On the 7 July, 1887, Scottish former co-World number 1 tennis player, Herbert Fortescue Lawford (1851-1925) won the Men’s Singles championship at Wimbledon, and shared the record as 5 times runner-up.

In the 1887 final, the native of Bayswater, defeated Ernest Renshaw in five sets (1–6, 6–3, 3–6, 6–4, 6–4). He reached the finals of Wimbledon in 1880,1884, 1985,1986, 1987 and 1888).

Lawford won the first major men’s doubles tennis tournament, the Oxford University Men’s Doubles Championship, in 1879, partnering Lestocq Robert Erskine. This event was a precursor to the Wimbledon men’s doubles championship, introduced in 1884. It was played over the best of seven sets ending in a score of 4–6, 6–4, 6–5, 6–2, 3–6, 5–6, 7–5. In 1885 he won the singles title at the inaugural British Covered Court Championships.

Lawford is said to be the first person to introduce ‘topspin’ to the game of tennis, and his formidable forehand was called ‘the Lawford stroke’. Lawford made a more substantial contribution in technically advancing the game. He unveiled the ‘Lawford forehand,’ introducing topspin into the sport with that revolutionary shot. Aggressive and unwavering, he was equipped with power, speed and uncanny accuracy.

Lawford died in Dess, Aberdeenshire, in 1925, aged 73, and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2006.

7 July, 2019

On the 6^th July, 1907, the Welsh professional billiards player, Tom Reece (1873-1953), compiled a record break of 499,135 points over a period of five weeks in Soho, London. His opponent was Joe Chapman, in a match which was played to 500,000 points, with the express intention of trying to better the recently set record for highest break.

It is unlikely that this score will even remotely be approached, as Reece’s robotic play went a long way to developing new rules to stop such high breaks based on monotonous, duplicate shots.

Under the current rules, repetitive ‘nurse’ shots are forbidden, and the world record is a 1,276 break set by the Indian professional Geet Siriram Sethi (born 1961) who dominated the sport throughout much of the 1990s. He is a six-time winner of the professional-level and a three-time winner of the amateur World Championships.

Reece competed for the World Professional Billiards Championship six times (1912,1913,1914,1921,1924,1925) finishing as runner-up on each occasion

At the turn of the 20th century it is said Thomas Reece, and  the London born Melbourne Inman (1878-1951) were good friends, but fierce rivals on the table. This boiled over one evening at Thurston’s where the pair played a match for the Championship Cup, which Inman won. Inman was about to be presented with the trophy by Lord Alvertson, the high-court judge who had recently sentenced to death the murderer Dr. Crippen . Unable to keep quiet, it is alleged Reece told his Lordship, ‘if you knew as much about Inman as I do, you’d have hanged him and given Crippen the cup.’

6 July, 2019

On the 5 July, 1879, the American tennis player and Republican politician, Dwight Filley Davis, Sr. [1879 –1945] was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

He served as the US Assistant Secretary of War from 1923 to 1925 and the 49^th Secretary of War from 1925 to 1929, but is best remembered as the founder of the international tennis competition the Davis Cup.

Davis  reached the All-Comers final for the Men’s Singles title at the US Championships in 1898 and 1899. Davis then teamed up with Holcombe Ward, and won the pair won the Men’s Doubles title at the Championships for three years in a row from 1899 to 1901. While still a student at Harvard College, Davis also won the American intercollegiate singles championship of 1899. The formidable pairing of Davis and Ward were also the runners-up in the Men’s Doubles final at Wimbledon in 1901.

In 1900 Davis designed and developed the structure for a new international tennis competition known as the International Lawn Tennis Challenge. He donated a silver bowl to be presented to the winner , which was later renamed the Davis Cup in his honour. He was a member of the US team that won the first two competitions in 1900 and 1902 , and was the US captain of the 1900 team.

On the 5 July, 1904, Britain defeated Belgium 5-0 at Wimbledon to win the International Lawn Tennis Challenge, later to become the international tennis tournament the Davis Cup, which is fiercely competed to this day. In that same year Davis represented the USA in the 1904 Summer Olympics in his home town of St. Louis, Missouri, where he was eliminated in the second round of the singles tournament.

Dwight F. Davis died in Washington DC in 1945 aged 66.

5 July, 2019

On the 4 July, 1918, identical twins Eric and Alec Bedser were, born in Woking, Berkshire, where Alec lived until his death in 2010, at 91.

Self-taught on Horsell Common, the twins joined Surrey County Cricket Club aged 19.

After the end of the World War II, Alec became a hugely successful fast medium bowler for England, moving on to become Chairman of the Test Selectors, England manager and President of Surrey County Cricket Club. In 1997 a knighthood followed an OBE and CBE.

Eric, was a fine all-rounder, who helped Surrey win seven successive County Championships during the 1950s and served as President of Surrey County Cricket Club in 1990.

The Bedser twins had a strong affinity, and would wear identical clothes even when apart. They could finish each other’s sentences and were never happy when separated.

Umpires had their problems with the twins too. Once, when Alec was run out in a match, Eric followed him in, but the umpire refused to allow him to ‘bat again’ until Alec was recalled from the pavilion for the purposes of comparison.

At the tender age of five years old, they began cricket training under their father in the back garden. The twins later joined a team of local choirboys, and when Eric aged seven, he won a prize for making the top score in a match, in which boys twice his age participated. Their keenness on cricket prompted them to spend hours at a stretch working on a wicket, rolling, mowing and watering it with water carried from a nearby stream.

At 14 they joined Woking CC and, to provide a distinguishing identification, Alec wore a black belt.

After a few games with the Young Players of Surrey, they were taken on the playing staff at The Oval in April, 1938, and Eric promptly made his mark, scoring 50, retired, and 100, retired, in the first trial.

The twins both won places in the Second XI, where their success was immediate. Eric, firstly a batsman, hit 457 runs in 18 innings, his highest score being 92, not out, for an average of 30.46, and was third in the bowling averages, taking 22 wickets with his spinners, at an average of 19.95. Alec, bowling fast-medium in-swingers, headed the bowling figures with 42 wickets at a cost of 17.38 runs apiece, and averaged 13.50 in 12 innings with the bat in hand.

The last season before the start of World War II, Surrey headed the Minor Counties Competition, and the Bedsers made their debut in first-class cricket against Oxford University at The Oval in June. Unfortunately rain ruined the game, and neither received much chance to show his quality.

Not much was seen of Eric in cricket in that year, but Alec produced some fine bowling figures, and performed hat-tricks for an England XI against a West Indies XI at Lord’s, and also for the Royal Air Force at Westcliff against the Metropolitan Police, when he took nine wickets and held a catch. His most startling analysis was at Hove in 1942 when, playing for the RAF against the Police in a Sussex Services Tournament match, he dismissed nine batsmen in 23 deliveries for three runs, hitting the stumps eight times.

Bedsers, saw service in the RAF in France in the war, when for a time, identification was simplified when Eric was promoted to Flight-Sergeant and sported a crown over his three stripes, so when they were in uniform, it was possible to distinguish which twin was which. However, when Alec also became a Flight-Sergeant, exact similarity was restored !

Former Prime Minister, and Surrey CCC Past President, Sir John Major, unveiled statues of the twins in Woking town centre, as a tribute to their cricketing legacy

Eric died in 2006 and Alec died in 1910.

4 July, 2019

On the 3 July 1909, British tennis player, Arthur William Charles Wentworth Gore (1868- 1928), won his third Grand Slam Wimbledon Men’s Singles Championship. Beating Major Josiah Ritchie, 6-8, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2, scoring a rare back-to back title triumph. Gore also won the Grand Slam Doubles Championship at Wimbledon in the same year.

Gore’s Wimbledon win in 1909, at the ripe old-age of 41, made him the oldest player at the time to hold the Wimbledon Men’s Singles title.

In 1901, Gore was ranked joint World No. 1, after winning the first of his three Wimbledon singles titles, a distinction he shared with Karoly Mazak. In the 1901 final he defeated the defending four-time champion R.F. Doherty 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4. And in 1908, Arthur claimed his second Wimbledon Singles Championship, after he beat Herbert Roper-Barrett, 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4.

Gore also held the record for the most number of times finishing as runner-up, five in all, which he shred with Herbert Lawford.

He also won Gold medals at the 1908 Summer Olympics held in London, winning the men’s indoor singles and the men’s indoor doubles paired with Herbert Barrett. Gore also competed at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. 

Gore played his first tennis tournament at the London Athletic Club in 1887, and turned professional in 1888. His first title came at a grass court tournament in Stevenage in August of that year. Gore also won the singles title at the Scottish Championship in 1892, and successfully defended the title in the Challenge Round in the following year.

In 1894 he won the North London Championships on grass, an event that he won five times (1894, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1906).

And in 1900 and 1908 he won the singles title at the British Covered Court Championships, at the Queen’s Club in London, defeating New Zealander Anthony Wilding in the Challenge Round in four sets.

Gore’s run in the Wimbledon men’s singles spanned 34 years, from 1888-1922, during which he entered the Singles Championship 30 times.

Arthur Gore tennis career spanned 30 years and 11 months, during which he amassed a total of 51 singles titles, and reaching the finals of 26 other tournaments on clay, grass and hard asphalt & wood courts.

Gore was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2006.

Born in Lyndhurst, and died in Kensington, aged 60.

3 July, 2019

On the 2 July 1904, the French tennis player and businessman Jean René Lacoste was born in Paris [1904 –1996).

Nicknamed ‘the Crocodile’ because of how he dealt with his opponents, he was an outstanding baseline player and tactician of the pre-war period. He is also known worldwide as the creator of the Lacoste tennis shirt, which he introduced in 1929.

Lacoste was one of four French tennis stars, along with Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon and Henri Cochet, known as the Four Musketeers, who dominated the game in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Lacoste  won seven Grand Slam singles titles at the French, American, and British championships, and was a member of the French team which won the Davis Cup Cup in 1927 and 1928, ending the USA’s six-year title run in 1927 at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia.  When Lacoste won both his singles matches against Bill Johnston and Bill Tilden. Lacoste was ranked as World No. 1 player for both 1926 and 1927. 

Lacoste started playing tennis at age 15 when he accompanied his father on a trip to England. He played in his first Grand Slam tournament in 1922 Wimbledon Championship, losing in the first round to Pat O’Hara Wood. The following year he competed for the first time in the US Championships. 

His breakthrough came in 1925 when he won the singles title at the French Championships [7-5,6-1,6-4] and at Wimbledon [6-3,6-3, 4-6, 8-6], in both cases with victory in the final against compatriot Jean Borotra. In 1926 he defeated Borotra again to win the US National Championship [6-4,6-0,6-4], and again the following year, beating Bill Tilden [11-9,6-3,11-9].

His final two Grand Slam wins were at Wimbledon in 1928 against Henri Cochet [3-1], and the French Championship in Paris the following year in five sets against his old rival Borotra.

In 1976, the ‘Four Musketeers’ were inducted simultaneously into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. 

In 1928 Lacoste wrote a book which he titled ‘Lacoste on Tennis.’  

In 1933, Lacoste founded La Société Chemise Lacoste with André Gillier. The company produced the tennis shirt which had a crocodile embroidered on the chest, also known as a ‘polo shirt’, which Lacoste often wore when he playing,

2 July 2019

On the 1^st July, 1903, British tennis player Dorothea Lambert Chambers [née Dorothea Katherine Douglass], beat Ethel Larcombe  4-6, 6-4, 6-2, for the first of her seven Wimbledon women’s singles titles.

Dorothea played in 11 Wimbledon finals from 1903-1920, winning 7 [1903,1904,1906,1910,1911,1913, 1914;] and runner-up in 4 [1905,1907,1919, 1920]. She also made the final of the Doubles [1913,1919,1920], and the Mixed Doubles in 1919.

Born in Ealing, Middlesex in 1878, Dorothea also won a gold medal at the 1908 IV Summer Olympics held in London, which was won by Britain. She defeated team-mate Dora Boothby [Silver medal] in the final in straight-sets. Ruby Winch [Great Britain] won the bronze medal.

The games were originally scheduled to be held in Rome, but were re-located on financial grounds following a disastrous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906.

Douglass made her singles debut at Wimbledon in 1900 and after a bye in the first round, lost her second round match to Louisa Martin. Three years later, she won the first of her seven singles titles.

In 1907 she married Robert Lambert Chambers and from then on played under her married name Lambert Chambers.

In 1910, Dorothea wrote Tennis for Ladies, which contained photographs of tennis techniques and gave advice on attire and equipment.

The following year Dorothea won the women’s final at Wimbledon, once again in a match against Dora Boothby 6–0, 6–0 to become the only female player to win a Grand Slam singles final without losing a game. The only other player to achieve this was Steffi Graf [Germany] in the 1988 French Open.

In 1919 she played the longest Wimbledon final up to that time, 44 games against Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen. Holding two match points at 6–5 in the third set, she eventually lost to Lenglen 8–10, 6–4, 7–9. 

Lambert Chambers only played the occasional singles match after 1921, although she did make the quarter-finals of the US Open in 1925, but continued to compete in doubles events until 1927.

From 1924-1926, she captained Britain’s Wightman Cup team, and in 1925 led her team to victory, at the age of 46, winning both her doubles match, and her singles match against Eleanor Goss.

Lambert Chambers turned her attention to professional coaching in 1928.

She died in Kensington, London in 1960 aged 81, and was later inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1981

1 July, 2019

On the 30 June, 1833, the Scottish professional golfer, Willie Park Senior (1833-1903), was a born in Wallyford, East Lothian. Like most early professional golfers, Park started as a caddie, and later ran a golf equipment manufacturing business. He made his money on the course, from ‘challenge matches’ against the likes of Old Tom Morris, Wilie Dunn, and Allan Robertson.

A tall, powerfully strong man, Park was a very long hitter and an excellent putter, who from time to time but sometimes got into trouble through overly aggressive play.

At the age of 20, he journeyed to St Andrews to learn how to play the links there. In 1853 he issued a challenge to Allan Robertson, generally recognised as the best player at the time. This was not taken up since the custom of the day allowed the best player to refuse a challenge without damage to his reputation.

Park’s aggressive self-promotion fuelled controversy, which led to an increased interest in the game. Press coverage increased, and more matches and tournaments were set up, developing the professional game and increasing the income of the leading players.

He married Susanna Law in Inveresk in 1860, and the couple raised ten children. Park’s brother Mungo and his son Willie Junior, both won the Open Championship. Mungo’s victory came in 1874 and Willie Junior had two wins, in 1887 and 1889..

Park died in Musselburgh, in July 1903, and is best remembered as the winner of four Open Championships. Including the inaugural event in 1860 when he defeated Old Tom Morris by two strokes, in a field that was just eight strong. His other victories, all by a margin of two strokes,  came in 1863, when he beat Old Tom Morris again, 1866, beating Davie Park, and defeating Bob Martin in 1875.

Park was the co-holder of the record for most wins in the tournament until James Braid  notched up a fifth win in 1910.

30 June, 2019

On the 29 June, 1934, Sir Henry Cotton, MBE, won the 69^th Open Championship at the Royal St. George’s Golf Club in Sandwich, England.

Cotton dominated the championship, leading wire-to-wire on his way to win the first of his three Open titles (1934, 1937, 1948) by a five-stroke margin over South African, Sid Brews. Picking up the princely sum of £100 for his trouble, from a total prize fund of £ 500.

Cotton’s win was part of a long period of sustained excellence in the tournament. From 1930 through 1952, he finished in the top-ten in all but one of the Opens he played in. In all, he played in twenty Opens between 1927 and 1958, winning three and finishing in the top-ten in seventeen.

Born in Holmes Chapel, then known as Church Hulme, near Congleton, Cheshire near in 1907, he had an older brother, Leslie who was also a professional golfer. Cotton was brought up in Crystal Palace Road, East Dulwich, London. As a youngster he was a useful cricketer, but had already taken up golf, at the Aquarius Golf Club in Honor Oak. 

In September 1921 the Cotton brothers played in the first Boys Amateur Championship, then limited to boys under the age of sixteen. Henry played the eventual winner, Donald Mathieson, on the first day, losing by two holes. All square after sixteen holes Cotton lost the seventeenth after being incorrectly penalised for placing his bag in a bunker. Cotton also played in the 1922 Boys Championship, again losing in the first round.

Cotton left school in 1923 and began his career as the assistant teaching professional at the Fulwell Golf Club, Twickenham, London, but within a year had left to become an assistant at Rye Golf Club, East Sussex.  In 1926, aged nineteen, he became the professional at Langley Park Golf Club, Kent.

Cotton received the Ryle Memorial Medal, awarded to members of the British PGA winning the Open Championship. He was the first recipient since Arthur Havers in 1923.

Cotton loved the high life, travelling almost everywhere in a Rolls Royce. And for a while lived in a suite in a five-star hotel. He would later bought an estate complete with butler and full staff,

Cotton was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1980, and was knighted in the New Year’s Day Honours list 1988, named a Knight Bachelor .  He died in London in December 1980, aged 80.

29 June, 2019

On the 28 June 1915, Australian cricketer Victor Thomas Trumper (1877 –1915) died in Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia, aged 37. Trumper’s health declined rapidly in 1914 and he died as a result of Bright’s disease . Trumper was buried in Waverley Cemetery after the largest funeral procession ever seen in Sydney, with 250,000 mourners lining the route.

Trumper was born out of wedlock, which was quite a scandal at the time, probably in Sydney in 1877, although no record of his birth exists. He was educated at Crown Street Superior Public School, where he dominated school and junior cricket, so much so that many schools and teams refused to play against him. When only 17 years old Trumper made 67 runs for a team of promising juniors against a touring English team at Sydney Cricket Ground.

Known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the ‘Golden Age of Cricket’ , he was capable of playing match-winning innings on wet wickets others found unplayable.

In 1894-1895 he played for New South Wales against South Australia, making 11 and 0 runs in his two innings. He failed with the bat at his next attempt too, and was left out of representative cricket for two years.

Trumper resumed first-class cricket in 1897-1898, but his breakthrough came the following season, when he made 873 runs, with a top score of 292 not out.

After a couple of years playing Sheffield Shield he had an outside chance of making the 1899 tour of England, but was not considered consistent enough and was left out. However, at the last moment, after a fine performance against the Australian team, he was added to the touring party and made his Test debut against England in 1899. He played his last Test against England in 1912. In his Test and first-class career of 303 matches, he amassed a total of 20,132 runs, including 50 centuries, his highest score being 300 not out.

Although he is best known for his prowess as a cricketer, Trumper was also a competent rugby player and can lay claim to being a key figure in the foundation of rugby league in Australia. 

Trumper was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1903, and was awarded Life Membership of the New South Wales Rugby League in 1914. In the 1963 edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanac Trumper was named as one of the Six Giants of the Wisden Century. And in 1981 he was honoured on a postage stamp issued by Australia Post. In 2008 the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust announced that the new grandstand was to be named in his honour.

Trumper was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2010.

28 June, 2019