MURRAYS THRILLED TO BRITS AS GAME RESTARTS
TENNIS
Dowes is a former teammate of Rob Burrow, who has inspired a world record attempt of 25 people spending 30 consecutive hours on a static bike, and Adam Maher, who died of the devastating condition earlier this year.
The former Leeds and Hull FC prop was also coached by Doddie Weir, who also suffers from the devastating disease, as a promising rugby union player.
So when a group that includes fellow former Super League stars Keith Senior, Garreth Carvell, Chev Walker, Wayne Godwin and Carl Forster got together after other planned
JAMIE MURRAY says the trash talking has already started before next month’s Schroders Battle of the Brits.
Andy Murray will make his latest injury comeback at the behindclosed-doors charity event starring the top eight men in the country.
Dan Evans, Kyle Edmund, Cam Norrie, Jay Clarke, Liam Broady, Jack Draper and James Ward will all compete in the ATP Tour Finalsstyle event at the National Tennis Centre in south-west London.
And organiser Jamie Murray (right) headlines a six-team doubles tournament to give fans a slice of tennis in the week before what should have been Wimbledon fortnight.
Umpires will use Hawk-Eye and there will be no line judges or ball kids. All matches will be shown on Amazon Prime from June 23-28. The event aims to raise £100,000 for NHS charities and offer “some prize money”.
But Jamie said the players are really battling for bragging rights. “Everyone wants to be top dog in
Britain – that is the cool thing about the event,” said the seventime Grand Slam champion. “This is the first time these guys have come together to compete against each other.
“We have had a WhatsApp group for six to eight weeks now to give updates. They are using it for trash talking. “They are looking forward to the chance to compete again in a cool event. We have all been locked up in our homes and it will
■ To donate to the team’s fundraising cause see: https://www. justgiving.com/ team/teamride29 be nice to see some familiar faces and friends.”
Andy Murray has not played since the Davis Cup last November, but his brother said he declared he would play “a few weeks ago”.
Jamie added: “Before lockdown he was back practising and had aspirations to go to Miami and compete and then everyone had to stop.
“I only hit with him the first couple of days when the courts were open. This is a great opportunity for him to test his hip before the tour restarts.”