself with a one-man team". In January 1978, it was suggested Mottram wanted Hutchins replaced by three-time Wimbledon semi-finalist Roger Taylor. "He then got upset with me and refused to play with me or under me."
"Buster never used to like grass courts and I felt he didn't try or there was something he did at Wimbledon and I was particularly upset about it," Hutchins recalled. 'Buster is a tragic tennis case' Buster Mottram receives a police escort at Wimbledon in 1978ĭespite being British number one, Mottram had not played Davis Cup for 18 months after falling out with Hutchins at Wimbledon in 1976, following criticism from the coach. The Lloyd brothers and team captain Paul Hutchins reveal the extraordinary highs and lows of that memorable campaign 37 years ago, which began with their best player exiled from the squad. The only occasion they have come close in the intervening 79 years was at a time of turmoil in Britain, with widespread public sector strikes and the Labour government of James Callaghan close to collapse.Ī team of disparate and occasionally volatile characters - the brilliant but divisive Buster Mottram, chalk-and-cheese brothers John and David Lloyd, and veteran doubles specialist Mark Cox - came together to win five ties before losing to a John McEnroe-inspired United States.
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