Latest news with #BBCLookEast.
BBC News
09-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Ending playing career is 'a bit scary'
Dean Lewington once admitted to being a bit of a footballing dinosaur."As you get older, especially the way modern football is going, over 30s are seen as prehistoric really," he said in the autumn of 2022 as he approached the 900th match of his just over a month away from his 41st birthday, time has finally caught up with the MK Dons defender, who will end his time as a player at the end of the Peter Shilton, Tony Ford, Graham Alexander and Terry Paine have played more senior games in English football than Lewington."It feels quite surreal. Beforehand 'retiring' is just a word, it sounds OK and then it dawned on me that I won't get to play football (any more), which is a little bit scary now that it's come to it," he told BBC Look East."It's been on my mind for maybe two years now and it's just the right time."I was in a Sunday league team at six, in an academy at eight, and I'm now about to turn 41, so three quarters of my life has been playing football. "My whole life will change and that part is unfortunately coming to an end." From Wimbledon to Milton Keynes Lewington played his first league game as an 18-year-old for the old Wimbledon FC against Sheffield Wednesday in April 2003, just a few months before the club relocated to Milton was a controversial decision by the InterMK consortium, headed by Pete Winkelman, and led to them being renamed MK Dons ahead of the 2004-05 season."The news about coming to Milton Keynes was circulating for a year or two, but it was still under the Wimbledon name so it was kind of a weird time," he said. "There was a lot of uncertainty and a lot of noise around the move because it had never happened before. It was a strange time but quite exciting for a young player. "If I'd been mid-career it would have been very different, but for a young player it felt new and a challenge and turned into this (long career)."He continued: "We didn't know where it was at all really....20 years ago there were roads with a lot of piles of sand and dirt where (housing) estates would be (in the future) so it had a different feel about it. "My Mum told me that they offered my nan (a chance) to relocate to Milton Keynes in the 60s or 70s, but she turned it down - so I came instead! "It was all new, most of the boys were from inner London, it was something we'd never come across." MK 'does make sense, it's just a little bit different' Many visiting Milton Keynes for the first time have mixed feelings about it, but Lewington feels right at home."Anyone who comes here says 'I don't understand it' and I kind of understand what they mean from being an outsider coming here," he said. "There are some really nice villages on the outskirts. And when you drive into town you can park right outside the restaurants, whereas in London you have to find a car park and walk 10 minutes, or use public transport. "If you immerse yourself in it, you appreciate why it was designed the way it was and it does make sense, it's just a little bit different."Lewington has had plenty of great moments as a Don, including a 4-0 League Cup win over Manchester United in 2014, in front of a crowd of more than 26, that is not the best memory from his long career."The Yeovil game here (in 2015) to get (promotion) to the Championship is probably the best moment. It took 10 years for us to get to there," Lewington said. 'My peers retired six or seven years ago' Lewington has not played a first-team game since the end of November, but what does he put his longevity down to?"I'm not an explosive player so I don't have a tendency to pull muscles."He added: "My peer groups that I came through with retired six or seven years ago. I feel very fortunate that I managed to stay relatively injury-free which allowed me to play for so long and also that my style of game allowed me to do that. "This last season has been disappointing in terms of how many games I've played but before that I've played most of the season (each year) and it's something that I love doing. It's a job that most people would give their right arm to do."Lewington has been MK Dons interim boss on three occasions but was overlooked for that role when Scott Lindsey was sacked in is currently working to earn his badges with a view to a move into coaching but admits it will be a huge wrench if the path forwards means he has to leave the club."I'm institutionalised now," he said. "It's such a fantastic club. I've poured my life into it for 20 years and it saddens me to see where it is at the moment (in League Two). "There is potential for it to be so much more and I would like to be involved in that, but whatever comes, we'll wait and see."
BBC News
28-01-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Britain's Patten targets number one doubles ranking
Britain's Henry Patten has set his sights on becoming the top-ranked doubles player in the world after winning his second Grand Slam and Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara are now ranked three and four by the ATP following their epic men's doubles win over Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in a late-night final at the Australian Open last Salvador's Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic of Croatia are currently joint number one, with 7,530 ranking points, compared with Patten's 7,075."The prize money in doubles is a lot less than the singles and sponsorship deals are a little bit harder to come by, so doing well at the Slams is the best thing you can do," Patten told BBC Look East."They're the biggest events for prize money and also for ranking points, so it seems like we're timing our runs quite well."The win pushes us up to three and four in the world - I can't believe I'm saying that - so I think we'll go for the number one pair in the world, I don't see why not."Patten and Heliovaara earned A$810,000 (£407,000) between them for their triumph in Melbourne - just over £200,000 each. The match against Bolelli and Vavasorri lasted more than three hours and did not finish until 01.42 local time."I think it's probably the longest doubles match I've ever played. I had to go and ask my coach for a shot of espresso after the first set, which we lost in a really close tie-break, and that kind of set the tone for the rest of the match - it was a war of attrition," said left-handed Englishman from Manningtree in Essex first played tennis at the age of five, and in 2022 won 10 titles on the ATP Challenger tour with fellow Briton Julian teamed up with Heliovaara nine months ago and they have not looked back since winning their first tournament as a pair in Marrakech."It's amazing that it's happened so quickly - it feels like just the blink of an eye," said 28-year-old Patten, who served an ace to clinch victory in Melbourne."It's still a bit surreal. I don't know if that's the jetlag or just [that I] never imagined this would all happen."It was their second Grand Slam title, having also won at Wimbledon last summer, and he and Heliovaara will have a chance to add another at the French Open, which begins on 25 May."Next week we'll be in Dallas, playing on the ATP tour, then I'll have another week off, and then it's Doha, Dubai and straight back over to the States, so it's non-stop," Patten added.
