REALLY Ancient History

[Henry Hub]

Despite the hiding the NSW men have taken, the Honorable Secretary of the Sydney LTC writes to Pastime to encourage English players to come to the ACG and play in the NSW Championships. He makes reference to Wilberforce Eaves’s time in Australia and suggests that the standard of play has improved since (because of?) his visit.

https://imgur.com/a/wMFUsH2

 

[Henry Hub]

Back to the Northern Hemisphere and there are intriguing matters afoot in Germany. As previously mentioned, the two main characters in Teutonic tennis at this time are Baron Robert von Fichard and Carl August von der Meden.

During the sixths handicapping contretemps at the LTA meeting, a pronouncement of von Fichard is read out, the gist being that the Germans will form their own lawn tennis association if the LTA were to move from the quarters to the sixths system.

A rather ungallant soul tells them to crack on.

https://imgur.com/a/206KivV

Von der Meden, ever the diplomat, attempts to smother the flames from von Fichard’s article. He suggests that there would be zero support from the big German clubs of Hamburg for any lawn tennis association that deviates from a decision of the LTA on the conduct of the game. Instead he pledges fealty to the LTA in terms of any decision it makes on these matters.

Interestingly, though, von der Meden does not take the idea of a German LTA off the table.

https://imgur.com/a/qNwX9zj

 

[Arrie]

At the end of January 1893, the LTA annual meeting is held and the sixths system is proposed by the Lancashire LTA representative JG Brown, seconded by the inexplicably 2-time All-England Mixed Doubles champ JC Kay (http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/really-ancient-history.246089/post-18429049 ).

WH Collins shows himself to be a man whose head has dominion over his heart, readily supporting the proposed challenger to his quarters and “Perfect” systems.

The proposal however meets stiff resistance in the persons of Harry Scrivener (at this point of the Oxford University LTC but a man destined for great things in tennis administration) and, surprisingly, Nicholas Jackson of Pastime, who argues that there has been no chance to test the system. Jackson has had the hump with the Northern representatives for years, ever since they admitted that they would fight “tooth and nail” to defeat his favoured quarters method.

Eventually, the matter is put to a vote and fails to meet the required threshold.

This lets much of the air out of the meeting and so our friend Horncastle (see above) has all sorts of difficulty holding the attention of the delegates on his topic of the conduct of club matches. Pastime captured the mood brilliantly with its final sentence:

https://imgur.com/a/PZAEed5

Mr Lunn from Horncastle?

 

[Henry Hub]

No, Walter Horncastle - at the bottom of this post:

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/really-ancient-history.246089/post-18444269

 

[Henry Hub]

That there is growing clamour for a German LTA can be seen from this editorial from “Sport und Spiel”.

https://imgur.com/a/19sjXOX

Pastime backs the movement as being good for the game, though Jackson’s motivations are a little suspect. With a beady eye trained on his Northern colleagues, he urges that no unnecessary changes be made to the laws by the LTA, in case this results in a schism between the associations.

https://imgur.com/a/ENxOH6J

 

[Henry Hub]

What of the players? When we took our leave of them at the end of 1892, Ernest Renshaw was off to the Côte d’Azur while May and Beatrice Langrishe were treading the boards in Surbiton.

To the Renshaws in a second but Pastime kindly contributes a few more names to the troupe of tennis actors, a grand tradition going back to Major Wingfield himself.

https://imgur.com/a/xnI1Ff2

https://imgur.com/a/cwQl3CC

The mercurial Harry Grove has headed down to Johannesburg, doubtless to bag himself a few rhino heads for the parlour wall. He stops by the Transvaal championships and plays an exhibition.

Ernest Renshaw has decamped to Cannes with George Hillyard (presumably Blanche is also in town), Harry Bacon and the Americans, Deane Miller and AE Wright. His brother has settled in Monte Carlo instead but is planning to head across to the Beau Site soon enough. To the excitement of its readers, Pastime is able to report that William intends to spend more time on the court than on the links in 1893.

https://imgur.com/a/irPzKQW

 

[Henry Hub]

As has been their recent wont, as soon as William boards the train to scoot across to Cannes, Ernest checks out of the Beau Site and starts the journey north back to London.

William does find an agreeable fellow guest at the Beau Site in the estimable shape of Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Trips off the tongue.

https://imgur.com/a/thtkQwS

The sister of Grand Duke Michael, who is the founder of the Cannes golf club and tennis superfan, Mecklenburg-Schwerin is another important patron of all things tennis on the continent.

She bankrolls tennis clubs (including the Cannes Croquet and LTC, now Cannes Tennis Lacour) and competitions along the Côte d’Azur. Her largesse is particularly directed at Cannes, the location of her family’s winter home, the Villa Wenden (now Villa le Rouve) in the town’s exclusive Californie neighbourhood.

She is a popular figure among tennis players, the Dohertys dedicating their book to her, and she is equally smitten with them, giving Tony Wilding a diamond pin that he promptly mislays on a train to San Remo.

 

[Henry Hub]

Both of the Renshaws end up in Cannes in mid-March, as Ernest decides to head south again, exchanging the indoor courts of the Queen’s Club for the clay courts of the Beau Site hotel. William is noticeably on form, beating the Scottish doubles champion Nadin in a 72-up match from an 18 point handicap.

Ernest is not playing badly himself, making light of a colossal 36 point handicap to beat Deane Miller 72-70.

If tennis royalty has fled from British shores, actual royalty is making the opposite journey.

https://imgur.com/a/Er5zpuJ

While we are on the subject of the Renshaws, they must surely have been delighted to discover that their hitherto unknown (including to them) brother has cropped up in the US…

https://imgur.com/a/p7eGQDw

I see an opportunity here to tour the US on someone else’s dime as Geoff Federer or Nigel Nadal.

 

[Henry Hub]

To be honest, a conman doing the rounds of New York and Boston clubs armed with a tennis racket, a cod English accent and a good slice of gumption is a sight more interesting than anything else going on in the US in the first part of the year.

The USNLTA have their annual meeting at Hoffman House in Manhattan, with the highlight being a resolution to explore options to hold the National doubles competition and challenge round in Chicago.

https://imgur.com/a/IsE6UYx

So thank goodness for James Dwight and Ollie Campbell, who have been feverishly scribbling out articles and books over the winter.

We’ll come back to Dwight’s seminal work below but he first submits for publication in the winningly named “Wide Awake” his “Sermon on Lawn Tennis”.

https://imgur.com/a/4IWIIjh

As ever with the Good Doctor, there are plenty of bon mots and astute tips about the game.

We get the US American creation story once again, with the Sears-Dwight match taking place this time in summer 1874 (as we have seen, Dwight occasionally suggests it took place in 1875 -
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/really-ancient-history.246089/post-18366230 ). Anyway, summer 1874 would still be 2-3 months after the article on the new game in Moore’s Rural New Yorker.

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/really-ancient-history.246089/post-17719047

Dwight is a big supporter of the interscholastic event, a wise stance given that it serves as a production line for top (East coast male) US players for another 15-20 years.

On the other hand, Dwight is no fan of the “fancy” racket (“no gold braid, no curious stringing, no fluted handle”). He would not prosper as a modern day antique tennis valuation expert, I’d wager.

On slide 4, we get a sketch of Dwight essaying a backhand, while that on slide 5 is of his good friend and mentee, Richard Sears jr. I don’t have a clue who is represented on slide 10 but the reference to a girl suggests it might be the youthful Bessie Moore.

The less said about the sketch of a tennis court on slide 7, the better.

He wraps up with one of the most gnomic, thoughtful and ignored maxims in tennis history.

 

[Henry Hub]

With his three singles championships under his belt, Ollie Campbell probably has a target on his back among the publishers of New York. His magnum opus appears in 1893 under the title of “The Game of Lawn Tennis and How to Play It”.

https://imgur.com/a/IKxbsBn

The first slide maybe gives us an indication of how Campbell serves. If you recall, he has a wafty serve followed by a mad dash to the net - the US foot fault rule was changed in part to fetter his headlong progress.

Campbell toed the same line as other writers on the weight of rackets. However his principal concern seems to be the risk of catching rheumatic chills from sitting around after a match without changing first. Thank all that's holy for wicking technology, I suppose.

 

[Henry Hub]

James Dwight probably spends all of 2 minutes working out the title for his follow-up to his 1886 book “Lawn-Tennis”. His new work is called “Practical Lawn-Tennis”.

It is available for free on Google Play Books.

There is much to enjoy in the book, including instructions on shot construction, tactics and how to prepare for holding and participating in tournaments.

Let’s start with rackets, given that that is the stated aim of this thing.

https://imgur.com/a/q1H7xrZ

Dwight doubles down on his disdain for fancy stringing and fishtails, probably incurring the lifelong enmity of Ralph Slazenger in the process.

When it comes to keeping your energy up on court, Dwight is in a different camp than Ollie Campbell, who recommended water or oatmeal and water. In fact, Dwight’s camp might be propping up the bar in the pub - he stays faithful to the old recipe of brandy “with as little water as possible”. Suzanne Lenglen would have got on well with Dr Dwight, one feels.

I have a couple of anecdotes on players in their cups in a second.

https://imgur.com/a/0guce2H

I chortled at the idea of rubbing Vaseline into the eyebrows to combat sweat but a quick google suggests that this is still a tip for distance runners.

 

[Henry Hub]

Anyway, what distinguishes Dwight’s 1893 book from its 1886 predecessor are the photos of his rather famous chums.

Dwight ropes in Tommy Pettit, Clarence Hobart, (I think) Eddie Hall and, most wonderfully, the 7-time champion Richard Sears to play a few shots for the camera.

I believe that this is the only instance of Sears playing shots on film.

Here is Sears modelling a Lawford-style stiff arm topspin forehand, with a bit of commentary from Dwight on the shot.

https://imgur.com/a/yYi34X1

We also get a photo of the great champion demonstrating his drive off a low ball.

https://imgur.com/a/HZ5dpbL

Having booked Sears for the whole afternoon, Dwight decided to get his money’s worth and gives us his service mechanics too.

https://imgur.com/a/t78QTmj

 

[Henry Hub]

Tom Pettit, more famous for real tennis than its lawn-based cousin, is the obvious choice to show off the slice forehand, or cut stroke.

https://imgur.com/a/Uwab3j2

He also contributes some photos of volleying at the net and his touch on the half-volleys.

https://imgur.com/a/tlJZGkq

Pettit, like many of his contemporaries and successors in the early 20th century, elects to choke right up on the handle for volleys. Also, look at the ground clearance of that net! No wonder European players always mentioned this idiosyncrasy of American tennis.

 

[Henry Hub]

Eddie Hall gets the less glamorous shots but does display a capable backhand. Note the thumb down the back of the handle for reinforcement.

https://imgur.com/a/dCEPesx

Hall does roll out his full repertoire of shots. The lob is probably the most important stroke in the US player’s arsenal during the 1890s, as we will soon see.

https://imgur.com/a/nJd0XAi

 

[Henry Hub]

Clarence Hobart can’t be persuaded out onto the court but does a bit of Joey off Friends hand modelling work in the studio to demonstrate his groundstroke grips.

https://imgur.com/a/47VThDE

Hobart, who appears to be using a Spalding racket of some description, is a new generation of topspin users. His forehand grip is singled out as one that is built for this kind of spin. To a modern eye (or indeed a 19th century Californian player’s eye) this seems quite a neutral hold.

Dwight recommended in his earlier book that the grip should not be changed between the forehand and backhand, citing the Renshaws. He revises his view in “Practical Lawn-Tennis”, noting that even Wilfred Baddeley, always cited as the premier disciple of the single grip, actually perceptibly shifted his hold slightly between shots.

The author does give us one shot of his own stroke craft, demonstrating a reverse forehand serve that he favours when the sun is on his right.

https://imgur.com/a/YVAQP9O

Finally, Dwight gives us his rather less than charitable views on umpires and his stern guidance that referees should preferably not bet on matches.

https://imgur.com/a/63Tlvjz

 

[Henry Hub]

So, boozy players. Lenglen was famous for taking snifters throughout her matches but we will come to her in due course.

We saw in Eaves’s obituary that he was fond of a late night hootenanny before a final - and he was not alone in that. The above-featured Eddie Hall once was out carousing until 1am at Saratoga before a final. Given the state of the trophy on offer, it’s suggested it was probably the best use of his time.

https://imgur.com/a/ql8bzFo

Tony Wilding, with his playboy reputation, was never far from the sauce. The rotund twin brothers referenced below are of course the Allen twins.

https://imgur.com/a/e7aQxP6

 

[Henry Hub]

However, the most egregious example of getting on it in a tennis context must surely be Randolph Lycett, an Australian/British player of the early 20s who is runner-up to Gerald Patterson at Wimbledon 1922 and future brother-in-law of Bunny Austin.

It is however at the preceding year’s event that Lycett makes his bid for immortality as the most plastered player in Championships history.

In his defence, the conditions are brutal, with day after day of blistering heat. Lycett’s quarterfinal is against the talented Japanese player, Zenzo Shimidzu, who is no grass-court ingenue as displayed by his 1921 Queen’s title.

Lycett is flagging almost from the start but still gets 2 sets to 1 up before the wheels come off. At the end of the set, he gets to the sidelines with difficulty and is given some champagne to drink.

American Lawn Tennis picks up the tale:

https://imgur.com/a/65R3Bga

According to English newspapers, Lycett gets booed by the crowd on Worple Road’s Centre Court as they think he’s time-wasting. It’s probably the first booing on that court since Lawford and Grinshaw turned up late for their 1884 All Comers’ Final.

The old saying goes that there’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lips. Well, not in Lycett’s case. ALT suggest that Lycett sloshed back three quarts of champagne during the match. According to Wikipedia, he had some gin too - maybe he insisted on an aperitif?

https://imgur.com/a/3OQZY1C

For us on this side of the Atlantic, 3 quarts is just under 3 litres. So, in a Wimbledon quarterfinal, Randolph Lycett saw off a Jeroboam of champagne plus some gin chasers in 2 sets of tennis.

Legend.

 

[Sanglier]

The author does give us one shot of his own stroke craft, demonstrating a reverse forehand serve that he favours when the sun is on his right.

https://imgur.com/a/YVAQP9O

Wow, this is possibly the first illustration of the 'reverse service' in history! This difficult-to-master serve inspired Kuebler to create his hyper-stiff racquet nearly a century later, first in fiction (as a plot device in his debut novel "Und dann? Geschichte eines Tennisspielers"), then in real life.

Personally, I have never been able to avoid sending a slow floater into the adjacent court whenever I tried this.

 

[Casey 1988]

James Dwight probably spends all of 2 minutes working out the title for his follow-up to his 1886 book “Lawn-Tennis”. His new work is called “Practical Lawn-Tennis”.

It is available for free on Google Play Books.

There is much to enjoy in the book, including instructions on shot construction, tactics and how to prepare for holding and participating in tournaments.

Let’s start with rackets, given that that is the stated aim of this thing.

https://imgur.com/a/q1H7xrZ

Dwight doubles down on his disdain for fancy stringing and fishtails, probably incurring the lifelong enmity of Ralph Slazenger in the process.

When it comes to keeping your energy up on court, Dwight is in a different camp than Ollie Campbell, who recommended water or oatmeal and water. In fact, Dwight’s camp might be propping up the bar in the pub - he stays faithful to the old recipe of brandy “with as little water as possible”. Suzanne Lenglen would have got on well with Dr Dwight, one feels.

I have a couple of anecdotes on players in their cups in a second.

https://imgur.com/a/0guce2H

I chortled at the idea of rubbing Vaseline into the eyebrows to combat sweat but a quick google suggests that this is still a tip for distance runners.

Not really used anymore as people use Halo Sweat band, skull cap, or visor and similar products made when patent expired on the item for sweat and if not they use a sweat band like I do when running in hot weather.

Tip is not really used anymore as it is outdated and using a poor idea, if they do a similar idea, they are using Deodorant on the forehead but the more natural types without aluminum as the aluminum traps sweat under it so it will leak at some point. I know people do this as I helped in 2013 at an ultramarathon at one of the bigger station stops (each one is 6.2/10k--7 miles apart) and I helped a guy find in his drop bag a baggy with the natural deodorant Tom's he was using as an anti-chafing product for parts that would chafe having to help apply on the lower section of his back where his water pack was chafing that he also applied on forehead to keep sweat out of his eyes. The guy did not want to pay for the anti-chafe brand Body Glide that is like a deodorant in the packaging but he could have used Aquaphor/generic of that like I use becuse it works even after I am chafed similar to Vaseline without the burn if chafed that can even be used for lips or hands if dry in a pinch, or the then new Gold Bond Friction Defense that is a cheaper version of Body Glide. Even what my mom used for the period she ran Monistat Soothing gel powder is cheaper then Body Glide.

 

[Henry Hub]

The US season kicks off down in Florida with the biggest events being in Tampa Bay and the Magnolia Club. I don’t seem to have any report of the Tropical Championships at St Augustine this year.

Bob Wrenn, who along with Billy Larned was the break-out star at Newport in 1892, wins the singles and doubles at the Tampa event, beating Clarence Hobart (see grip above) along the way. Hobart promptly returns the favour, dispatching Wrenn en route to both titles at Magnolia.

The NZ championships are won by, you guessed it, yet another Fenwicke brother.

In Europe, there is week by week less pressure on the courts in Cannes as players start to head northwards. William Renshaw makes an uncommonly early departure, the reason being that he has sent in his entry for the Queen’s Club’s covered courts event.

His brother lingers by the Med, taking a day trip with Harry Bacon on 2 April over to Monte Carlo to open the new tennis courts at the Casino. These courts are built on the cellars of the neighbouring Hôtel de Paris and are the direct antecedents of those of the current Monte Carlo Country Club.

EDIT: many years later, George Hillyard reminisces that he was also in the Monte Carlo party. They took to the courts after a very large and almost certainly boozy lunch at the Hôtel de Paris. Hillyard was given the honour of being the first to serve on the new courts. He tossed up the ball, was blinded by the glare of the sun… and blasted his first serve into the Mediterranean.

 

[Henry Hub]

The Queen’s Club hosts the first big English event of the year at its indoor or covered courts. It is supposedly the curtain-raiser to the Covered Courts Championships that are to be held the following week at the Hyde Park LTC but in reality Queen’s gets more and better players than the Royal Oak event.

The main draw is, of course, William Renshaw. Apart from a brief and inglorious appearance at another Queen’s event in 1892, Renshaw hasn’t been seen on court for almost 2 years. It’s a measure of how seriously he is taking his comeback that he enters both singles and doubles in Barons Court.

Unfortunately, Renshaw’s participation in the singles is brief. He decides to take on the powerful baseliner Horace Chapman at his own game and gets beaten 3 & 4.

Of considerably more interest than the scoreline is the observation in the sports pages that William Renshaw has forsaken his old Tate and is using an “absolutely new racket”.

https://imgur.com/a/09KjgeH

 

[Henry Hub]

Put a pin in that one as we will return to it once we get to the summer.

The ambidextrous Maud Shackle defends her title 7-5 in the third after a compelling match with one of the Arbuthnot sisters.

Renshaw’s fortunes are restored in the doubles, in which he has paired up with his old mucker, Harry Barlow. They sweep all before them in an imperious march to the challenge round, including an eyecatching 5 set win against the Baddeley twins.

In the final match, Renshaw and Barlow face the holders and lose in 5, spurning a match point. However, there’s something fishy going on.

By way of a reminder, the 1892 doubles title was won by the doughty old campaigner and racket boffin, EG Meers, aided and abetted by his mysterious, pseudonymised accomplice Mr “Waller”.

The challenge round of 1893, however, features as holders EGM and one Mr “May”. This “May” fellow has just won the singles title too, downing Chapman.

“Waller” and “May” are naturally the same man, one Harold Mahony. This ridiculous state of affairs tickles the Pastime Varia desk, leading to this snippet.

https://imgur.com/a/F8xNlnE

Pastime does, though, read the room and notes a groundswell of dissatisfaction with all of these pseudonyms. We are going to see all sorts of fun and games on that front.

 

[Henry Hub]

And that dissatisfaction starts the following week at the Hyde Park LTC when it holds the Covered Courts singles championship.

There are a grand total of 5 entries, somewhat devaluing the whole enterprise. Of those 5 players, 2 appear under pseudonyms. There is “J. May” who we met above and one MF “Hughes”. Now, there are pseudonyms and there are pseudonyms. This one is barely worth it, MF Goodbody being the masked man.

The trouble here is that the two pseudonymised Irishmen meet in the all comers’ final, an unprecedented misfortune for tournament committees. Mahony, I mean May, wins in 5 then knocks off the holder Meers.

Mahony plays doubles exhibitions at the Hyde Park LTC too and so it’s no surprise that, by the end of his successful fortnight, his feet are blistered to a Grand Guignol state.

For once I won’t get ahead of myself but the issues around pseudonyms are manifold. There’s an acknowledgment that professional men and ladies of good standing may not necessarily want their participation in tennis events to be publicised. However, this does frustrate tournament committees in their efforts to maximise gate revenues and thereby pay for those lovely trophies.

Journalists find the whole thing tiresome as they are generally honour-bound to observe the sanctity of the pseudonym (hence why there’s often some detective work required to triangulate movements of players to work out who lies behind the assumed names). They also rightly bemoan the fact that a pseudonymised winner of a title can never claim that title when he or she sheds the assumed name. It’s also a nightmare, one imagines, for trophy engravers.

 

[Henry Hub]

Mahony’s sudden spike in form adds him to the list of contenders for honours in 1893.

Pastime runs an eye over the men’s and ladies’ fields in early May.

Wilfred Baddeley has not stepped onto a singles court since the end of the 1892 season, his doubles play with his brother at Queen’s being their first outing for 1893. Wilfred’s lack of a winter training bloc isn’t expected to count against him by the time summer rolls around.

William Renshaw’s public form has been variable but he has been unbeatable in practice matches at Wimbledon. He is without a doubt the most exciting prospect of the year. Meanwhile, Ernest seems to be playing at the same level that delivered him the Irish title in 1892.

Nothing is heard from the Irish players other than Mahony and Goodbody, both now London residents. Joshua Pim is famous for not touching a racket between September and May so he may be rooting around in cupboards about now, looking for his Slazengers.

Grove is back from South Africa and has declared his intention to play a full season. George Hillyard is also committed to tennis, the cricketer proclaiming that the racket game is the only way he gets any proper exercise.

Ernest Wool Lewis will be the one main absentee this year, his medical duties at St Bart’s taking precedence over his tennis.

On the ladies’ side, there is little change, with almost all of the main dramatis personae expected to return in 1893. The one exception is Louisa Martin, who will not play this year.

 

[Henry Hub]

The Queen Bee of tennis in 1892 was Lottie (or possibly Charlotte - we’ll come back to this) Dod. Dod was on simply devastating form after her reversal in Dublin against Louisa Martin and there’s no reason to expect anything different from the great champion in 1893.

The main threat to her continued dominance is her wandering attention. What Dod needs is a rival, something to sustain her interest in the game.

She is a fitting subject for the first Pastime bio of the year.

https://imgur.com/a/lzhdgDC

Her love for golf is observed in the article, something I must remember to come back to.

 

[Henry Hub]

Pastime publishes a bio of William Renshaw the following week, featuring a photo of tennis’s prodigal son on the cover. Jackson would have been well advised to order an extended print run for this edition.

https://imgur.com/a/AA3AcSl

All the greatest hits get another run-out - the first revelatory appearance of the twins at the indoor courts of the Maida Vale LTC, the 1881-86 run of titles, the 1887 tennis elbow and the greatest point of the 19th century against Harry Barlow at Wimbledon 1889.

In Pastime’s opinion, Renshaw’s dominance is over but he remains a legitimate challenger to Baddeley’s crown.

 

[Henry Hub]

The Irish championships don’t boast the quality of entries of recent years.

With defending champion Louisa Martin absent from the field of combat, there is little incentive for Dod to make the choppy crossing. Other leading ladies who make their excuses are Blanche Hillyard, Lena Rice, May Langrishe and Maud Shackle.

The men’s field, when viewed holistically, is a little more rosy for Master Courtenay and the rest of the committee. Both Renshaws play the singles, Ernest of course only to play his Challenge Round. Ernest also plays the doubles - just not with his brother. Again, I do wonder what the state of the relationship was between them at this point in time - a topic to which we shall shortly return.

The main absentees are Mahony and the defending doubles champions Meers and EW Lewis. On the whole, though, there’s enough to draw the usual fashionable Dublin crowds in enormous numbers, reports of tennis’s decline once more being off the mark (at least outside London).

 

[Henry Hub]

There’s little to excite our interest in the early rounds.

Goodbody comes from 2 sets down to beat the 1892 ACF finalist Frank Stoker in 5. Chapman loses from 2 sets to 1 and a break up against Ball-Greene after William Renshaw urges the latter to “play up”. Pim makes light of a tough draw by preying on Grainger Chaytor’s weaker backhand. Miss Corder loses a tough three setter against Miss Crofton, with the latter losing her next match in short order due to flu, no doubt to the loser’s exasperation.

In the men’s doubles, the latest of the Chaytor clan, young Tommy, pairs up with his Fitzwilliam LTC club mate Ball-Greene. The two of them lose their first round match against their more illustrious rivals from the Lansdowne LTC, Pim and Stoker. They are unlucky to lose, the 4th set just escaping their clutches.

But a loss is a loss and Tommy, tongue firmly in cheek, resorts to a spot of conscious uncoupling.

https://imgur.com/a/WhH1eTW

 

[Henry Hub]

The ladies’ events are a bit disappointing, the talented cricketer Miss Stanuell (see Buxton events passim) winning from a weak field. The aforementioned Miss Corder (photo below) teams up with Miss Shaw to win the ladies’ doubles.

https://imgur.com/a/BKNpTaQ

The mixed doubles features a Djokovic-Nadal 2013 French Open moment. Grainger Chaytor and his countrywoman, Miss Stanuell, are manoeuvring into a winning position in the 2nd set against Manliffe Goodbody and Miss EC Pinckney when Chaytor touches the net. Thence it all goes south, the Anglo-Irish pair eventually pulling out the win and going on to take the title.

https://imgur.com/a/NcoGEVl

 

[Henry Hub]

The men’s singles field continues to narrow down, Tommy Chaytor upsetting Barlow and then beating Goodbody to reach the All Comers’ Final.

On the other side of the draw, William Renshaw started well in his defeat of Charlie Allen but has been less convincing in each successive round.

He squeaks past Ball-Greene (given his last match against Chapman at Queen’s ended in defeat, no wonder he wanted the Irishman to win their encounter), which brings him to Pim. This is the fixture that all of Dublin has been hoping for and the square is packed out.

However, Renshaw is in disappointing form. Pim wins in straight sets and it’s not even close, the 1880s legend trying to play first strike tennis to get through his slump but just haemorrhaging errors.

Renshaw has a habit over the years of complaining about the conditions, sometimes with justification (cf his grievances about the state of the court in his Wimbledon loss vs Hamilton in 1888) and sometimes not so much. This is one of the latter cases. He whinges about the light and that he can’t see the ball against the dresses of the spectators.

Pim doesn’t seem to share his opponent’s concerns and puts on a masterclass of controlled hitting from the baseline. The match is over in less than 30 minutes.

https://imgur.com/a/zTc3QXO

 

[Henry Hub]

Pim makes short work of the valiant Tommy Chaytor in the ACF. The other Chaytor brothers, CH and DG, probably having mixed feelings on the sidelines - on the one hand they presumably want their brother to succeed but, on the other, it’s clear that Pim has the game to take Ernest Renshaw’s title for the home nation.

The challenge round is played in front of a capacity crowd, with celebrity in attendance in the personage of the Lord Lieutenant. Pim comes out of the gates like an Exocet, winning the first two sets 1 and 2. Renshaw is not even playing badly - Pim is hitting deep and coming in on his forehands, mercilessly dispatching the resulting volley opportunities.

In the third, Renshaw finally gets a foothold from the baseline and starts doing to Pim what he did to Willoughby Hamilton 5 years before. He manoeuvres Pim from side to side around the court, making the Irishman do all of the running.

Pim’s movement is legendary, the big man said to float around the court. But his retrieving ability seems largely to be based on his uncanny anticipation of his opponent’s shots. In terms of out-and-out speed, Pim cannot hold a candle to Hamilton or Ernest Renshaw. And Renshaw exploits this - both men know where Renshaw’s shots are going, namely to the furthest reaches of the court, but getting there is another matter and getting the next ball on the opposite side asks yet further questions.

Before long, Renshaw has wrapped up the third set and his opponent looks out for the count. There must have been nervous murmuring among the Fitzwilliam Square crowd. Perhaps, yet again, this is destined not to be Ireland’s day?

Renshaw, though, goes off the boil and his foot slips from Pim’s throat. The error count mounts on both sides of the net. Renshaw, exploiting the steep decline in the power of Pim’s strokes, makes another push and gets to 4-3 up. Pim finds himself 0-40 down before Renshaw, the greatest of all handicap players, unaccountably contrives to put three consecutive balls long and to lose the game. Pim is down 2 points in each of the following games but makes Renshaw play and miss consistently.

Pim takes the win. His victory is installed in the same constellation as Hamilton’s and St Leger’s (actually, steady on with the second one - he’s a wrong’un) - a home hero winning the second most prestigious (but definitely the most popular) Grand Slam of its day.

 

[Henry Hub]

Pim follows up his singles win by taking the doubles title with Frank Stoker, Meers and Lewis not able to defend their crown.

It is almost a 100% sweep by the Irish of their home event, the winners being Pim and Stanuell in the singles, Pim and Stoker in the men’s doubles, Miss Shaw (with the Scotswoman Miss Corder) in the ladies’ doubles and Goodbody (with Englishwoman EC Pinckney) in the mixed.

 

[Henry Hub]

The following week is the Lansdowne tournament. Glossing over the results, let’s take a look at what’s going on on the sidelines. There is a match between the Fitzwilliam LTC’s pro, George Kerr (who has returned to Dublin from the North), and Thomas Burke of the neighbouring Wilton and Lansdowne LTCs.

https://imgur.com/a/Bw1RheK

Now, a quick dive into the European professional game which will lay some ground work for future anecdotes.

We have seen Kerr before. He has played home and away matches against Pettitt at lawn tennis. http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/really-ancient-history.246089/post-18182665

Both Kerr and Burke are fixtures of the professional game over the next 20 years along with their compatriot Tom Fleming jr (Queen’s club pro and son of the guardian of the Maida Vale LTC’s and then Hyde Park LTC’s courts) and fellow Queen’s pro Charles Hierons. The two Irishmen and Fleming ultimately make for the continent for more money.

 

[Henry Hub]

Burke becomes the pro at the Tennis Club de Paris and subsequently the Ile de Puteaux club in the same city, moonlighting in Hamburg then Nice (Boulevard Gambetta) and Cannes (Beau Site and Hôtel Metropole) at the start of each season. Here he is down at the Beau Site courts in early 1900.

https://imgur.com/a/xaiC2gs

Burke’s charges in Dublin are headed up by Pim and Stoker. Later he brings on such players as Graf Victor Voss, the first great German player (who took the photo above), Paul de Borman of Belgium and the French champions Aymé and Max Decugis.

Burke spends an increasing amount of time on the Côte d’Azur, adding the new courts at Monte Carlo (replacing the ones next to the Casino) to his stomping grounds. Once HIH the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (a name that was built for the ctrl C, ctrl V function) opens the Cannes Croquet and LTC on Rue Lacour in 1907, Burke defects over to the new club.

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The club now lies behind the doors of this apartment building and still has a mixed configuration of courts, some built north-south and others east-west. This was apparently on the suggestion of one Laurie Doherty. If you ask me, it’s a terrible idea.

https://imgur.com/a/XHnx6Dk

 

[Henry Hub]

By the early 20s, Tom Burke is based full-time in Cannes and has let his sons Albert and Edmund take up the coaching reins. In 1925, Albert Burke wins the professional championships, held at the Hôtel Metropole (where our old friend Frank Donisthorpe is the occasional pro). The younger Burkes are the key men behind the scenes at the new Carlton Club in Cannes - where the building on the right now stands:

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And it is at the Carlton Club in early 1926 that the Match of the Century is staged between Helen Wills and Suzanne Lenglen, supposedly at the hands of the Burkes but in reality with a Mr Fisher (ex-NZ Davis Cup player and Dunlop figurehead) pulling strings behind the scenes.

https://imgur.com/a/gV1CIIf

John Tunis, European correspondent for American Lawn Tennis, writes an eye-opening and often excoriating account of this circus of an event.

Anecdotes abound about the ramshackle nature of the stands (workmen putting them up as the crowds wait to be seated), policemen climbing trees outside the courts to try to haul down freeloaders, neighbours charging fortunes for tennis fans to sit on their roofs and the Burkes letting slip that the Dunlop ball has to be used in the match, even though everybody wanted the normal Slazenger.

There’s plenty to come back to in his article but, for now, take a look at the searching questions he asks about where all the money went.

https://imgur.com/a/meFD8WC

 

[Henry Hub]

George Kerr also heads south to try and make a decent wage. He spends a fair share of his own time in Cannes but is primarily based in Germany and Austria.

George was the tennis tutor for the German royal family and, reading between the lines, did very well for himself out of his Teutonic clients. Unfortunately for George, he dithers a little too long once the unpleasantness starts in 1914 and ends up having to get the hell out of Deutsch pronto.

However, for a one-man anecdote machine, it’s all just more grist to the mill.

https://imgur.com/a/Fy1GAeL

Kerr is also the man who provides the story above about Tommy Chaytor filing divorce papers with the Fitzwilliam LTC in mock protest against Ball-Greene’s shortcomings in their doubles partnership.

And, with that, we return safe and sound to Dublin in May 1893. Phew.

 

[Henry Hub]

Colonel Courtenay’s aide-de-camp in the organisation of the Irish Championships is Charles Henry (CH) Chaytor.

https://imgur.com/a/btVBnEm

https://imgur.com/a/KoQj8qZ

Like Courtenay, Charlie is another name to note for achievements off-court, rather than on.

 

[Henry Hub]

Back to London and the Chiswick Park LTC.

https://imgur.com/a/jcfW8z2

As we saw in 1892, most years the above bucolic scene is somewhat spoilt by the grounds being a touch underwater.

Mahony picks up where he left off, transferring his indoor form onto the West London lawns. With habitual winner and committee member EW Lewis scratching the Challenge Round, Mahony takes the title via his ACF win against the baseliner Horace Chapman.

The pick of the ladies’ second tier meets in the latter rounds of the singles. Charlotte Cooper and Edith Austin play out one of the earliest of their innumerable encounters over the 90s, the latter winning on this occasion. Austin takes a set in the Challenge Round against Maud Shackle but is unable to maintain her form and the holder retains her title.

https://imgur.com/a/elNI8cF

 

[Henry Hub]

The Northern Championships flip-flop back to Manchester in 1893.

There’s no appearance by the Renshaws, Ernest preferring to play (and win) the North of Ireland doubles title in Belfast, while William returns to London to play some exhibition matches in Beckenham against EG Meers. Meers’s new eponymous racket must have been launched by Slazenger around this time (though I haven’t found any ads for it in 1893).

The defending champions at Old Trafford are Pim (having taken the last 3 iterations) and Dod. Pim and Stoker and the Dods defends their men’s and mixed doubles titles, respectively (there don’t seem to be defending champions in the ladies’ doubles).

The gang is pretty much all here.

https://imgur.com/a/lNlePR0

Edit: I had written in the names but they seem to have dropped out. So: second slide is Charlotte “Chatty” Cooper; the third slide has one of the Baddeley twins at the back; the fourth depicts CH Martin and JC Kay; the fifth has a severe-looking WH Collins at the back and one of the Allen twins; the sixth has the other Allen twin, Goodbody peeking out from the back and Miss Jackson seated at the front; and the final slide the other Baddeley and Mahony.

I have tried to pick out some of the players I can put names to. There are two ladies who I am still struggling to identify - they are the lady with the elaborate floral hat in the 3rd slide and the lady sitting in front of Collins in the 5th. I think one of them is Maud Shackle.

If you dare, take a look at the guy leaning forward into the camera in the front row with his straw boater. It’s a Ringu-level unnerving experience - the photo makes him look as if he has about 20 fingers and no pupils.

 

[Henry Hub]

The weather is all that the tournament committee could have asked for, without a drop of rain. These dry conditions have run on almost without interruption since Easter and continue pretty much to the end of the tennis season in England.

Tennis players being tennis players, there is always something to complain about. The courts are bone dry and so bumps and divots become more pronounced. Baseliners suffer particularly badly under these conditions, whereas anyone with a big serve and a reasonable forecourt game is licking their lips.

Harold Mahony is just about the epitome of the latter group. He carves a swathe through the singles draw, lashing down his serves and charging in towards the net, safe in the knowledge that the poor receiver will be busy dealing with trajectories that either guillotine ants or strive for low-Earth orbit.

 

[Henry Hub]

Mahony’s opponent in the All Comers’ Final is one FO “Owens”, the latter mystery man having survived a match point in his win over Herbert Baddeley.

I say mystery man but the presence of FO Stoker in the doubles (as defending champion with Pim) somewhat gives the game away. Pastime, by now its head spinning with all the pseudonyms it has to keep track of and respect, “accidentally” spills the beans.

https://imgur.com/a/m54YnNa

This is a photo of Frank Stoker from 1896. He’s a big lad. If I were Pastime’s editorial team, I’d be wary about getting on his wrong side.

https://imgur.com/a/T5aSy4G

Anyway, Mahony easily knocks off Owens/Stoker, who is ill at ease on the treacherous surface. That takes him into the Challenge Round against Stoker’s doubles partner and good friend, Joshua Pim.

 

[Henry Hub]

Pim is, along with Wilfred Baddeley, at the vanguard of the new breed of all-court players, equally comfortable at the baseline or net.

Pim’s movement, as noted above, is marked by an efficiency of motion driven by excellent anticipation. His volleying is probably, other than Lewis’s, the best in the game. His serve is hard and fast, the second delivery being about as quick as the first. As you’d imagine, this is an asset when his game is on and a disaster when it is not.

His ground game, though, is the jewel in his crown. All of the descriptions I’ve seen of his play reminds me of what was said about Federer. He generates great power on both sides with no perceivable effort or strain. His shots are also famous for their margin for error, which hovers somewhere between infinitesimal and zero. Even in the tightest moments of the biggest matches, Pim’s shots generally shave the net cord. That said, he also possesses a great lobbing game, which he uses to particular effect in doubles.

All of which is why, having lost the first set against Mahony and despairing of the state of the ground, Pim takes to his B game and starts serving and volleying too. A combination of his expertise at the net and Mahony’s patchy baseline game means he becomes unbreakable, while Mahony’s own volleying falls apart as Pim thrashes low shots past or through him. Pim wins in 4, his fourth consecutive title.

He follows this up with a defence of the men’s doubles against his old foes, the Baddeley twins. This ends up being the greatest Northern doubles match to date, the lead going back and forward.

The twins win the first after a Pim/Stoker set point and follow this up with a tight second set before going up 3-1 in the third. As ever, the twins play with mechanical perfection, barely making an error.

The Irishmen change tactics and start lobbing, driving the twins back from the net. It is a tactic that pays off, with the holders battling through to win the last three sets 6-4 in each.

 

[Henry Hub]

But all of this is just a sideshow to the main event, which is the ladies’ Challenge Round. This is a box office rematch between Lottie Dod and Blanche Hillyard.

For reasons perhaps best known to the tournament committee, the match is played at the same time and on the neighbouring court to the Pim-Mahony match. It is a measure of the quality and theatre of the ladies’ match that barely anyone in the huge crowd stays to watch the men.

Pastime, for once, really sells this match short in their report.

https://imgur.com/a/dzJhXyy

The match is one of the best of the 1890s, with Hillyard coming so so close to her first (I think?) win against Dod. All of the momentum is with Hillyard in the third when Dod recreates her tactics when in the same position against the same opponent in the final of the 1889 Northern event. Essentially, Dod starts moonballing.

Blanche finds the new trajectory and pace off-putting and stops pulling the trigger on her big forehand drives. Nevertheless, she still gets three match points at 5-4 and 40-15 then Advantage. Each chance goes by untaken, and the champion takes the final three games to win the third 7-5.

Interviewed in 1897, Blanche describes this match as the hardest she ever played.

https://imgur.com/a/5JD0APL

 

[Henry Hub]

The Northern troupe fragments after Wilfred Baddeley and Blanche Hillyard bring down the curtain on the meeting, winning the All England Mixed Doubles against the Dod brother and sister combination.

Many of the players head south immediately for the metropolitan events around London. However, others stay to play the Yorkshire LTA event in Ilkley. Pim continues his unbeaten run, defending his title against Mahony with the same adoption of serve & volley tactics that had worked so well in Manchester. The Cooper and Mahony partnership finds its feet in the mixed but Chatty is beaten in the singles by Miss Jackson.

In the men’s doubles, we again see one of those idiosyncrasies of 19th century tennis. The Allen twins are playing Pim and Ball-Greene and are a set all when that bane of all tennis players rears its ugly head - numeracy. The players can’t work out what the score is. They decide the only fair thing to do is to start the whole match again. 5 long sets later, Pim and Ball-Greene come to regret that decision…

https://imgur.com/a/LdddTY3

 

[Henry Hub]

https://imgur.com/a/2KwyA3i

Fittingly, the Clown Princes of tennis are the next to get the Pastime bio treatment. They are not yet treating crowds with their full pantomime performances - these come in the next few years.

However, they are extremely successful as a combination. In 1890 they scoop up 25 doubles titles and don’t really slacken off for the next dozen years or so.

https://imgur.com/a/Tp2fl9W

 

[Henry Hub]

https://imgur.com/a/cCFgXWt

Down in Kent, we get the County Championship and the Beckenham tournament. There’s really only a couple of points to note.

First is the continued resurgence of William Renshaw. Still using his new racket, he starts to accumulate some decent results. After some average performances in practice and exhibition matches against EG Meers, he gets to the final of the prestigious Beckenham event. Along the way, he beats the dangerous future Wimbledon champion Arthur Gore and also the aforementioned Meers. The final is a rematch of the 1889 Wimbledon All Comers’ Final, Harry Barlow getting his revenge this time in 4.

The Renshaw-Gore fixture is not the only intergenerational match-up at Beckenham. Sidney Smith, the big hitting young tyro from Stroud, plays and defeats Renshaw in the handicap after losing the first set 6-0.

The second point of interest concerns Harold Nisbet. Nisbet played his first competitive event at Dinard in September 1892. His game there was remarkable for being of the Chipp-Shackle ambidextrous school, taking the ball with a single-handed forehand off each wing. This got me quite excited that Nisbet might add to the paltry list of ambidextrous players at Wimbledon.

Sadly, that’s not to be. At some point over the winter, Harold had got himself a backhand.

https://imgur.com/a/2Ds1617

 

[Henry Hub]

Not to worry because in digging around for ambidextrous players, I stumbled across Geoff Brown.

Brown was an Australian player who had some success immediately after WW2. Indeed, he was finalist in the singles, men’s doubles and mixed at Wimbledon in 1946. The fact he lost all 3 finals didn’t seem to put Geoff off at all, his gritty but ultimately doomed comeback from 2 sets down against Yvon Petra possibly giving him a shot in the arm.

Brown was very much the second or third ranked Australian, with the standout player being the man with the most Australian name ever, Mr Dinny Pails.

However, Geoff had a great grass court game, which was based around his huge service. He didn’t lose a single set in his 1946 run to the final and in 1949 pulled off a massive upset at SW19 by defeating the red hot favourite, US champion Pancho Gonzales.

Enough beating around the bush. What made Geoff Brown so special was his ambidextrous stylings, which seemed to be a Aussie specialty, being more famously deployed by John Bromwich. His massive service was delivered right-handed, after which he would switch his racket to his left hand for ground strokes and volleys. If that wasn’t enough, he hit a two-handed backhand, which was very rare at the time.

Here are some photos of his serve.

https://imgur.com/a/vEkrOrs

And here he is hitting a backhand.

https://imgur.com/a/Yjop72p

 

[Henry Hub]

Just by way of a coda, the earliest users of two-handed backhands that I have tracked down so far are Geoffrey Youll (GBR in the 1910s) and HG Bache. Bache was a great sportsman, including representing England at football. He was killed at Ypres in 1916, a couple of months after enlisting.

https://imgur.com/a/utrHm3U

Vivian McGrath of Australia was a 1930s wielder of the 2-handed backhand. He was always described as ambidextrous in the papers but that was a synonym for hitting double-fisted off the backhand wing.

https://imgur.com/a/VofCuJ2

 

[Henry Hub]

Anyway, back to 1893 and one man who would never dream of anything as exotic as a continental grip on the forehand, let alone a two-fisted backhand, is Wimbledon champion and budding solicitor, Wilfred Baddeley.

https://imgur.com/a/Tm6ZTUJ

Baddeley doesn’t really get the credit he deserves in England, the crowds preferring the effortless, swashbuckling play of Joshua Pim.

The young Kentish champion does have his fans, however. It appears that he is quite the attraction for the Neighborhood Club of West Newton, Massachusetts.

https://imgur.com/a/59O91Mh

He declines the offer, Pastime suggesting that £40, despite inflation, wouldn’t get close to covering the costs of an American trip.

 

[Henry Hub]

It’s a shame in some ways that Baddeley passes this invitation up. He would have been able to match his abilities against a batch of future US champions, the event being played on the round robin “American” format.

The competitors are Fred Hovey, Clarence Hobart, Bob Wrenn, Malcolm Chace and Bill Larned. When the smoke clears, Hovey and Hobart are tied for first place. Against the best traditions of American sport, the tie is not resolved by a deciding match.

The tournaments come thick and fast around May and June. Chace snatches an upset win over Hobart in the Southern Championships held at the Baltimore Cricket Club in Mount Washington. The New England Championships are carried off by an undeterred Clarence Hobart, who wins an epic five-setter against the holder Eddie Hall at the New Haven Lawn Club.