REALLY Ancient History

[Henry Hub]

The dominance of the server in doubles is again clearly evident in the doubles, leading Pastime to urge the LTA to do something to handicap the serving pair.

The suggestions are the same as we have seen at least a couple of times already in the 1880s and still crop up every few years today.

https://imgur.com/a/Y5lcDOm

Elsewhere, in a foreshadowing of the Wightman/Fed/BJK Cup, there is a suggestion that the ladies should have their own international competition too.

https://imgur.com/a/JNvLh7O

Pastime gives the idea a lukewarm reception, principally on the grounds that the ladies would need to be adequately assured about the organisation of such an event.

 

[Henry Hub]

It’s that time of the 19th century tennis year. Over in the US, the season is hitting its stride, as we saw above, with the importance of tournaments growing each week until we hit the crescendo at Newport at the end of August.

Over in England, it’s a different story. As we have seen, as soon as Wimbledon finishes, it’s like Spring Break. Just with much much worse weather. All of the players head for the bright lights, big villages of the English and Scottish coast. It’s a cavalcade of handicap events, Battle of the Sexes and anecdotes about unruly ballboys (or the praise for the perfectly behaved ballgirls at Saxmundham).

Tradition also dictates that the Evening Standard needs to publish an article about the demise of lawn tennis. We are on to about the 5th iteration by this point and doesn’t Pa Jackson know it. He has been keeping notes and bearing a grudge. He lays into London’s premier Tube-train source of littering in a big way.

https://imgur.com/a/1sRDdQm

 

[Henry Hub]

Jackson uses his editorial the following week to underline the vibrant health of the sport.

Just to return to my take on the supposed decline of tennis in the 1890s, it’s pretty clear from what I’ve read that the game only really suffers over the 1890s in London. Tennis is going great guns elsewhere in the UK, with swollen entries (that doesn’t sound right), more tournaments year on year and bumper crowds. Meanwhile, the sport is on a tear across Europe and is spreading like wildfire across the US.

https://imgur.com/a/zFw7foz

Hence Jackson’s editorial, which skips quickly across Germany, The Netherlands and France to celebrate the state of the game in each of these countries. I am sure @Arrie will be interested in his Dutch descriptions.

For me, the French part is particularly fascinating. The game is still centred in Cannes, Nice, Monte Carlo (just finding its feet next to the Casino) and up in Boulogne-sur-mer and Dinard. However, Jackson is perspicacious enough (yes, I had to look up how to spell it) to anticipate that a Paris tournament will inevitably take its place amongst the most prestigious of the European events.

Oh before I forget, I left this one out earlier in the year because there was no way of readily crowbarring it in - but now I see my opportunity. In 1893, tennis finally cracks it in Riga. Perhaps Ricardas Berankis’s great-great-great-grandparents eye up an Ayres racket for their kid that Xmas.

https://imgur.com/a/XBGLp0E

 

[Henry Hub]

While we are on the subject of tennis on the Continent, there is a terrible social faux pas at Bad Schwalbach. That may be the most Victorian phrase ever uttered.

https://imgur.com/a/FJg220i

This is a tournament organised by Grand Duke Michael Michaelovich of Russia. He’s the one who kick-started golf in Cannes (see above somewhere). Back to him in a second, unless you just want to have a butcher’s at Wikipedia.

OK, this is all a bit Burke’s Peerage, but Countess Alexandra Von Meerenberg plays singles (as far as I can tell) and reaches the final against a better player. The latter declines to accept a handicap against AvM and, presumably, absolutely smashes her. The well-heeled crowd would never boo the victor for her poor sportsmanship/for not knowing her bloody place, commoner. However the victor’s trophy acceptance is greeted by stony, disapproving silence.

Yes, for any British readers, the doubles finalist Captain Haig is indeed the future Field Marshall “Butcher” Haig aka the model for General Melchett from Blackadder Goes Forth. Glad he lost.

 

[Henry Hub]

It’s that time of year where Pastime is inundated with anecdotes of very mixed quality.

I really want to crack on to Northumberland but here’s a couple by way of a taster. First, a shot right out of the Henry Hub playbook (more of a pamphlet, frankly).

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

Second, here’s another case of 21st century tennis being the same as 19th century tennis. Apostolos Tsitsipas belongs to a glorious tradition of tennis parents.

https://imgur.com/a/U0YnBsH

 

[Henry Hub]

Right, cracking on, and we are going to Birmingham. Under the two birds, one stone co-efficient, let’s clear out the Edgbaston tournament and LTA Cup finals, hosted at the same club.

The main tournament at Edgbaston results in victories for Ball-Greene (bio on its way) and Miss Morgan, Blanche Hillyard retiring in the final having entered under a self-imposed penalty of owe-30.

But there’s a few things about this otherwise unremarkable event.

First, Deykin (one time conqueror of William Renshaw in his pomp, albeit in mixed doubles) is the organiser and the popularity of this man after his untimely death (which must be coming up any time soon) results in an eponymous Deykin Cup being fought over into about the 1960s.

Second, Ernest Renshaw strains a leg muscle while playing mixed doubles with Blanche Hillyard. This takes him out of Northumberland and Exmouth, at both of which his brother represents the family name.

Third, tennis legend Maud Watson returns to play mixed with Deykin. They don’t get very far but general sentiment must be firmly behind their local girl, back on court after a mystery, but serious, illness in 1890.

https://imgur.com/a/DVDubdE

Fourth, George Hillyard wins the Midlands championship, it being noted that he has recently moved to the area. George and Blanche’s pad is at Thorpe Satcheville, where they have a court which is only rivalled as a practice facility for the best of the game by Lady Wavertree’s estate in Highgate.

 

[Henry Hub]

The LTA Cup results in a long-overdue win for Edinburgh’s Whitehouse LTC over Liverpool. You will note the unmistakable walrus-esque bearing of JC Kay of the latter club on the right. The long-suffering Richard Watson is (I think) the first middle-row seated gentleman on the left with his hands in his pockets.

https://imgur.com/a/51MiZPK

 

[Henry Hub]

We get a couple of bios from Pastime in August. The first is on Harry Barlow, Pastime dusting off a similar treatment from a couple of years previous.

https://imgur.com/a/VPt5dPe

Barlow is a big unit and can run all day. The latter quality is extremely helpful for two reasons. First, he is an all-out serve and volleyer, using his impressive wingspan to smother the net and thrash away any undercooked lobs. Second, he is more likely than most to need to rely on physical conditioning, given the tendency of his matches to go the distance. Legendary for his slow starts, he must be the bane of tournament referees nationwide.

If he had a bigger serve, a reasonable forehand volley and a more equitable temperament, Barlow may well have won at least 2 Wimbledon singles to add to his doubles title. As it is, his greatest singles moments at Worple Road are his defeat of Hamilton by sustained lobbing and loss against William Renshaw in the next match, the latter being the most celebrated in the 19th century: http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/really-ancient-history.246089/post-18172073

 

[Henry Hub]

GC Ball-Greene is a new subject for a bio. He is a crafty player with a good forehand volley. Pastime predicts a great future for this Killiney man and he proves them right in terms of his haul of trophies around the UK. He is never up to the standard required to be there at the death of the largest events, though.

An Irish barrister, who is on his way to being called to the English Bar as well, Ball-Greene is the latest off the great Irish tennis conveyor belt.

https://imgur.com/a/GFnfN4v

 

[Arrie]

Jackson uses his editorial the following week to underline the vibrant health of the sport.

Just to return to my take on the supposed decline of tennis in the 1890s, it’s pretty clear from what I’ve read that the game only really suffers over the 1890s in London. Tennis is going great guns elsewhere in the UK, with swollen entries (that doesn’t sound right), more tournaments year on year and bumper crowds. Meanwhile, the sport is on a tear across Europe and is spreading like wildfire across the US.

https://imgur.com/a/zFw7foz

Hence Jackson’s editorial, which skips quickly across Germany, The Netherlands and France to celebrate the state of the game in each of these countries. I am sure @Arrie will be interested in his Dutch descriptions.

For me, the French part is particularly fascinating. The game is still centred in Cannes, Nice, Monte Carlo (just finding its feet next to the Casino) and up in Boulogne-sur-mer and Dinard. However, Jackson is perspicacious enough (yes, I had to look up how to spell it) to anticipate that a Paris tournament will inevitably take its place amongst the most prestigious of the European events.

Oh before I forget, I left this one out earlier in the year because there was no way of readily crowbarring it in - but now I see my opportunity. In 1893, tennis finally cracks it in Riga. Perhaps Ricardas Berankis’s great-great-great-grandparents eye up an Ayres racket for their kid that Xmas.

https://imgur.com/a/XBGLp0E

txs. Didn't know English were Gold diggers....

 

[Henry Hub]

Let’s complete the triumvirate of bios with Frank Stoker. He was a rugby international for Ireland and his style of play is also pretty direct and forceful.

https://imgur.com/a/7sVGxV8

 

[Henry Hub]

Probably the closest thing in 19th century tennis to the astonishing turn of events at Melbourne Park in 2017 takes place in August 1893 at the somewhat damper surroundings of the Constabulary Ground in Jesmond, Newcastle.

A strong field has amassed for the Northumberland County Championships. This is very much a lower second tier event but it is well patronised by the cracks this year. On the men’s side, entries are sent in by Pim, William Renshaw, Mahony, Ball-Greene, Tommy Chaytor, Carlton, Grove and George Hillyard. On the ladies’ side, there’s Blanche Hillyard, Charlotte Cooper and her sister and the Misses Jackson and Corder.

Renshaw cruises through his first two matches before a topsy-turvy three set win against Ball-Greene. The ex-champion finds his range in the third set and the crowd is transported back to his 1880s glory days as Renshaw whips shots to all corners of the court. He follows this up with a confidence-boosting win in the handicap against Joshua Pim, who owes Renshaw 15 (starting each game at one point behind love) and loses after a good fight 9-7 6-4.

Renshaw carries this form into his match against Mahony, who beat him earlier in the year at Queen’s. Mahony adopts the tactics that have worked so well over the dry summer, charging the net at every opportunity. However, it has been raining hard in Newcastle (plus ca change) and the courts are slower and the bounce is more predictable. Renshaw rediscovers his old contemptuous slapped cross-court returns of service, leaving Mahony grasping at air as the ball flies past. When he attacks the net, Renshaw hits laser-guided passing shots down the line or deadly lobs.

Renshaw wins in 4 sets. In the final, he is opposed by Tommy Chaytor. The Chaytors know a few things about a wet court, with Grainger being a specialist in these conditions. Luckily for Renshaw, Tommy is not his elder brother. Renshaw loses the third set but doesn’t allow Tommy more than 2 games in any of the others.

Is William Renshaw back?

 

[Henry Hub]

Away from the men’s singles and Renshaw and Pim lose the doubles final to Chaytor and Ball-Greene. William also loses the mixed doubles final in partnership with Miss Jackson, though they do get a highly creditable win in the semis against the burgeoning Cooper-Mahony team.

A quick word about Mahony and the Northumberland championship.

Harold was a big crowd favourite in Newcastle, the locals taking to his game and personality and appreciating his appearances year after year.

It turns out that, despite winning a bunch of titles over the years, usually with prizes in the form of credit with local silversmiths, the genial Irish giant always failed to actually commission anything with the money.

After the champion’s untimely death in 1905, his relatives donate the money back to the tournament committee so a trophy can be made that bears Mahony’s name. It’s a fitting gesture.

https://imgur.com/a/Q6CCsHm

Oh, you may notice that there is also a “Youll” cup on offer at Newcastle. There are usually at least two members of that family playing the Northumberland event each year, suggesting they belonged to a local family of note. The early purveyor of the two-handed backhand, Geoffrey Youll, is also a member of the family.

 

[Henry Hub]

Renshaw plays his various finals on Saturday 5 August up in Jesmond. The next big tournament in the north of England is Buxton but that starts on 15 August.

Happily for William, there’s a tournament just over an hour south of Newcastle starting on 7 August. This event is held at Darlington and might attract some of the Irish players who played the Northumberland championships.

Which is why it is so unaccountable that Renshaw packs up his Slazenger EGMs, jumps on the London train on Sunday 6 August (presumably) and makes for Exmouth in the South-west. The Exmouth event also starts on Monday 7th, so Renshaw, it is fair to say, is cutting it fine.

At the back end of the 1880s, the journey down the east coast from Edinburgh to London took 9 hours. So if we guesstimate Edinburgh to Newcastle taking two hours, that’s a 7 hour journey to London. Assuming a leisurely start to the day and a 10am train, that puts Renshaw arriving into smoky King’s Cross at 5pm.

The next South-Western Railway service to Exeter leaves Waterloo on Monday morning at 05:50. Renshaw, as a gentleman of means and manners, isn’t about to get up at that ridiculous hour so it’s safer to assume he is on the 09:00 train. That gets him into Exeter at 13:43 with a cab ride to Exmouth to follow.

Renshaw must be hoping that his status as 7-time champion will entitle him to a first round bye. He has better luck than Sampras did with his court 2 allocation against Bastl. On Monday afternoon, Renshaw arrives at the grounds to be told by Major Bridge to go off, check into his hotel and put his feet up.

By the time Tuesday rolls round, Renshaw is fighting fit. He brings his Newcastle form to bear on the sun-baked Exmouth courts. He doesn’t lose a set in the tournament, albeit that his first two opponents are no-hopers. His old mate Harry Grove is his opponent in the final and presents no problems, although the match is certainly entertaining for the crowd with flashy shot-making aplenty. The two of them team up to win the doubles for good measure.

On the ladies’ side, the local big-hitter and marvellously named Mrs Pine-Coffin takes another win.

Pine-Coffin, by the way, is only rivalled in my mind by two players of the early 1910s: US man Hugh Talant (a name he singularly failed to live up to); and the English society player and bane of masters of ceremonies everywhere, Mrs Nutcombe-Quick.

EDIT: I’ve been looking everywhere for Mrs Nutcombe-Quick’s first name in the hope it kept the joke going. To my absolute delight, it does. Ladies and gentleman, Mrs Betty Nutcombe-Quick! Poor girl in so many ways…

 

[Grafil Injection]

Renshaw plays his various finals on Saturday 4 August up in Jesmond. The next big tournament in the north of England is Buxton but that starts on 15 August.

Happily for William, there’s a tournament just over an hour south of Newcastle starting on 7 August. This event is held at Darlington and might attract some of the Irish players who played the Northumberland championships.

Which is why it is so unaccountable that Renshaw packs up his Slazenger EGMs, jumps on the London train on Sunday 6 August (presumably) and makes for Exmouth in the South-west. The Exmouth event also starts on Monday 7th, so Renshaw, it is fair to say, is cutting it fine.

At the back end of the 1880s, the journey down the east coast from Edinburgh to London took 9 hours. So if we guesstimate Edinburgh to Newcastle taking two hours, that’s a 7 hour journey to London. Assuming a leisurely start to the day and a 10am train, that’s puts Renshaw arriving into smoky King’s Cross at 5pm.

The next South-Western Railway service to Exeter leaves Waterloo on Monday morning at 05:50. Renshaw, as a gentleman of means and manners, isn’t about to get up at that ridiculous hour so it’s safer to assume he is on the 09:00 train. That gets him into Exeter at 13:43 with a cab ride to Exmouth to follow.

Renshaw must be hoping that his status as 7-time champion will entitle him to a first round bye. He has better luck than Sampras did with his court 2 allocation against Bastl. On Monday afternoon, Renshaw arrives at the grounds to be told by Major Bridge to go off, check into his hotel and put his feet up.

By the time Tuesday rolls round, Renshaw is fighting fit. He brings his Newcastle form to bear on the sun-baked Exmouth courts. He doesn’t lose a set in the tournament, albeit that his first two opponents are no-hopers. His old mate Harry Grove is his opponent in the final and presents no problems, although the match is certainly entertaining for the crowd with flashy shot-making aplenty. The two of them team up to win the doubles for good measure.

On the ladies’ side, the local big-hitter and marvellously named Mrs Pine-Coffin takes another win.

Pine-Coffin, by the way, is only rivalled in my mind by two players of the early 1910s: US man Hugh Talant (a name he singularly failed to live up to); and the English society player and bane of masters of ceremonies everywhere, Mrs Nutcombe-Quick.

Ah, that reminds me. The recent EGM Special from around that time went for £250.

 

[Henry Hub]

Renshaw doesn’t stop there. It’s back on the train up to London and then up to Buxton. He’s doing the Victorian equivalent of the tours’ autumn grind around Asia, just with worse food and more top hats.

Blanche Hillyard takes the singles title, defeating Charlotte Cooper along the way. She also combines with Bertha Steedman to win the All England Ladies’ Doubles. The mixed doubles title also falls to Blanche and George Hillyard - hope they packed big suitcases for the week.

Renshaw is guilty of overplaying and is possibly a little stale. He gets to the final of the men’s doubles but doesn’t get close in the singles. A young player called AE (Ernest) Crawley beats him in the semifinal in 5 sets and is still thrilled about it in 1909:

https://imgur.com/a/V0Jcg12

 

[Henry Hub]

Crawley get his own bio in short order. 5ft 8 inches and 10st 5lbs (145lbs), he’s far from a heavyweight. However he does have a solid baseline game, centred around a strong forehand drive.

https://imgur.com/a/WteNIZr

Crawley never achieves a massive amount on-court but writes a few textbooks, as befits a schoolmaster. He also pens a great history of 1870s tennis in 1913’s Lawn Tennis and Badminton, from which I would have lifted wholesale had I found it before I started this thing...

 

[Henry Hub]

Ah, that reminds me. The recent EGM Special from around that time went for £250.

I had a beady eye on that one too but it was much too dear for me. It did seem to be an early example, as the seller suggested.

I have an EGM Long from around 1900 - it’s certainly a good solid stick and you can see its DNA in the “Doherty” by the end of the 1890s.

Harry Scrivener writes a great article, also in “Lawn Tennis and Badminton” in 1913. Scrivener suggests as I think we concluded above that EGM extended the head of the racket to align the sweet spot with the centre of the face.

What the hell - here’s Scrivener’s article. It’s got some great pics at the end.

https://imgur.com/a/wOmiEBK

 

[Grafil Injection]

I had a beady eye on that one too but it was much too dear for me. It did seem to be an early example, as the seller suggested.

I have an EGM Long from around 1900 - it’s certainly a good solid stick and you can see its DNA in the “Doherty” by the end of the 1890s.

Harry Scrivener writes a great article, also in “Lawn Tennis and Badminton” in 1913. Scrivener suggests as I think we concluded above that EGM extended the head of the racket to align the sweet spot with the centre of the face.

What the hell - here’s Scrivener’s article. It’s got some great pics at the end.

https://imgur.com/a/wOmiEBK

Wow, aligning centre-of-percussion with geometric centres in the 19th Century. There really is nothing new! And an all gut racket! It won't surprise me at all if we find they also experimented with Bagworms in the 1890s!

 

[Henry Hub]

Yes, I ought to have said that the racket in the title picture is the “Surface-Strung” as sold by Lunn’s and Ramsbottom back in 1884.

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/really-ancient-history.246089/post-17792078

As you say, time is a flat circle when it comes to tennis. I was surprised to find out today that string-savers were already in play by 1928:

https://imgur.com/a/UAbMeLz

 

[Henry Hub]

Right, August being silly season in English tennis in the 1890s, it’s no surprise that there are anecdotes aplenty.

At Teignmouth, Harry Grove rediscovers some of his old magic and wins. His opponent in the final had earlier upset a more fancied player, Blake. This apparently has something to do with Blake’s glasses fogging up in the hot weather.

https://imgur.com/a/Omk5bPY

The men’s doubles final is contested by said Blake and three brothers from the Riseley family. Frank Riseley, on the losing side, ends up being one of the top players of the 1900s.

 

[Henry Hub]

Up at Saxmundham in Suffolk, there is a tournament on the Hurts Hall estate that invariably throws up anecdotes each year.

This year, we get roasting conditions that result in one of the ladies, Miss Flick, fainting dramatically after the end of a long match against Mrs Horncastle (see posts passim).

On top of this, there’s a wasp infestation that makes things lively for the competitors and an anachronistic scoring system that provides for “next game wins” at 5-5.

https://imgur.com/a/9KeSeDR

What really sets Saxmundham apart is that they have ballgirls instead of ballboys. I think Boulogne takes the same approach - I recall that the girls get rather irate with the English players who blithely call ‘garçon!’ to get their attention. Showing that there is no xenophobia to the English attitude to ballgirls, the Suffolk girls get it in the neck too.

https://imgur.com/a/mI4Tmfd

 

[Henry Hub]

The ballboys of Scheveningen, on the other hand, are said to show their English cousins a thing or two.

https://imgur.com/a/jBFv2hl

The quotidien habits of the home players are novel to the English players - the immutable 1730 stop for dinner being a prime example.

https://imgur.com/a/JUjqqna

 

[Henry Hub]

The difficulties that this poses for tournament referees in The Netherlands pale into insignificance next to the tightrope that they have to walk in the UK between incentivising players to enter their events and discouraging them for fear of accusations of pot-hunting (to refresh your memories, this means being motivated by financial gain from tournament wins).

https://imgur.com/a/iwQorFI

 

[Henry Hub]

Briefly back to the subject of tennis on the continent and there is the small matter of the championships of the Ottoman Empire, held at the Therapia (now Tarabya) LTC in Istanbul. While the size and, no doubt, the quality of the field reflects the limited interest in the game that far east, Pastime maintains that the popularity of the game outside the UK gives the lie to lazy London reporting that the game is on the wane.

https://imgur.com/a/ibLf2wy

Finally, in terms of the summer odds and sods, there is this charming tale.

https://imgur.com/a/oiofqHW

The Chiswick Park club gets a visit from a Customs & Excise officer. He is off duty and not a member of the club. However, he busts them for selling him booze and a cigar without a licence to supply non-members.

The court sees sense and lets the club off with the lightest of slaps to the wrist. You get the sense that the magistrate views the officer as a bit overzealous, not least because Columbo over here is wearing an outfit indistinguishable from other members when he puts in his order at the bar. Also, what an order it is! He is either being extremely thorough or there is a strong case for an intervention here. He puffs through a cigar and necks some beer, a few whiskies and, to round it off, a bottle of champagne.

Now, I am the last to deny that a couple of jars have passed my lips on occasion after an afternoon of social doubles. However, this is lost weekend territory or, to put it another way, a demi-Lycett (http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/really-ancient-history.246089/post-18482285 ). It’s almost as if he concocted this whole thing just to get out of paying his tab at the end of the evening…

 

[Henry Hub]

Back to the tennis and, before we brave the Atlantic and look back Stateside, let’s drop in on Scarborough.

The North of England championship (note: not the Northern Championship) is the one that gives out cups for pretty much any category going. There are an eye-opening 493 entries for this year’s slate of competitions.

Laurie Doherty won the All England Boys’ event there in 1892, taking the cup presented by William Renshaw. This year he goes one better and takes the Second Class Handicap event.

Maybe Renshaw goes to watch one of Laurie’s matches this year? Renshaw is most certainly on the grounds. He has stayed in the north after his surprise reversal against Crawley in Buxton, matriculating his way north-east to this seaside town.

Renshaw has quite the week on the coast. For some reason, there are two open (ie non-handicap) men’s singles events. Both of these are held by Harry Barlow, who elects to stand out of one event (only playing the challenge round) and play through the other. Renshaw puts half of the field to the sword and wins both events. For good measure, he then takes the First Class Handicap at the odds of owe 15 & give 15 (in each game, Renshaw starts 1 point behind love and his opponent starts 15-0 up).

It may just be a holiday tournament but Renshaw has served sufficient notice of his return to form that Pastime regards him as a serious threat to Pim and Baddeley. Their match report is glowing.

https://imgur.com/a/hWNxDKz

The Allen twins take the doubles, their comedy double act now really starting to coalesce. Their mid-match exclamations and running commentaries have the crowds in stitches and, most likely, their opponents seething.

 

[Henry Hub]

Over in the US, the tennis is becoming ever more serious by the week, in contrast to England. There is though still recreational tennis going on.

The “1893 Citizen Guide to Brooklyn and Long Island” published a list of tennis clubs to join in Brooklyn as well as rules for play at Prospect Park.

https://imgur.com/a/kiRyESx

It sounds a lovely vista of courts, if a little highly regulated, and a space for every American to get some recreation.

Actually, when I say every American, maybe not the Vanderbilt clan. I suspect that they wouldn't be seen dead there and now they have no need to be, what with their new little private tennis court.

https://imgur.com/a/xcaBLWZ

 

[Henry Hub]

And so to Newport. If you recall, Campbell has notified the tournament committee that he shall not defend the title he has won three years on the trot.

The event is wide open. The hot favourite all season has been Clarence Hobart, who has been picking up silverware left, right and centre. However, he shows signs of having overplayed and having become stale.

Fred Hovey is waiting for his rival to slip up. He is the terror to all players other than Hobart and possibly Percy Knapp and he must believe that he has timed his run perfectly.

Knapp only plays two tournaments a year, his working schedule keeping him far from the courts. The ultimate stayer (though outdone by Bob Wrenn in 1892), he sticks to even the best until the bitter end and can beat anyone.

Billy Larned, after his deep run in 1892 and electric form coming into Newport, is a tempting bet for the punters. His inconsistency is his weakness, though - he has a Harry Grove-esque ability to just lose the plot spectacularly.

Bob Wrenn and Malcolm Chace bring up the rear. Both have been on patchy form, Wrenn in particular having been wretched for much of the season and in the midst of another slump as Newport starts.

 

[Henry Hub]

So it is probably the young Harvard quarterback, Bob Wrenn, who is the happiest when the draw is announced.

Every big name apart from him and Richard Stevens are in the same half of the draw. It will be a battle royale in one half of the draw, while Bob and Richard make serene progress in the other half- at least that’s the plan.

The following year, Hobart strongly backs seeding the draw.

https://imgur.com/a/EPjeUzz

And, as it turns out, that’s exactly what happens (unofficially) for the next few years. In 1912, James Dwight voices his dissatisfaction with this experiment, which was given the heave-ho around the mid-1890s.

https://imgur.com/a/qJZ3BgS

 

[Henry Hub]

Like some kind of ATP Finals promo, the main contenders are snapped together.

https://imgur.com/a/Nu0YWn2

Going from left to right, we have the Brown freshman Malcolm Chace, the hat-trick hero Ollie Campbell, Jeff Bridges impersonator William Larned, old moneybags and future USNLTA Treasurer Richard Stevens, Fred Ward-esque Fred Hovey, perennial sportsman Clarence Hobart and future USNLTA President Bob Wrenn.

 

[Henry Hub]

The first big name to fall is one which doesn’t feature in the above photo. Percy Knapp withdraws before the tournament starts, an illness in the family keeping him at home.

Malcolm Chace follows Knapp out of the tournament, losing against Larned after winning the first set. Here’s a photo from that match.

https://imgur.com/a/9PCmsFl

A few things on this photo. First, unless this is the greatest footfault in tennis history (under the old rule anyway), this is not a serve as the text claims. Larned is clearly battering a smash. Second, I don’t like Malcolm’s chances of getting it back. There seems to be limited run-off on every side of the court. The court is right up against the Casino on one side, there’s a bloody great big tree on the other and the crowds are claustrophobically close to the baseline.

The other fancied players make it through, although Bob Wrenn is almost brought down by Marion Wright, battling his abject form as much as his opponent to finally get across the line 6-4 in the fifth.

 

[Henry Hub]

Perhaps Wrenn can’t go anyway but up from there. Whatever the reason, he then beats Richard Stevens without much fuss in a mini-upset. Stevens creates quite the stir by actually coming to the net once and volleying. Somewhere in Hampstead, Herbert Chipp must have felt a moment of kinship.

The big match of the round is between Larned and Hobart. Out of all of the favourites, Clarence Hobart has justified the faith of his supporters. He hasn’t lost a set on his way to the 4th round/QFs (if you call the preliminaries the first round, as you clearly should!). He doesn’t give the flashy Larned a ghost of a chance in the first two sets and it’s only in the third that Bill hits one of his purple patches.

The young Cornell man takes the third and then, after a monumental tussle that ends when Larned red-lines for 3 games, the fourth. Hobart wrestles back control in the final stanza and wins a memorable encounter to set up the organisers’ dream semi-final against local favourite, Fred Hovey.

 

[Henry Hub]

The quarters are played on the Saturday and the semis on the following Monday. In the interim, the weather turns wet, a constant drizzle falling through Sunday. The courts become heavy and slow, which definitely contributes to what happens next.

Wrenn is finally starting to enjoy his tennis again. Perhaps inspired by the return to the scene of the greatest triumphs of his nascent career, Bob just flicks Sammy Chase of Chicago out of his way. Wrenn may have had the easiest of draws but he is the deserved finalist from the top of the draw.

In the other semi-final, all of the smart money is on Hobart. Hovey, while a flat-track bully when it comes to other opponents, has never been able to work out a way past Hobart’s blend of baseline power and consistency.

The conditions hamper Hobart, however. We know this because the following spring the man himself writes an account of the 1893 season. He devotes a paragraph to this match and the difficulties he encountered with the low bounce of the ball. Hobart is thrashed 7-5 6-0 6-3.

https://imgur.com/a/H46G7rp

It is important to note that, while Hovey was strong at the net and hit the odd glorious winner, he was by no means playing championship level tennis. His ground game was up and down but the decisive difference was the wretched play of his opponent. Hobart was historically inaccurate, missing innumerable sitters and never adapting his losing tactics. He tried to hit through or pass Hovey at the net, but the latter’s reactions were far too good on the day. Hobart’s weakness is lobbing and a refusal to chance his arm with that shot may have cost him dear.

 

[Henry Hub]

Strong winds push the final back by a day. On the Wednesday the sun finally returns and the combination of these conditions has dried out the court by the time the two combatants enter the arena.

It is hard to overstate how heavy a favourite Hovey is. Wrenn has never beaten Hovey, in fact he’s never even won a set against the older Boston man. Although he’s strung a couple of wins together, Bob’s been patchy at best in 1893 and isn’t really up to the standard he set at Newport in 1892. No, this one is a foregone conclusion.

Except it really isn’t. Wrenn gives Hovey a lesson in courtcraft and strategic play. Hovey is a powerful player who hits hard from the baseline and attacks the net wherever possible, relying on his quick reactions and punitive smashing to tick up points on his side of the ledger.

Wrenn has no big shots but he is quick and patient. He chases down everything Hovey throws at him, always hitting one more ball than his opponent, as Larned always said of Laurie Doherty. Instead of hitting through or past the man at the net, Wrenn uses the lob to great effect. By the end, Hovey has forgotten how to smash.

https://imgur.com/a/jIbxBHP

The match features one of the great points, or at least shots, of early American tennis history. Clarence Hobart describes the point thus in the 1897 “Lawn Tennis Bulletin”.

https://imgur.com/a/kFkQEKo

The singularly unheralded Bob Wrenn takes the title in four sets against a despondent Fred Hovey. Hovey knows that his time is surely past.

 

[Henry Hub]

An aside on Bob Wrenn - but only a brief one as we will see a huge amount more of this standard-bearer of American tennis and last man standing against foreign assaults on Newport over the 1890s.

Wrenn, as noted above, is a natural sportsman despite his slight physique. The usual ALT typos aside (he entered Harvard in 1892 not 1922 - that’s a big one, even for ALT), the account of his sporting prowess is a remarkable one.

https://imgur.com/a/RrRBQhg

As noted in the article, Bob loves a bit of the new sport of ice hockey and plays for the St Nicholas team on the upper west side of Manhattan. And he ropes in some of his tennis compatriots too. This is from 1896.

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

Aside from Bob, there’s Larned and Slocum. Maybe old Wingfield was right and that tennis could be played on ice as well as grass - these players seem to be equally adept on both surfaces.

By the way, the St Nicholas skating rink hosts its fair share of indoor tennis matches in the first decade of the 1900s. A painted canvas tarpaulin is laid down and tightly secured to provide a court. My knees and hips ache just thinking about it. This is May Sutton and Thomas Pell playing in 1907.

https://imgur.com/a/bOURZdc

 

[Grafil Injection]

The first big name to fall is one which doesn’t feature in the above photo. Percy Knapp withdraws before the tournament starts, an illness in the family keeping him at home.

Malcolm Chace follows Knapp out of the tournament, losing against Larned after winning the first set. Here’s a photo from that match.

https://imgur.com/a/9PCmsFl

A few things on this photo. First, unless this is the greatest footfault in tennis history (under the old rule anyway), this is not a serve as the text claims. Larned is clearly battering a smash. Second, I don’t like Malcolm’s chances of getting it back. There seems to be limited run-off on every side of the court. The court is right up against the Casino on one side, there’s a bloody great big tree on the other and the crowds are claustrophobically close to the baseline.

The other fancied players make it through, although Bob Wrenn is almost brought down by Marion Wright, battling his abject form as much as his opponent to finally get across the line 6-4 in the fifth.

I was going to say, good to see pronation on a mid-court smash.

 

[Henry Hub]

Newport is a society event first and foremost. This state of affairs is neatly put in this 1893 picture.

https://imgur.com/a/kCyPiSM

It’s a depiction of the grandstand court at Newport, the artist making the glamorous patrons of the tournament his primary subjects. While the court and the players are positioned centrally, they are rather obscured by the chattering onlookers.

The tension between the Casino as the home of American tennis and as an entertainment hub gives rise to frequent complaint among players, writers and tennis fans. Caspar Whitney maybe puts it best when he describes tennis as becoming just the tail to the Newport kite.

https://imgur.com/a/5tGG8cG

 

[Henry Hub]

The entry list is usually enormous, often numbering well above the modern 128 player cut-off, but is invariably very short on quality. The free access to the Casino offered to competitors is an incentive for duffers to put their name into the hat.

Tennis fans complain that Newport is only really convenient for Bostonians and a nightmare for would-be visitors from the New York and Philadelphia major tennis markets. Still worse, it is impossible to get tickets for the last few days, at which point the cream of society descends onto the grounds only to loaf about and generally ignore the tennis.

Things really come to a head in 1911 and 1913, when the Philadelphia clubs (1911) and the West Side TC (1913) break ranks and make a push for the nationals to be moved.

The above issues are cited but also the lack of reasonably priced accommodation and other amenities and the dearth of entertainment in Newport outside the Casino walls.

They also point to the ridiculously protracted length of the meeting, in part due to the paltry number of courts laid on by the Casino.

As we know, the West Side Tennis Club eventually get their hands on the tournament once they move up to Forest Hills.

 

[Henry Hub]

The Casino is frankly its own worst enemy. On the same day that Whitney fulminates about the venue, a society grudge match is held at Newport between Mrs (Carrie) Astor and Miss (Mary?) Tailer.

We’ve seen the Battle of the Sexes, this is the Battle of the AmExes. Carrie Astor is a walking Panini sticker album special of New York’s Gilded Age. Daughter of “The Mrs Astor”, she is a turbo-socialite who was at her mother’s right hand at the very apex of “The 400”.

The family’s rocky relationship with the Vanderbilts was legendary (at least that’s what I’ve just learnt from Wikipedia). Among the closest family friends of the Vanderbilts were the Tailers, the scion of whom was Edward Neufville Tailer, a New York banker. Mary was one of his daughters and I think the only plausible occupant of the other corner of this society boxing rink.

So there is much at stake on this elite throw-down on Newport’s verdant lawns. I don’t know where the Tailer residence was on Little Rhody but it must have been near the golf club, Eddie being a recent convert to the game. However, I do have images of Carrie in the boxer’s gold dressing gown, skipping out of the front gates of Beechwood, the Astor family mansion and current holiday home of Larry Ellison.

From all of the above, you can probably understand why the match is better attended than any of the championship matches.

https://imgur.com/a/eX37oRY

Reading between the lines, both ladies behave in a way that would make McEnroe blush. Linesmen are cowed to the point of making their excuses and exiting stage left.

Vituperative exclamations are the norm, albeit “with adjectives peculiar to the fair sex” - the mind boggles. Presumably, it’s something like the Four Weddings and a Funeral “F***-a-doodle-doo” but maybe with a “silly” thrown in to boot.

Your heart goes out to the linesmen, C. Albert Stevens (a steward of the Meadowbrook Hunt), Johannes von Francken-Sierstorpff (if that wasn’t enough of a mouthful, his full name is Johannes Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Kaspar Egon Hubertus Ferdinand von Francken-Sierstorpff) and the lyrically-monikered Baron Fallon (Belgian nobility).

After all that, Mary Tailer wins, although do note that the ladies play best of 5. Carrie dances up to the net, shakes her rival’s hand and probably starts plotting her social eradication, Mean Girls-style.

 

[Arrie]

The ballboys of Scheveningen, on the other hand, are said to show their English cousins a thing or two.

https://imgur.com/a/jBFv2hl

The quotidien habits of the home players are novel to the English players - the immutable 1730 stop for dinner being a prime example.

Haha.

 

[Arrie]

Last and absolutely anything but least, we come to Slazenger.

https://imgur.com/a/hUwNspi

• The first three pictures are from an ad featuring the “Whitehouse” (pictured, originally sold in 1887), the “EW Lewis” (with testimonial from the young tyro) and the cash cow “Demon”, now in its 5th year of production. Do note the “patent registered” mark at the bottom of the Demon insignia. This is not a statement that survives the year, though it’s replaced in the 1890s with a registered trademark stencil.
• The fourth picture again depicts the “Demon” but also the new “Special” racket. There’s not much of note about the design of the latter - the novelty is in the very fine gut strings (Pastime compares the strands to those on musical instruments).
• The fifth ad is from The Field and of inferior quality sadly. However you can just about make out the “No.1” with its slightly tilted head, Ernest Lewis’s old stick of choice.
• Slides 6-8 are from the same ad, promoting a Slazenger lawn tennis boxed set and the old “Renshaw” racket - also in its 5th year. Note the famous Star of David logo on the right with its “Best is best thro the world” catchphrase and “S&S L” (Slazenger and Sons Limited) engraved in the middle. Please do note that there are no collars on any of these rackets.
• Slide 9 is one of the most ornate ads I’ve seen from Slazenger, with the “Demon” again depicted, this time above a “Slazenger” racket. The latter is slightly tilt-headed (though this does not come across in the drawing) and is sold with red gut strings.
• Slides 10-14 replicate some of the rackets and balls above.
• Slide 15 is of a “Lawford”. This is an ad from a provincial paper and I suspect an old picture of the racket may have been used as the head is still very squared off.
• Slides 16-17 show Ralph Slazenger’s push for market share in the Battle of the Balls. He often takes out full page ads in Pastime over the year making claims for the quality of his firm’s balls (later he has a standing full page ad on the front or back page of Pastime / Lawn Tennis and Badminton every week of the year).
• Slide 18 is a winter curio. Slazenger has a go at promoting a winter indoor racket game which he calls “Badminton Tennis”. This is not badminton proper, which as we saw right back in 1874 predated tennis. This new game’s claim is that you can play it in the hallway without accidentally destroying any of your Wedgwood porcelain.

Do you have a pic of The Whitehouse club in Edinburgh?

 

[Henry Hub]

Do you have a pic of The Whitehouse club in Edinburgh?

I’m afraid not. The club was on Strathearn Road in Edinburgh and was on its last legs by the mid-1890s. Golf was chipping away at its membership numbers and the club almost folded in 1895. It was ultimately combined with the Edinburgh University LTC in 1898, creating the most dominant tennis club in Scotland.

 

[Arrie]

Pity but txs for extra info!

 

[Henry Hub]

Just a couple more morsels from the North American table for 1893.

Caspar Whitney of Harper’s Weekly and Outing is a tireless champion of US tennis. He hates the idea of tennis in America being inferior to the UK and Ireland, Ollie Campbell’s underwhelming results in Europe the previous year continuing to confound him.

In that context, there are two things about domestic tennis that really get him wound up, namely the early retirement of US players from the sport and the lack of USNLTA interest in tennis outside the northeast.

The first point comes to a head in September when the news breaks that the newly crowned national men’s doubles champions, Hobart and Hovey, are potentially both quitting the sport. Thankfully for the tennis public, the players themselves and Whitney’s spiking blood pressure, this turns out to be untrue.

Whitney has first hand experience on the second point, having travelled extensively around the US and seen the difficulties encountered by regional clubs and associations in influencing the USNLTA.

He champions the idea of sectional or regional qualifying competitions, with the final few players being invited to Newport each year. He sees this as a way to address the quality issues with the Newport field, as well as encouraging the further growth of tennis around the country.

Unfortunately, it appears that the USNLTA are not interested in this proposal. A letter is sent to Harper’s from a would-be organiser of a Southwestern tennis association (comprised of clubs from Kansas City, St Joseph, Omaha, St Louis, Topeka, Leavenworth, Denver etc). The writer realised that he was fighting a losing battle when a USNLTA officer told him that:

“The West know no more about tennis than rats do about climbing trees.”

Quite the outreach programme they are running…

 

[Henry Hub]

I have no way of segueing into this so I will just leave this here in case Bianca Andreescu ever wants to read about her forebears.

This is Maude Delano Osborne, the Canadian champion in 1892 (the first year the Canadian ladies’ singles was held) and 1893. She will go on to win again in 1894. She is an English emigrée who settled in Sutton West, about 50kms north of Toronto.

https://imgur.com/a/JMeGOyD

Her tennis dress is much more spartan than those of her European contemporaries- there’s no flouncy blouses and ties.

Finally, in 1916 ALT revisits Wrenn’s debut Newport triumph. It gives editor Stephen Wallis Merrihew the chance to trot out this anecdote. It is almost guaranteed to be utter nonsense - but Merrihew would never let that get in the way of a good story…

https://imgur.com/a/g5qIl7c

 

[Henry Hub]

Back in Blighty now and let’s whip through the remaining events. Brighton boasts a bumper crop of players and some great matches. Wilfred Baddeley makes his return to tennis after his Wimbledon final loss and takes the men’s open singles title in 4 sets against Eaves. With his brother, Baddeley also wins the doubles against the Allens. Blanche Hillyard wins the ladies’ singles against holder Maud Shackle but the latter wins the ladies’ doubles. Ernest Renshaw and Mrs Pine-Coffin take the mixed. Reggie Doherty serves further notice of his potential by winning the handicap singles.

At Dinard, local boy Arthur Gore has his crown stolen from him by Archdale Palmer in 5 sets. As the future Secretary at the All England Club, Palmer is later at the centre of the 1906 furore over the use of Slazenger balls at Wimbledon after Palmer becomes Managing Director of Slazenger in 1905. He ends up resigning from his Wimbledon role.

Signalling the improvement in local form, the handicap events are scooped up by two French players, L. Riboulet and Mademoiselle Prévost.

Boulogne-sur-Mer is disrupted by rain, one of the few events to meet this fate in 1893. However, the cinder courts are quickly made playable again. Wilberforce Eaves wins the men’s, defeating Roy Allen in the final. The ladies’ singles are played on a best of 5 sets basis like the men’s. Miss Corder triumphs in that event. Vacherot, a future early French great, wins the men’s handicap.

 

[Henry Hub]

Eastbourne closes out the season, the good weather continuing to the bitter end.

Wilfred Baddeley is still alpha dog in Pim’s absence, beating Eaves again and then thrashing the holder Barlow in the challenge round. Blanche Hillyard wins the ladies’ singles against Maud Shackle but it’s a hell of a match, Hillyard winning 15-13 in the third. This being 1890s tennis, the whole match probably still only took 45 minutes.

Bonham Carter Evelegh is the referee at Eastbourne and has to cope with the usual 500-odd entries. On this occasion he is at least supported by Herbert Chipp. However, Pa Jackson of Pastime ensures that a side eye is duly cast at the “ornamental committees” who sit back and let the referee do all of the hard work.

https://imgur.com/a/IIQDvzr

 

[Henry Hub]

Before we get across the line at the end of 1893, there’s a few odds and sods to cover.

First, a bio of Tommy Chaytor. He is probably the most improved player of 1893 in Europe, consistently challenging for titles over the second half of the year. Poor Tommy contracts typhoid fever at some point in the next few years and is never a factor afterwards.

https://imgur.com/a/6ycHpnf

Pastime reflects the popularity of doubles in 19th century tennis by publishing a bio of HG Nadin, the Scottish specialist of the so-called four-handed game.

https://imgur.com/a/k9km4yh

Nadin plays doubles with his old school friend, HE Caldecott. They are the latest in a tradition of Harrow schoolboys who go on to the forefront of tennis, a proud symbol of the democratic nature of the sport in the 1800s. Or not.

The two of them are members of the aforementioned Whitehouse LTC of Edinburgh.

 

[Henry Hub]

As the curtain comes down on 1893, tennis players variously pack away their rackets into hibernation and dream of summer, keep bashing away in the meagre number of indoor courts or, if they have the means, escape to warmer climes.

One such sunny location is Singapore, which hosts its annual tournament in September. The heat means it is only possible to play for one hour a day on the grounds of the cricket club. Hence the tournament lasting an epic 3 weeks.

https://imgur.com/a/Buh1ZSx

Still, it’s better than the 1912 tournament, where over 500 entries were received and the event took over 5 weeks to bring to a close.

https://imgur.com/a/gmMUASg

 

[Henry Hub]

It has been suspiciously quiet on the legislative front since the sixths brouhaha earlier in 1893. The handicapping matter remains unresolved, with the real tennis, quarters and sixths systems all still running in parallel.

With the off season starting, it gives an opportunity to air dissatisfaction about the existing rules. One issue that has troubled early tennis legislators since time immemorial (well, about 19 years anyway) is the footfault law.

With the prevalence of serve and volley tactics on show in England in 1893, UK legislators find themselves having the same conversations as the USNLTA, when the latter tried to craft a law that would keep Ollie Campbell away from the net. Pastime urges parties who wish to revisit the existing law to make their proposals in good time before the LTA’s annual meeting in early 1894.

https://imgur.com/a/m55gTl0

Linked to the footfault rule is the question of how to rebalance the doubles game away from the server. We have seen this issue debated at length in the early 1880s (the “man at the net” controversy) and is still a topic chewed over by tennis commentators today. In the preceding decade, various suggestions were made to weaken the server’s team such as adding a line between the service line and the net past which the server’s partner was not allowed to stray, the server’s partner to be behind the baseline when the server is delivered, a return of serve cannot be volleyed back etc.

Now the dimensions of the court are being examined - see the extract in the first post on this page. WH Collins suggests instead that a line be drawn 2.5 feet behind and parallel to the baseline, behind which the serve is to be delivered. This is a proposal that appears again in the 1910s.

https://imgur.com/a/d0ERbGX