Under the Spotlight GEFF PARSONS

Seventeen of his 40+ years spent living abroad have softened Geff’s original Cockney accent (he was born in Bow in the East End of London), to the extent that he now considers his homeland to be Hong Kong, where he spent 11 years and has permanent residency rights. Trying to place his accent these days is not easy, even for him: a random mix of English, Australian, American, even South African influences, doubtless caused by the multi-cultural range of his friends all over the world!

A lifelong victim of the eccentricities of his father – Geff is apparently the only person in Britain (at least) with his name spelled “Geffrye”, the original spelling of the name of Chaucer, of whom his father was a student – Geff now lives in trendy Islington with his life partner, having returned to the UK in 2005. Growing up, his first ambition was to be a tennis professional (seriously!), a desire which morphed into wanting to become a sports journalist. Having passed up the offer of a place in journalism school after university, Geff somehow ended up working and qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, and then finally moved into the world of banking (“structured capital markets” – don’t ask…). He currently works for BNP Paribas – but has not yet found a way into the main sponsor’s box at Roland Garros! ☺

Geff started playing tennis at the age of 12, while living on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. His fascination, or borderline obsession, with the sport, began after he watched Sue Barker’s marathon Wimbledon quarter-final loss to Martina Navratilova in 1976, but it was not until a couple of years later that he ventured on court for the first time, determined to emulate the playing styles of Barker, as well as Chris Evert and Bjorn Borg.

Geff’s game was initially built around a very Evert-esque double-handed backhand (and not much else, he admits), but in later years – some time during a 12-year hiatus from the sport, which ended about 5 years ago – that strength went AWOL due to all the squash he played in the meantime. His old game had been replaced by a wristy forehand and a big emphasis on court sense, which remain his strengths now. It therefore probably comes as little surprise that Geff’s all-time favourite players, alongside Barker, Borg and Evert, include the likes of Miloslav Mecir and Steffi Graf. Always a champion of the underdog, Geff’s other all-time favourites include the less esteemed likes of Nicolas Kiefer, Nicole Provis, Pascale Paradis and Sarah Loosemore. Current favourites include Roger Federer (“the best player of all time,” he opines), Kiefer and Ana Ivanovic.

Geff describes his playing style as “all-court and creative”, but confesses to often preferring to have fun with creative shot-making rather than going for the kill. His playing style reflects that of Barker (forehand), Mecir (court creativity) and Andy Murray – Geff’s signature shot is, of course, his drop shot. Tournament-wise, Geff loves visiting Wimbledon each year (and bizarrely even claims to enjoy the queuing experience...), but finds Roland Garros classier and a much more beautiful environment. For competing, his favourites are GLTA Paris and GLTA Munich (although playing well on clay remains a mystery to him!).

Geff’s earliest memory dates back to the age of two, when he recalls travelling around Portugal by car with his parents and his two brothers. Travel indeed features prominently on his array of interests outside tennis – his favourite destinations include Paris, Bangkok, Hong Kong, New York, Sydney and Cape Town – alongside the arts, current affairs, movies, architecture and other sports...he has a few trophies for table tennis (which, like squash, he plays only very rarely these days), and says he will take up golf in later life, when his creaky knees (three surgeries so far!) no longer allow him to run for a tennis ball…

Given the opportunity to meet any persons, past or present, Geff cites Jesus (just to settle the debate), Einstein (for the creative inspiration), Audrey Hepburn (the classiest icon imagineable) and – “duh!”, he says – Sue Barker...”because she started it all”! Keeping a safe distance from reality, Geff is something of a movie buff, and lists Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, George Clooney, Mel Gibson, Catherine Zeta Jones and Michelle Pfeiffer as his favourite actors. He can also rattle off a pretty lengthy set of favourite movies, such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Moulin Rouge, Chicago, The Matrix, Brokeback Mountain, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, To Catch a Thief, Some Like it Hot, LA Confidential, Dead Poets Society, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Working Girl and Shakespeare in Love.

Musically, Geff shows his age by his fondness for “all the great stuff from the 70s, 80s and 90s”, and has a ‘desert island discs’ selection that would include Come What May by Ewan MacGregor & Nicole Kidman, What’s Up by Four Non-Blondes, Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, It’s My Life by Talk Talk, Torn by Natalie Imbruglia, Losing My Religion by REM, Moon River (from Breakfast at Tiffany’s), My Sharona by The Knack, Through the Barricades by Spandau Ballet, One Day More by the cast of Les Miserables, 525,600 Minutes by the cast of Rent, the Romeo & Juliet suites by Prokofiev, and just about anything by Blondie or Madonna.

Geff’s favourite writers include Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Virginia Woolf, Douglas Adams, William Golding, Thomas Hardy and Sylvia Plath, and his love of the movies means that his favoured magazine is Empire, alongside Wallpaper and the Economist. Preferred designers are Prada, A&F, Ted Baker, Paul Smith and Ben Sherman. Having travelled extensively, Geff loves all types of food and is quite ambitious in trying most things, but Thai tops his list, followed by spicy Chinese, Mexican, Italian and “anything cooked by my incredibly talented other half”. His top tipple is champagne (“Veuve or Krug, please,” he adds...!).

Among the characters from Sex & the City and Friends, Geff says that he sees his cynical side reflected in both Miranda and Chandler. Geff also suffers from the latter’s tendency for the occasional weight fluctuation, though happily he does not look like him (in fact, Geff is most often said to have a passing resemblance to David Beckham…!). Geff cites Poncho (from Pooch Café) as his favourite cartoon character (“wonderfully irreverent”, he says), as well as Linus (from Peanuts – from which cartoon strip Geff claims to have garnered most of his formative education!) and anyone from the “hilariously dry” Doonesbury strip.

Geff is Editorial & Rankings Director of the ACL, and currently competes in Division 1.

November 2008