Anyway we now have one of the jewels approaching in the form of Wimbledon fortnight ,undoubtedly the finest Tennis tournament in the world and one that has spawned legends from a young teenage blonde swede followed by screaming teeny boppers to a New Yorker hurling abuse and rackets in equal measure . However the person I am going to write about here was a legendary figure of years gone by though few would recall him now .He featured in nearly every Wimbledon ladies final in the 1960's and 1970's despite being persona non grata ( that's Latin for keep well away from here you bounder) at the All England Club from 1949. His name was Cuthbert Collingwood Tinling but known to all as Teddy Tinling who had served as an officer during the war in the British Intelligence Service in Algiers and Germany using the fluency in French learnt as a child where he had been sent to the Riviera due to his bronchial asthma . He ended the war as a Lieutenant Colonel . After the war he began a career as a dress designer including tennis dresses for the likes of Billie Jean King , Rosie Casals ,Virginia Wade ,Evonne Goolagong and Martina Navratilova and designed a wedding dress for Chris Evert. Teddy also played a leading part in the women's tennis movement and the addressing of the pay disparity that existed with the men's game when he became a player liaison officer for the Virginia Slims circuit . So why though Lash was he disapproved of on the hallowed lawns of SW19 ? Well it went back to when Teddy was an ambassador for Wimbledon in 1949. Wimbledon had a strict "all white "dress code " and he was asked by an American player Gussie Moran to devise a dress featuring three different colours ,Tinling said that was not possible but he would design something eye catching that complied with the rules . He came up with a short tennis dress with ruffled lace trimmed knickers making it the first time a player's knickers had been visible in any tournament .This of course was a field day for the press and photographers . It resulted in Moran becoming dubbed "Gorgeous Gussie" and Wimbledon officials going into meltdown. They accused Moran of bringing "vulgarity and sin into tennis" and Tinling was shunned until 1982 when he was invited back to Wimbledon ,ironically at around the time his creations were becoming passe on centre court. These days of course both Moran and Tinling would have made a fortune from the incident but these were different times and Tennis was still largely an amateur game which was run by what could be described as a conservative group of worthies who called the shots . Gussie Moran struggled with the whole event and possibly never really recovered from it saying “ I was embarrassed …I was never anything to write home about but Life magazine ran a picture calling me “Gorgeous Gussie” and the British press picked it up and did a real job with it. Then people would see me and I’d hear them say “ I’ve seen better looking waitresses at the hot dog stand” I just went to pieces . Emotionally I couldn’t handle it” She worked for a while in various media roles before coaching at a Racket Club . She was married four times but had no children and died at the age of 89 in a small apartment in Los Angeles Teddy Tinling the man Billie Jean King dubbed "Madame Superstar" died in 1990 having remained as a consultant to the women’s tour to the end fighting for improved conditions and prize money . At this year's Wimbledon the all white rule still exists but the style of underwear is up to the player concerned !! As for the Women’s game it is now largely appreciated for what it is a game in it’s own right ,as Tinling said when asked about comparing Men’s and Women’s tennis “ it’s like criticising cats because they are not dogs”