ON THE Brightwell courts, three or four times a week – including through the winter – 81-year-old Mike “Marrakech” Schmeitzner is either practising his serves or playing competitive games against folk 20 to 30 years his junior.
Accidents and diseases can affect anyone at any time – but according to Mike, the right mental attitude, diet and exercise can go a long way to maintain good health.
Indeed he likes to have a challenge.
In his youth he used to climb Austrian mountains for hours, just so he could ski back down in a fraction of the time.
There were no ski lifts or prepared pistes in those days.
His family moved to the USA in the early 1950s. When it came to college, he decided to study geology both to maximise his maths skills and because he thought geologists would work outside and not in stuffy offices.
His high-school tennis proved handy too, since he made the university tennis team despite being just average height and the only member of the team who was not doing a sports degree.
Geologists were in high demand in the 1960s thanks to oil exploration and Mike travelled to Germany, then the Netherlands, UK and finally Sweden.
Mike became head of exploration for a major Swedish oil company.
Sweden, however, sits on granite with little oil in the country itself, so Mike found himself on aircraft flying across Europe, the Middle East and Africa looking for opportunities to drill.
Hotel living and meals on expenses are a real challenge to anyone’s waistline so to keep his weight down, he adopted the Japanese ethic of “only eat 80 per cent of what you want”.
In hotels with no recreation facilities, Mike started – and still maintains – his exercise regime including push-ups, sit-ups and weights. He took up jogging but only for short runs.
However, he showed he could do endurance by participating in the 1978 Vasaloppet, the legendary Swedish 90km cross-country skiing race.
He entered the race to the jeers of his office colleagues. This provided him with real motivation since he would not be able to look them in the eye if he failed to finish. It took him ten hours and 35 minutes.
Mike married his British wife in the 1960s and eventually found himself living in England.
At one stage in the 1980s, John and Chrissie Lloyd (formerly Evert) were his neighbours and he and his wife played tennis with them: gents v ladies. Chrissie’s side usually won.
Mike noted: “Chrissie was the number one ladies player for a reason – those consistent laser-like strikes of the ball came from practise, practise, practise.”
Through the Queens Club, Mike was also able to meet and play with well-known celebrities and top players.
He even had a half-hour practise session with Björn Borg.
Mike says: “After 20 minutes, Björn said, ‘okay, now I will use some top spin’.”
The session did not go so well for Mike after that.
He moved to Farnham in the 1990s but has spent quite a few years of his retirement in Morroco, hence his nickname Mike Marrakech.
These days you will find Mike at the tennis courts and club members are thrilled to have him as a part of the Brightwells community.
Mike likes to be in the open air and in this Covid era, that’s the safe place to be.
“I’ve played tennis as a teenager and on and off throughout my life – I love the game,” he said.
“You can play it regardless of age or skill level – you just have to be relatively mobile.”
Why all the service practising? He says: “You’re only as good as your second serve – and I want mine to be the best that it can be.”
Anyone who would like to join Brightwells Tennis Club – or to find out more details – can log on to https://www.brightwelltennis.co.uk
Andy Pritchard