Ges and Judith Walton have been married for nearly 40 years, they serve on the committee at Cam and Dursley Tennis Club and they also play mixed doubles together.

It’s that mixed doubles tie-up that may raise a few eyebrows – particularly in the tennis world – because as Ges says: “I think we’re one of the few husband and wife teams who actually play together competitively in the county!”

They play for the club’s B team in the Gloucestershire Winter League and Ges, who has been the club’s chairman for the past seven years, said with a chuckle: “It can get interesting at times!”

The Waltons played their early tennis in Brunei – Ges taught maths out there for more than six years and Judith worked at the British High Commission – before moving to this part of the world in 1987 when Ges took a job at Rednock School in Dursley.

Judith joined what was then just Cam Tennis Club pretty soon after but Ges didn’t join what was his first official club until a while later.

Dursley and Cam used to be two separate tennis clubs but joined forces in the 1990s soon after Ges had joined Cam.

The club play in Cam off Everlands Road and have three hardcourts – two of which are floodlit – and they also have a clubhouse.

And while Ges is chairman, Judith has quite an important role at the club too because she is the club’s league match secretary and was previously the club secretary.

Clearly Ges and Judith work well as a team off the court but how do they get on on court?

“Er, yes,” said Ges with a laugh, before adding, “it’s fine, we’ve played together for a long time. Yes, we do argue at each other sometimes and sometimes we have ‘interesting discussions’ after a match!”

So who is the better player?

“Er, well, my wife says she never makes a mistake and who am I to argue with that!” added Ges.

Clearly Ges has a good sense of humour and he’s equally proud of the fact that the club field so many teams in different competitions.

The club have two mixed teams of four who compete in the Gloucestershire Winter League – Phil Morris is captain of the A team and Sue Woodward captains the B team. The club also run three men’s and three ladies’ teams in the Gloucestershire Summer League and also have a mixed team that play in the Stroud League on a Sunday morning. In addition there are men’s and ladies’ over 60s teams which play during the winter months

“We’ve got a membership of just under 50,” said Ges, who lives in Dursley, “and a high proportion of them play team tennis.

“We enjoy the competitive element but we play a lot of social tennis as well. It’s an all year round sport, we’ve even swept snow off the court in the winter so we can see the lines!”

That sounds like fun and Ges and Judith clearly have fun when they play together – for the most part!

And despite what Ges has said they seem to complement each other pretty well.

“I tend to play close to the net rather than the back of the court,” Ges said. “I like to volley, anything near the net is my forté. My wife has a more all-round court game – usually chasing the shots I’ve missed!

“For me, the least effort is best, I prefer economy of effort!”

Clearly it’s an arrangement that works rather well.