It was wet and windy then,’ he said, ‘and I thought: “”How do they manage to play tennis in this?””, but of course the youngsters I was hitting with are used to these conditions and had no problems!’ Newly-arrived from his previous coaching job in Dubai, complete with suntan, Evans was recovering from the change in time zones and getting to know his way around.
‘There’s a four-hour time difference and I left Dubai last Monday, for Gatwick, and arrived in Jersey on the Tuesday morning and was coaching in the afternoon.
I felt a bit as though I was in a dream world!’ But he is impressed with what he has seen of the players.
‘I’ve met some of the juniors and there seems to be a lot of potential here.
The last coach must have been very good, the technique of the children I’ve met so far is excellent.’ His job now, he says, is to take both junior and senior tennis at the club to the next step.
‘The junior programmes are up and running – and have the support from Ashburton, which is fantastic and I hope will continue – but there doesn’t seem to be much in place for the senior players, which is a pity.
I hope to get something going, to cater for them, as soon as I can.’ But he is not planning to move in and change everything.
‘I want to get to know the players, and what is already in place for them, and what else is needed, before I start anything new.
The coach here, Chris Fancourt, has kept everything going on his own for a while and seems to have done a good job.
I’ll want to tap in to his experience and ideas so we can work as a team.
I’m very much a team man and hope to get club members working together,’ he said.
Evans, who is 38 and has coached professionally for the last 15 years, intends to enter a Caesarean team in the National Club league – which the Jersey club won last September, under the captaincy of former coach Pablo Giacopelli, with a team which included top England players Alex Bogdanovich and Mike Ouvarov, among others – but no local club members.
‘We won’t win this year,’ Evans said.
‘We will certainly put a team in but it will be based around people who are club members and live in Jersey, so it will be a Jersey team.
I think they did great to win last year – but what did the club gain?’ He had a similar experience when he played in Germany, of a club that brought players in to compete.
As a result the club team players left in droves, and the club struggled to survive.
As for Jersey, Evans says he thinks what he has seen of the Island – on a drive along the north coast – so far, is beautiful, and he is keen to get down to St Ouen, although, since he is originally from Derbyshire, he says he has no idea how to surf and will probably have to have lessons.
‘The atmosphere here seems friendly, it’s a bit like being in a big village,’ he said.
