Tennis Unfiltered Newsletter No 3: The Origin Stories

What we got up to over Christmas

James Gray writes…

I’m not sure I can quite remember the first time I met George Bellshaw, but I’m virtually certain it will have involved a pint.

Over the years since, we have sunk several hundred of them (possibly more) in many different cities and countries, swapping war stories and making new ones along the one.

But, being men, we weren’t very good at actually talking about ourselves and our lives, much rather choosing to gossip about players and agents or the latest tennis media drama. Journalists, eh?

The same could be said of myself and Calvin, whom I have not known for as long but with whom I have now recorded about 200 episodes of the podcast and can call a firm friend. Similarly, we haven’t always delved deep into each other’s personal lives. Yorkshiremen, eh?

So it was a genuine delight to spend an hour with each of them in the run-up to Christmas, talking about their lives, inside and outside tennis, about how they made it to the top of their respective professions. George made me promise to do something similar with the microphones reversed next year, although I still won’t have made it anywhere near the top of my profession by then.

There were so many different anecdotes from both of them that made me giggle, titter and guffaw - but also moments of vulnerability and self-reflection: for example, I did not know that Calvin had spent time on a tennis scholarship at university in Tennessee, which turned out fairly disastrously but remains one of his biggest regrets. Click here to listen to Getting to know Calvin Betton on Apple, Spotify or anywhere else.

George’s episode has been quite different, as you might imagine. Whereas Calvin grew up in Barnsley in the 1980s, George hails from Sutton Coldfield where he was born in the 1990s, and came to sports journalism almost by accident. He walked away from the professional world of reporting shortly before the pandemic, a decision I decided to grill him on, swapping a notepad and dictaphone for the Outlook calendar and pension provision of the civil service. Hopefully, we didn’t get too industry-centric - although it is somewhat inevitable with two journalists in a studio! Listen to George’s interview on Apple, Spotify or as always wherever you get your podcasts.

Exciting 2024 plans

I don’t want to say too much about exactly what our plan for world domination looks like, in case Joel or David or some other very capable tennis podcaster decides they need to take a gangland-style hit on us. (Please spare us, we’re not a threat.)

But we are going to be moving forward with some plans to give you even more content - but behind a paywall. Don’t worry, if you can’t or don’t want to pay, we will still be producing a free weekly podcast with all your favourite bits. But we’ll also be producing some new stuff that will cost us to run and therefore requires us to charge a few quid for. Hopefully it won’t be an eye-watering sum and you’ll think it’s worth your time. We’re just excited that we’ve reached this stage!

We’re also going to be producing some merchandise which you can either win by being very good at Fantasy Tennis Unfiltered (yes, it’s back), or by purchasing online. Details to follow soon.

I appreciate there aren’t many hard facts in there, more just hints at facts, but I hope it tells you we are excited for the year ahead and you should be too.

We’ll be back with our regular weekly podcasts on Monday, and then ramping up as normal when the Australian Open starts.