In Case You Missed It: Battles from the last football season spill into summer but there's plenty of reasons to be cheerful in the world of Scottish sport
After last weekend's US Open came to an end, with Scotland's own Robert MacIntyre lifting golfing spirits having finished in a solo second place at Oakmont, things returned to normal in the wacky world of Scottish sport.
The week began with Rangers leaping to the defence of club legend John Brown after he was charged by the SFA following his claim on club commentary for a match at the end of the season against Hibernian, whereby he claimed that the officials on duty were 'corrupt'.
The back and forth between club and governing body continued, when on Friday, the SFA accused Rangers of 'misleading comments '. The Ibrox side had previously claimed that they 'had flagged numerous examples of similar incidents on other club channels' but the association hit back, suggesting that potential breaches weren't considered serious enough to merit more than warnings.
To matters on the pitch, Rangers unveiled Lyall Cameron with the former Dundee star announcing that he wants to get the club 'back where it belongs' and new manager Russell Martin told fans of the Ibrox side that the team will be strengthened ahead of their Champions League qualifier against Panathiniakos next month.
Though there has been plenty of build-up towards the British and Irish Lions tour kicking off, in the end with a 28-24 loss to Argentina in Dublin in the first warm-up match, there has been lots happening on the Scottish rugby front too.
Scottish Rugby chief Alex Williamson admitted that the SRU are keen for head coach Gregor Townsend to remain in charge of the team, despite a disappointing Six Nations. The former Scotland star has been at the helm since 2017 and has overseen one of the most talented squads in a generation but many feel that the squad have fallen short in major tournaments.
Williamson also spoke about the state of Scottish Rugby's finances, revealing the organisation are on track to cut losses with the addition of more concerts at Murrayfield, while revealing they are upgrading the toilet system and would be open to holding other sporting events at the national stadium - though football isn't one of them.
Towards the end of the week, news broke that Rufus McLean had been called up by the USA and could face Scotland in the Autumn Tests. The former Glasgow Warrior was sacked by the SRU after receiving a 120-hour community payback order by Sheriff Matthew Auchinloss following charges relating to a two-year campaign of abuse against his former partner.
There was joy for Scotland at Royal Ascot, though, when Jim Goldie ended a 17-year wait for a winner trained north of the border when American Affair stormed to success in the King Charles III Stakes.
On another positive note, following that second-placed finish at Oakmont, there is now a real feeling that Robert MacIntyre will end Scotland's wait for the country's first major winner since Paul Lawrie triumphed in The Open at Carnoustie in 1999, and the Oban left-hander insists he is capable of doing just that.
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Former British No 1 and World No 7, Roger Taylor won the men's doubles title at the US Open in 1971 and 1972, and was a singles semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 1967, 1970 and 1973, and at the Australian Open in 1970. He was Great Britain's Davis Cup captain from 2000 to 2004. Now 83, Sheffield-born Roger, is a father-of-four and has two grandchildren. He lives in London with his second wife Alison. Here, he talks to Peter Robertson. What did your parents teach you about money? We never talked about money because we didn't need anything – we were a very happy working-class family in Sheffield. My Dad, Mark, worked in the steelworks and my mum, Lilian, was a housewife and seamstress who started playing tennis at 33. We'd play in Weston Park. She was my first and only coach. I started out entering tournaments in Hull, Ilkley, Buxton, Scarborough and Leeds, and always managed to win. What was your first pay packet? At 17 I left Sheffield to move to London at the suggestion of the Lawn Tennis Association. My pal on and off court, Dick Dillon, came with me – we lived in the Wimbledon YMCA for three years – and they got us jobs at Fred Perry Sportswear in Soho. We each got £5 a week, and we thought we'd won the lottery. It was exciting for us to meet Fred, who'd won the Wimbledon singles title three times in the 1930s, and we got to know him quite well. No male British player won Wimbledon again until Andy Murray in 2013. Have you ever struggled to make ends meet? I struggled back then because there was no prize money. But we got paid a little 'under the table'. My income improved as I got better at tennis. First time I got to the semi-final at Wimbledon, in 1967, I got a £30 voucher. Prize money was first awarded in 1968. In 1970, I got £800. In 1973, I got £2,000. So it crept up very slowly. Have you ever been paid silly money? In 1967 I turned professional. I was No 1 in Britain but I lost my ranking because professionals were banned. I went into an international tour with seven others, including John Newcombe and Tony Roche, playing every night. We were known as the Handsome Eight. I got a contract for about $50,000 and prize money. Are you a spender or saver? I'm a saver and my wife is a spender! One thing I got from my parents was to have enough to look after yourself when you're older. I have always thought, is there enough in my pension? I never felt I needed money. When I got paid I put it in the bank, but it never seemed to grow much! What's the most expensive thing you've bought for fun? In my mid 20s I was signed to Slazenger, which gave me a company car. But when I left England for Portugal, where I had a tennis centre in the Algarve from the late 1970s to the late 80s, I bought a nice red BMW 320i. That was a great machine. What has been your biggest money mistake? I'm a member of Queen's Club, and a pro I knew there was coaching [the Hungarian billionaire] George Soros. The pro kept saying, 'You've got to buy this share.' I assumed he knew something so I took the plunge and invested £25,000 in a pharmaceutical company. But it died. There's probably a Yorkshire expression for 'if you're that daft, you deserve it!' The best money decision you've made? For ten years I've invested with my friend Stephen Ellis-Smith, who is a small-scale property developer. He buys pieces of land with planning permission, which is the key. That's gone very well all around London. The interest rate he gives is much more than you'd get in a bank or anything like that. Do you own any property? I own a three-storey, five-bedroom town house a few hundred yards from the All England Club, Wimbledon, where I'm a member. It's all paid off and supposedly worth over a million, but as Wimbledon is set to grow as the tennis complex is expanded I don't know where we'll end up. I have a piece of agricultural land in Portugal. I keep thinking that I might need to build on that, but haven't yet. Do you donate money to charity? I've always done charity work, and recently Wimbledon members have brought young people representing charities to do the coin toss before the finals. I was the first to do so. It helped get Cardiac Risk In The Young going – the wife of my fellow player Mark Cox started it because of their son's heart problem. What would you have done if your tennis career hadn't worked out? I might have followed both my father and grandfather, working for the Sheffield steelworks. But in 1967, when a replacement for Sean Connery as 007 was sought, I was asked to meet some of the team behind the Bond films bang in the middle of Wimbledon. Looking menacingly into mirrors saying, 'The name's Bond, James Bond,' I was painfully aware my South Yorkshire accent was not what Ian Fleming or Cubby Broccoli envisaged. I was shepherded into a room full of men who were staring at me in silence. I never even got to say 'The name's Bond…' before the meeting ended. If you were Chancellor of the Exchequer, what would you do? I paid a lot of tax in the 60s and 70s, so I would lower taxes for individuals and companies. Taxes are how councils finance their areas, yet you've still got potholes and so on. I've not met many politicians, but I once played an exhibition match at Queen's Club with Tony Blair. He was surprisingly good, so I had to step up a bit! What is your No.1 financial priority? To win the EuroMillions – to keep my wife in the manner she's accustomed to! The Man Who Saved Wimbledon, Roger Taylor's Official Autobiography (Pitch Publishing) is available tomorrow.
