1877 Wimbledon Championship

First staging of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships July 2022 July 2020 1877 Wimbledon Championship Wimbledon Championship 1877.jpg 250px 9–19 July 1st 22S Worple Road, Wimbledon,London, United Kingdom All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club Grass / outdoor Grand Slam UKGBI Spencer Gore The 1877 Wimbledon Championship was a men's tennis tournament held at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club (AEC & LTC) in Wimbledon, London. It was the world's first official lawn tennis tournament, and was later recognised as the first Grand Slam tournament or "Major". The AEC & LTC had been founded in July 1868, as the All England Croquet Club. Lawn tennis was introduced in February 1875 to compensate for the waning interest in croquet. In June 1877 the club decided to organise a tennis tournament to pay for the repair of its pony roller, needed to maintain the lawns. A set of rules was drawn up for the tournament, derived from the first standardised rules of tennis issued by the Marylebone Cricket Club in May 1875. The Gentlemen's Singles competition, the only event of the championship, was contested on grass courts by 22 players who each paid one guinea to participate. The tournament started on 9 July 1877, and the final – delayed for three days by rain – was played on 19 July in front of a crowd of about 200 people who each paid an entry fee of one shilling. The winner received 12 guineas in prize money and a silver challenge cup, valued at 25 guineas, donated by the sports magazine The Field. Spencer Gore, a 27-year-old rackets player from Wandsworth, became the first Wimbledon champion by defeating William Marshall, a 28-year-old real tennis player, in three straight sets in a final that lasted 48 minutes. The tournament made a profit of £10. An analysis made after the tournament led to some modifications of the rules regarding the court dimensions. Background Origins of lawn tennis thumb|upright|alt=view of an hourglass-shaped lawn tennis court in 1874|A Sphairistikè lawn tennis court as designed by Major Wingfield in 1874. The hourglass shape was retained in the 1875 MCC rules but replaced by a rectangular court in the AELTC rules which governed the first Wimbledon Championship. History of tennis The origin of tennis lies in the monastic cloisters in 12th-century France,gillmeister According to sports historian Heiner Gillmeister, the game originated in northern France.Gillmeister 1998 15,106,117 where the ball was struck with the palm of the hand in a game called jeu de paume.Clerici Gianni Tennis 1976 Octopus Books London 21 978-0-7064-0523-1 16360735Robertson 1974 14 Rackets were introduced to the game in the early 16th century.racket The first mention of rackets dates to a 1506 memorandum which describes a game of tennis played at Henry VII's Windsor Castle on 7 February 1505 between Philip, King of Castille, and the Marquess of Dorset: "the kynge of Castelle played w the Rackete and gave the marques xv".Marshall 1878 62Gillmeister 1998 103 This original version of tennis, now called "real tennis", was mostly played indoors and popular among the royalty and gentry, while a crude outdoor version called longue paume was played by the populace.Gillmeister 1998 27,28Parmly Paret J. Jahial Parmly Paret Lawn Tennis, its Past, Present, and Future The American Sportsman's Library 1904 The Macmillan Company New York 4, 5 https://archive.org/details/cu31924029902677 2068608 6946876M The prominence of the game declined in the 17th and 18th centuries, although there are sporadic mentions of a "long tennis" or "field tennis" version in the second half of the 18th century.Marshall 1878 97Birley 1993 312 Between 1858 and 1873 several people in Victorian England experimented with a lawn version of tennis.Gillmeister 1998 174John Barrett Wimbledon 2014: How SW19 gave a country garden game to the world https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/wimbledon/10918233/Wimbledon-2014-How-SW19-gave-a-country-garden-game-to-the-world.html The Telegraph 22 June 2014 John Barrett (tennis) 5 June 2015inventions The invention of the lawn mower in 1827 allowed the creation of smooth, flat croquet lawns that could easily be adapted for lawn tennis, and the introduction of vulcanised rubber around 1840 made it possible to create tennis balls that bounced properly on outdoor grass courts.Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia 2011 Routledge Abingdon 978-0-415-66851-4 791 Sally Mitchell 438 Garland reference library of social scienceA tennis tapestry https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pLgMAAAAIBAJ&sjid=amADAAAAIBAJ&pg=5293%2C218530 The St. Petersburg Times 1 July 1986 Dave Scheiber 3C Major Harry Gem and Augurio Perera demonstrated their game of Pelota (Spanish for ball) and in 1872 created the world's first lawn tennis club at Leamington Spa.Baker William J. Sports in the Western world 1988 University of Illinois Press Urbana 978-0-252-06042-7 182 https://archive.org/details/sportsinwesternw00bake registration Lawn Tennis and Major T. H. Gem. In February 1874 Major Clopton Wingfield introduced his version of lawn tennis, called Sphairistikè; on his patent application,patent The patent application (No.685) was filed on 23 February 1874 and was issued on 24 July 1874. The patent lapsed on 2 March 1877.Alexander 1974 15Gillmeister 1998 185 he described it as a "New and Improved Court for Playing the Ancient Game of Tennis", and its rules were published in an eight-page booklet.Barrett 2010 44–50 Wingfield is widely credited with popularising the new game through his energetic promotional efforts.Barrett 2001 16Barrett 2003 25 The Sphairistikè court was hourglass-shaped, wider at the baseline than at the net.Barrett 2001 14 The service was made from a single side in a lozenge shaped box situated in the middle of the court and it had to bounce beyond the service line.Robertson 1974 22 In November 1874 Wingfield published a second, expanded edition of The Book of the Game, which had 12 rules and featured a larger court and a slightly lower net.Wingfield Walter Walter Clopton Wingfield The Game of Sphairistike or Lawn Tennis 2008 Wimbledon Society Museum Press Surrey 978-1-904332-81-7 12–17 Facsimile of 1874 1874Collins 2010 6 All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club The All England Croquet Club was founded on 23 July 1868 by six gentlemen at the offices of The Field, a weekly country and sports magazine.Barrett 2001 20aecc The gentlemen were John H. Walsh, Captain R.F. Dalton, John Hinde Hale, Rev. A. Law, S.H. Clarke Maddock and Walter Jones Whitmore. Walsh, the magazine's editor, was the chairman of the meeting. Whitmore and Maddock were appointed honorary secretary and treasurer respectively.Tingay 1977 14 After a year-long search a suitable ground of four acres of meadowland was located between the London and South Western Railway and Worple Road in Wimbledon, then an outer suburb of London.Barrett 2003 8worple Before the site off Worple Road was discovered and selected, The Crystal Palace at Sydenham, Prince's Club in Knightsbridge, Regent's Park and Holland Park were all approached. They were rejected for various reasons, including costs. The club's committee decided on 24 September 1869 to lease the ground and paid £50 rental for the first year, a fee which increased to £75 and £100, respectively, over the following two years.Parsons 2006 11 The increasing rent, coupled with a waning interest in the sedate sport of croquet, was causing the club financial difficulties. In February 1875 it decided to introduce lawn tennis at its grounds to capitalise on the growing interest in this new sport and generate additional revenue.Tingay 1977 16 The proposal was made by Henry Jones, a sports writer who published extensively in The Field under his nom de plume "Cavendish" and who had joined the club in 1869. The introduction of lawn tennis was approved at the annual meeting and the club's membership fee was set at two guineas to cover both sports.Parsons 2006 11 At a cost of £25, one croquet lawn was converted to a tennis court. Soon after its completion on 25 February 1875, a dozen new club members joined.Haylett John The Illustrated Encyclopedia of World Tennis 1989 Marshall Cavendish London 0-86307-897-4 14 Evans, Richard In 1876 four more lawns, a third of the ground, were handed over to lawn tennis to address the increase in new members. A committee member, George Nicol, was appointed to deal exclusively with lawn tennis affairs.Tingay 1977 16Barrett 2001 1 Lawn tennis had become so popular that on 14 April 1877 the name of the club was formally changed, at the suggestion of founding member John H. Hale, to the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club (AEC&LTC).Barrett 2001 1 Rules of lawn tennis On 3 March 1875 the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), in its capacity as the governing body for rackets and real tennis, convened a meeting at Lord's Cricket Ground to test the various versions of lawn tennis with the aim to fully standardise the game's rules.Robertson 1974 23mccannouncement The announcement of the meeting was made in The Field of 20 February 1875: "A meeting will be held at the Pavilion, Lord's Ground on Wednesday next, a two o'clock, by the kind permission of the Marylebone Club for the purpose of eliciting the opinions of all who are interested in the game of lawn tennis".Alexander 1974 32 Wingfield was present to demonstrate Sphairistikè, as was John H. Hale, who presented his version called Germains Lawn Tennis; there is no record of either Gem or Perera being present to showcase Pelota.Barrett 2003 29,30 After the meeting, the MCC Tennis Committee was tasked with framing the rules.mcccommittee The members of the MCC Tennis Committee were Spencer Ponsonby-Fane, J.M. Heathcote, E. Chandos Leigh, W.H. Dyke and C.G. Lyttelton.Alexander 1974 33 On 29 May 1875 the MCC issued the Laws of Lawn Tennis, the first unified rules for lawn tennis, which were adopted by the club on 24 June.Somerset 1894 133,134Barrett 2001 1 These were significantly based on the rules introduced by Wingfield in February 1874 and published in his rule-booklet titled Sphairistikè or Lawn Tennis.The Sportswoman's Library 1898 Archibald Constable & Co. Westminster 314, 315 https://archive.org/details/sportswomanslibr02slau II Frances E. Slaughter 2230880 The MCC adopted Wingfield's hourglass-shaped court as well as the rackets method of scoring, in which the player who first scores 15 points wins the game and only the server ("hand-in") was able to score.none Tingay Lance Lance Tingay Tennis, A Pictorial History 1977 William Collins Sons & Co. Glasgow 0-00-434553-3 26, 30, 31Laws of Lawn Tennis – Revised by the M.C.C. Baily's Magazine of Sports & Pastimes July 1885 XXVII 185 138–140 https://archive.org/details/bailysmagazineof27gilbuoft A.H. Baily & Co. Cornhill 12030733 The height of the net was set at 5 ft (1.52 m) at the posts and 4 ft (1.22 m) in the centre.Barrett 2003 30 Various aspects of these rules, including the characteristic court shape and the method of scoring, were the subject of prolonged debate in the press.Alexander 1974 77–107Tingay 1977 16 The MCC rules were not universally adhered to following its publication and, among others, the Prince's Club in London stuck to playing on rectangular courts.Todd 1979 76Barrett 2001 31 Tournament thumb|upright|alt=view of a tennis racket from 1876|A lawn tennis racket from 1876 with its characteristic slightly lopsided head On 2 June 1877, at the suggestion of the All England Club secretary and founding member John H. Walsh, the club committee decided to organise a lawn tennis championship for amateurs, a Gentlemen's Singles event,gentlemen The gentlemen's singles was the only event held at the Wimbledon Championships until 1884, when the ladies' singles and men's doubles events were introduced. The ladies' doubles and mxed doubles events were added in 1913. The Irish Championships in 1879 was the first tournament to feature a Ladies' singles event. which they hoped would generate enough funds to repair the broken pony roller that was needed for the maintenance of the lawns.125 years of Wimbledon: From birth of lawn tennis to modern marvels http://edition.cnn.com/2011/SPORT/tennis/06/14/tennis.wimbledon.125th.anniversary.museum/index.html https://web.archive.org/web/20110624021723/http://edition.cnn.com/2011/SPORT/tennis/06/14/tennis.wimbledon.125th.anniversary.museum/index.html dead 24 June 2011 CNN Gary Morley 22 June 2011 5 June 2015 This championship became the world's first official lawn tennis tournament,firsttournament There is a record of a tournament held in August 1876 on the courts of William Appleton in Nahant, United States, but since this was an informal, private event it is not recognised as an official tournament.Grasso John Historical Dictionary of Tennis 2011 Scarecrow Press Lanham, Md. 978-0-8108-7237-0 XV, 91 and the first edition of what would later be called a Grand Slam tournament (or "Major").Robertson Max Max Robertson Wimbledon : Centre Court of the Game : Final Verdict 1987 British Broadcasting Corporation London 978-0-563-20454-1 12 3rdgrandslam The three other Grand Slam tournaments were founded in 1881 (U.S. National Championships), 1891/1925 (French Championships), and 1905 (Australasian Championships). The Wimbledon Championships were designated as the official World Grass Court Championship by the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) in 1913, together with the World Hard Court Championships and World Covered Court Championships. This lasted until 1923, when it became an 'Official Championship' (together with the championships of France, USA and Australia) to allow the USA, whose championship was also played on grass, to join the ILTF.Lawn Tennis – No "World" Title http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000264/19230306/067/0008 Western Daily Press British Newspaper Archive 6 March 1923 8 subscription The term Grand Slam was not an official designation and was first used by the press in 1933. The committee agreed to hold the tournament on the condition that it would not endanger the club's limited funds; to ensure this, Henry Jones persuaded 20 members and friends of the club to guarantee a part of the tournament's financial requirement and made himself responsible for the remaining amount.Todd 1979 94–95 Jones investigated all potential tournament locations in and around London but came to the conclusion that no other ground was more suitable than the Wimbledon premises at Worple Road. As a consequence, the remaining croquet lawns were converted to tennis courts.Todd 1979 94 Announcement The first public announcement of the tournament was published on 9 June 1877 in The Field magazine under the header Lawn Tennis Championship:Parsons 2006 50Barrett 2001 13 The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon, propose to hold a lawn tennis meeting, open to all amateurs, on Monday, July 9th and following days.amateur The term "amateur" as used here has a specific meaning that differs from its current connotation. The distinction between "amateurs" and "professionals" at the time was not so much one of remuneration but more one of social status and class. The "amateur" was a gentleman who was of independent means and belonged to the upper or middle class, whereas "professionals" invariably came from the working class.Birley Derek A Social History of English Cricket https://archive.org/details/socialhistoryofe0000birl registration 2004 Aurum Press London 978-1-85410-941-5 105–107 The construct "Gentleman Amateur" was a method of social distinction and the amateur code was frequently a means of excluding working-class players from competition. The phrase "open to all amateurs" was thus a means to ensure that only people with the desired background would participate in the tournament.Holt Richard Sport and the British : A Modern History 1990 Oxford University Press Oxford 978-0-19-285229-8 98–116 Clarendon pbk.Gillmeister 1998 194 Entrance fee, £1 1s 0d. Names and addresses of competitors to be forwarded to the Hon. Sec. A.E.C. and L.T.C. before Saturday, July 7, or on that day before 2.15 p.m. at the club ground, Wimbledon. Two prizes will be given – one gold champion prize to the winner, one silver to the second player. The value of the prizes will depend on the number of entries, and will be declared before the draw; but in no case will they be less than the amount of the entrance money, and if there are ten and less than sixteen entries, they will be made up to £10 10s and £5 5s respectively.– Henry Jones – Hon Sec of the Lawn Tennis sub-committee Players were instructed to provide their own racquets and wear shoes without heels.The Fireside Book of Tennis 1972 Simon and Schuster New York 978-0-671-21128-8 493, 494 Peter Schwed Allison Danzig The announcement also stated that a programme would be available shortly with further details, including the rules to be adopted for the meeting.Rowley 1986 10 Invitations were sent to prospective participants. Potential visitors were informed that those arriving by horse and carriage should use the entrance at Worple Road while those who planned to come by foot were advised to use the railway path.Todd 1979 95 Upon payment of the entrance fee, the participants were allowed to practise before the Championship on the twelve available courts with the provision that on Saturdays and during the croquet championship week, held the week before the tennis tournament, the croquet players had the first choice of courts. Practice balls, similar to the ones used for the tournament, were available from the club's gardener at a price of 12s per dozen balls.Rowley 1986 10 John H. Walsh, in his capacity as editor of The Field, persuaded his employer to donate a cup worth 25 guineas for the winner; the Field Cup.fieldcup The original Field Cup was handed out to the winner of the gentlemen's singles event until 1883 when it came in permanent possession of William Renshaw after he had won the cup for the third successive time. After three further successive title wins Renshaw also became the owner of the replacement cup worth 50 guineas. In response the Club purchased a new Challenge Cup in 1887 at a cost of 100 guineas which remains in its possession. The original Field Cup is now on display in the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum.Sarah Edworthy Wimbledon in 13 objects: 1. The Field Cup http://2014.wimbledon.com/en_GB/news/blogs/2014-06-23/201406211403351236643.html www.wimbledon.com AELTC 23 June 2014 15 June 2015 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20160304041404/http://2014.wimbledon.com/en_GB/news/blogs/2014-06-23/201406211403351236643.html 4 March 2016Little 2013 296–297 The cup was made of sterling silver and had the inscription: The All England Lawn Tennis Challenge Cup – Presented by the Proprietors of The Field – For competition by Amateurs – Wimbledon July, 1877.Little 2013 296 On 6 July 1877, three days prior to the start of the tournament, a notice was published in The Times: Next week at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club Ground a Lawn Tennis Championship Meeting will be held. The ground is situated close to the Wimbledon Station on the South Western Railway, and is sufficiently large for the erection of thirty "courts".courts According to Tingay (1977) there were in fact only twelve courts. It is not known how many courts were used but five would have been sufficient.Tingay 1977 17 The courts were laid out in a grid of three rows of four courts.Little 2013 345 On each day the competition will begin at 3.30, the first ties, of course, beginning on Monday. The Hon. Sec. of the meeting is Mr. J.H. Walsh, while Mr. H. Jones will officiate as referee. The entries are numerous.Tingay 1977 17 Rules thumb|upright|alt=head and shoulders shot of a middle-aged man with a beard looking to the right|Henry Jones played a pivotal role in initiating and organising the first Championship. The committee of the club was not satisfied with certain aspects of the 1875 MCC unified rules.Parsons 2006 12 To address these perceived shortcomings, a sub-committee consisting of Charles Gilbert Heathcote,heathcote According to Gillmeister (1998) it was not Charles Gilbert but his brother John Moyer Heathcote who, as a representative of the MCC, was part of the rules sub-committee.Gillmeister 1998 188 Julian Marshall and Henry Jones was set up on 2 June 1877, to establish the rules applicable for the upcoming tournament. They reported back on 7 June with a new set of rules, derived but significantly different from those published by the MCC; in order not to offend the MCC, these rules were declared "provisional" and valid only for the championship:Barrett 2001 32,33Todd 1979 78Tingay 1977 17 The court will have a rectangular shape with outer dimensions of 78 by 27 ft m. The net will be lowered to 3 ft 3 in in the centre. The balls will be 2+1/2 to 2+5/8 in cm in diameter and 1+3/4 oz g in weight. The real tennis method of scoring by fifteens (15, 30, 40) will be adopted.scoring This was in contrast to the 1875 MCC regulations which prescribed the rackets method of scoring in which only the serving side ("hand-in") could score and each game consisted of 15 aces (points). This method was also previously adopted by Major Clopton Wingfield's Sphairistikè, Harry Gem's & Augurio Perera's Pelota and John Hale's Germains Lawn Tennis. The first player to win six games wins the set with 'sudden death' occurring at five games all except for the final, when a lead of two games in each set is necessary. Players will change ends at the end of a set unless otherwise decreed by the umpire. The server will have two chances at each point to deliver a correct service and must have one foot behind the baseline. These rules, drawn up by the club for this initial tournament, were eventually adopted for the entire sport and, with only slight modifications, have retained their validity.Gillmeister 1998 188 All matches during the tournament were played as best-of-five sets.Todd 1979 95 Play In accordance with the All England Regulations for the Management of Prize Meetings, the draw for the 22 entrants was made on Saturday, 7 July 1877, at 3:30p.m. in the club's pavilion. H.T. Gillson had the distinction of being the first player in the history of modern tennis to be drawn for a tournament. The posts, nets and hand-stitched, flannel-covered India-rubber balls for the tournament were supplied by Jefferies & Co from Woolwich, while the rackets used were an adaptation of those used in real tennis, with a small and slightly lopsided head.Lawn Tennis British Sports: Past & Present 1953 B.T. Badsford Ltd London 21 Brigadier J.G. Smyth 1142926 6144675MRackets and Strings – History http://www.itftennis.com/technical/rackets-and-strings/other/history.aspx International Tennis Federation (ITF) 5 June 2015tennisballs The original lawn tennis balls were uncovered. In a letter to The Field published on 5 December 1874, John Heathcote stated that he had experimented with tennis balls covered with white flannel and found that they bounced better and were easier to see and control.Gillmeister 1998 188,352A Tennis Balls Controversy http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/27th-february-1926/13/a-tennis-balls-controversy The Spectator 27 February 1926 361, 362 The ball-boys kept the tennis balls, 180 of which were used during the tournament, in canvas wells.Little 2013 54–55 The umpires who were provided for the matches sat on chairs which in turn were placed on small tables of 18 inches height to give them a better view of the court.Todd 1979 95 thumb|upright=0.70|left|alt=view of a diagram depicting a tennis tournament draw|The 1877 Wimbledon Championship draw The tournament began on Monday, 9 July 1877, at 3:30p.m. and daily programmesprogrammes The programme was printed on a thin card folded into two (6 × 4 inches after folding). The front page had the title 'All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club' as well as a date and the price. The inside showed the full draw with a list of the prizes and the back page showed the layout of the twelve courts in relation to the pavilion.Little 2013 345 were available for sixpence.Gillmeister 1998 193,194 On the first day, in sunny weather, ten matches were played, which completed the first round. Full match scores were published on the notice board inside the pavilion.Todd 1979 95 F.N. Langham, a Cambridge tennis blue, was given a walkover in the first round when C.F. Buller, an Etonian and well-known rackets player, did not appear. Julian Marshall became the first player to win a five-set match when he fought back from being two sets down against Captain Grimston. Spencer Gore, a 27-year-old rackets player from Wandsworth and at the time a land agent and surveyor by profession, won his first round match against Henry Thomas Gillson in straight sets.Lawn Tennis Championship http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000174/18770711/036/0006 The Morning Post British Newspaper Archive 11 July 1877 6 subscription The five second-round matches were played on Tuesday, 10 July, again in fine weather. Charles Gilbert Heathcote had a bye in the second round. J. Lambert became the first player in Wimbledon Championships' history to retire a match, conceding to L.R. Erskine after losing the first two sets. Julian Marshall again won a five-set match, this time against F.W. Oliver, while Gore defeated Montague Hankey in four sets.Wimbledon draws archive – 1877 Gentlemen's singles http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/draws/archive/1877/MS/r1s1.html AELTC 5 June 2015 The quarter-finals were played on Wednesday, 11 July, before a larger number of spectators than had attended the previous matches. Start of play was delayed from the scheduled 3:30p.m. due to strong winds.Lawn Tennis Championship http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000174/18770712/067/0007 The Morning Post British Newspaper Archive 12 July 1877 7 subscription Gore defeated Langham in four sets, William Marshall beat Erskine, also in four sets, and Julian Marshall, who injured his knee during the match after a fall, lost to Heathcote in straight sets. The quarter-final matches left three players, instead of four, in the draw for the semi-finals scheduled for Thursday.bye In the first years of the championship byes could be distributed through the entire draw. Only from 1885 onward were byes used exclusively in the first round. This was formalised in the Bagnall–Wild system which came into effect in 1887.Wright & Ditson's Lawn Tennis Guide for 1893 1893 Boston Wright & Ditson 124, 125 https://archive.org/details/wrightditsonoff20unkngoog Joseph T. Whittelsey 32300203Gillmeister 1998 355 To solve the situation lots were drawn and Marshall, a 28-year-old architect and Cambridge real tennis blue, was given a bye to the final. His opponent would be Gore, who defeated Heathcote in straight sets in the only semi-final played.Lawn Tennis Championship http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000183/18770713/033/0006 The Standard British Newspaper Archive 13 July 1877 6 subscription When the semi-final stage had concluded on Thursday, 12 July, play was suspended until next Monday, 16 July, to avoid a clash with the popular annual Eton v Harrow cricket match that was played at Lord's on Friday and Saturday.Tingay 1977 17http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/history/index.html 1877 Wimbledon Championships www.wimbledon.com AELTC Ron Atkin 5 June 2015 The final was postponed from its scheduled start on Monday at 4p.m. until Thursday, 19 July, at 3:30p.m. because of rain. On Thursday it was still showery, causing the final to be further delayed by an hour. It began on a dead and slippery court in front of about 200 spectators.deadcourt A 'dead' court refers to a tennis court where the ball bounces significantly less compared to other courts or to the same court under different weather conditions. There was a temporary three-plank stand on one side of the court offering seating to about thirty people.Wimbledon '99: When Wimbledon was Worpledon https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/wimbledon-99-when-wimbledon-was-worpledon-1101157.html https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/wimbledon-99-when-wimbledon-was-worpledon-1101157.html 1 May 2022 subscription live The Independent 20 June 1999 Ronald Atkincntrecourt A Centre Court did not exist during the first four years of the championship, and the match was in all likelihood played on Court 1 in front of the pavilion.Todd 1979 95Little 2013 148 Marshall won the toss, elected to serve first and was immediately broken by Gore. After the first set was won by Gore, it started to rain for a quarter of an hour; this further softened the ground and affected the quality of play. The final lasted 48 minutes, and Spencer Gore won the inaugural championship against William Marshall in three straight sets of 15, 13, and 20 minutes respectively.Lawn Tennis Championship http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000183/18770720/032/0006 The Standard British Newspaper Archive 20 July 1877 6 subscription Tingay 1977 20 En route to the title Gore had won 15 sets and lost two and won 99 games for the loss of 46.Wimbledon Gentlemen's Singles Champions 1877–2011 2012 Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum 978-0-906741-51-1 1, 2 John Barrett, Alan Little Gore, the volley specialist, had beaten the baseline player, at a time when volleying was considered by some to be unsporting.Writing in 1957, tennis author and former player Tony Mottram said of Gore using the volley: "He was immediately branded unsporting and unscrupulous."Tennis "Revolt" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=D4kQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=w5UDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6678%2C878913 The Age 9 January 1957 Tony Mottram Tony Mottram Some tried to outlaw the volley and a discussion on its merits took place in The Field for weeks after the tournament.Baltzell E. Digby E. Digby Baltzell Sporting Gentlemen: Men's Tennis from the Age of Honor to the Cult of the Superstar 1995 Free Press New York [u.a.] 978-0-02-901315-1 44 The final was followed by a play-off match for 2nd place between Marshall and Heathcote. The players could not fix another date for the match and decided to play it straight away. By agreement, the match was limited to best-of-three sets. Marshall, playing his second match of the day, defeated Heathcote in straight sets, in front of a diminished crowd, and won the silver prize of seven guineas.Barrett 2001 24 Aftermath thumb|upright|alt=head and shoulders portrait of a middle-aged man with a beard wearing a striped jacket|Spencer Gore, the winner of the inaugural Wimbledon Championship. On 20 July 1877, the day following the final, a report was published in The Morning Post newspaper:Spencer Gore – Gentlemen's Singles Champion at Wimbledon in 1877 http://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2012/06/27/spencer-gore-gentlemens-singles-champion-at-wimbledon-in-1877/ The British Newspaper Archive 27 June 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20140417201317/http://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2012/06/27/spencer-gore-gentlemens-singles-champion-at-wimbledon-in-1877/ 17 April 2014 dead Lawn Tennis Championship – A fair number of spectators assembled yesterday, notwithstanding the rain, on the beautifully kept ground of the All England Club, Wimbledon, to witness the final contest between Messrs. Spencer Gore and W. Marshall for the championship. The play on both sides was of the highest order and its exhibition afforded a great treat to lovers of the game. All three sets were won buy Mr. Gore, who, therefore, becomes lawn tennis champion for 1877, and wins the £12 12s. gold prize and holds the silver challenge cup, value £25 5s. The second and third prizes were then played for by Messrs. W. Marshall and G.C. Heathcote (best of three sets by agreement). Mr. Marshall won two sets to love, and therefore takes the silver prize (value £12 12s.). Mr. Heathcote takes the third prize, value £3 3s. A report in The Field stated: "The result was a more easy victory for Mr Spencer Gore than had been expected.".Rowley 1986 12 Third-placed Heathcote said that Gore was the best player of the year and had a varied service with a lot of twist on it. Gore, according to Heathcote, was a player with an aptitude for many games and had a long reach and a strong and flexible wrist.heathcoteongore In a chapter on lawn tennis which Heathcote wrote for The Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes in 1890, he stated "Mr. Gore was much the best player of the year. He was gifted with a natural genius for all games, great activity, a long reach, and a strong and flexible wrist. (...) He was the first to realize (...) the necessity of forcing his opponent to the back line, when he would approach the net (...) Though the hard over-hand service was not then invented (...) his service was more varied than that of almost all other players, and his under-hand service in particular was characterized by an extraordinary power of twist."Somerset 1894 143,144 His volleying style was novel at the time, a forceful shot instead of merely a pat back over the net. All the opponents who were defeated by Gore on his way to the title were real tennis players.Todd 1979 95 His victory was therefore regarded as a win of the rackets style of play over the real tennis style, and of the offensive style of the volley player – who comes to the net to force the point, over the baseline player – who plays groundstrokes from the back of the court, intent on keeping the ball in play.Tingay 1977 20https://archive.org/details/gameoflawntennis00camp The Game of Lawn Tennis and how to play it 1893 American Sports Publishing Company New York 17 Oliver S. Campbell Oliver Campbell His volleying game was also successful because the height of the net at the post – 5 ft (1.52 m) in contrast to the modern height of 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m) – made it difficult for his opponents to pass him by driving the ball down the line. Gore indicated that the real tennis players had the tendency to play shots from corner to corner over the middle of the net and did so at such a height that made volleying easy.Somerset 1894 283 Despite his historic championship title, Gore was not enthusiastic about the new sport of lawn tennis. In 1890, thirteen years after winning his championship title, he wrote: "... it is want of variety that will prevent lawn tennis in its present form from taking rank among our great games ... That anyone who has really played well at cricket, tennis, or even rackets, will ever seriously give his attention to lawn tennis, beyond showing himself to be a promising player, is extremely doubtful; for in all probability the monotony of the game as compared with others would choke him off before he had time to excel in it."Schickel Richard Richard Schickel The World of Tennis 1975 Random House New York 0-394-49940-9 40 registration https://archive.org/details/worldoftennis00schi/page/40Barrett 2001 25,26 He did return for the 1878 Championship to defend his title in the Challenge Roundchallenge The Challenge Round system was introduced at Wimbledon in 1878. The existing champion, in this case Spencer Gore, did not have to play through the tournament but instead faced the winner of the All Comers' tournament in a Challenge round match to determine the new champion. This system was abolished in 1922.The Encyclopedia of Lawn Tennis 1958 Robert Hale Limited London 30 Maurice Brady but lost in straight sets to Frank Hadow, a coffee planter from Ceylon, who effectively used the lob to counter Gore's net play.Wimbledon Draws Archive – 1878 Gentlemen's Singles http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/draws/archive/1878/MS/rCs1.html AELTC 5 June 2015Gillmeister 1998 195 It was Gore's last appearance at the Wimbledon Championships. Analysis and rules changes The tournament generated a profit of £10 and the pony roller stayed in use.Tingay 1977 20Little 2013 542 When the tournament was finished, Henry Jones gathered all the score cards to analyse the results and found that, of the 601 games played during the tournament, 376 were won by the server ("striker-in") and 225 by the receiver ("striker-out").Tingay 1977 21 At a time when the service was either made underarm or, usually, at shoulder height, this was seen as a serving dominance and resulted in a modification of the rules for the 1878 Championship.Tingay 1977 21 To decrease the target area for the server, the length of the service court was reduced from 26 to 22 ft (7.92 to 6.71 m) and to make passing shots easier against volleyers the height of the net was reduced to 4 ft 9 in (1.45 m) at the posts and 3 feet (0.91 m) at the centre.Alexander 1974 36 These rules were published jointly by the AEC & LTC and the MCC, giving the AEC & LTC an official rule-making authority and in effect retroactively sanctioning its 1877 rules.Sport Histories : Figurational Studies in the Development of Modern Sports 2006 Routledge London 978-0-415-39794-0 108 Eric Dunning It marked the moment when the AEC & LTC effectively usurped the rule-making initiative from the MCC although the latter would still ratify rule changes until 1882.Wallis Myers A. A. Wallis Myers The Complete Lawn Tennis Player https://archive.org/details/completelawntenn00myer 1908 G.W. Jacobs & Co. Philadelphia 4, 8 9035307 7005977MSomerset 1894 146aeltclta The AELTC's legislative authority was passed on in 1889 to the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), formed in 1888, who in turn handed it over to the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) in 1922. In recognition of the importance and popularity of lawn tennis, the club was renamed in 1882 to All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC).Gillmeister 1998 188aeltcc In 1899 the name of the club was changed again to All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and that has remained its name to the present day.Barrett 2001 2 Commemorative plaque On 18 June 2012 a commemorative plaque was unveiled at the former home of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, in Worple Road, Wimbledon celebrating both the first Wimbledon Championships and the 1908 Olympic tennis event.worpleplaque In 1922 the Club moved to its current location at Church Road. The site of the inaugural tournament at Worple Road now serves as a playing field for the Wimbledon High School. The ceremony was performed by Heather Hanbury, Headmistress of Wimbledon High School; Philip Brook, Chairman of the All England Club, and Cr David T Williams JP, Mayor of Merton.Tennis History Celebrated in Another Corner of SW19 http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/news/press_releases/2012-06-18/201206131339592039306.html AELTC 18 June 2012 5 June 2015 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20150418101602/http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/news/press_releases/2012-06-18/201206131339592039306.html 18 April 2015 Event overview Final 1877 Wimbledon Championship – Singles UKGBI Spencer Gore defeated UKGBI William Marshall, 6–1, 6–2, 6–4Gentlemen's Singles Finals 1877–2016 http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/roll_of_honour/gentlemenssingles.html wimbledon.com Wimbledon Championships 29 June 2017 It was Gore's only Grand Slam tournament title. Second place match UKGBI William Marshall defeated UKGBI Charles Gilbert Heathcote 6–4, 6–4 Tingay 1977 20 Notes and references Notes 30em References 30em Sources Alexander George E. Lawn Tennis : Its Founders & Its Early Days 1974 H.O. Zimman Lynn 1177585 Barrett John John Barrett (tennis) Wimbledon : The Official History of the Championships 2001 CollinsWillow London 0-00-711707-8 Barrett John John Barrett (tennis) Wimbledon – Serving Through Time 2003 Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum London 978-0-906741-32-0 Barrett John John Barrett (tennis) The Original Rules of Tennis 2010 Bodleian Library Oxford 978-1-85124-318-1 Birley Derek Sport and the Making of Britain 1993 Manchester University Press Manchester 978-0-7190-3759-7 https://archive.org/details/sportmakingofbri0000birl registration Collins Bud Bud Collins The Bud Collins History of Tennis : An Authoritative Encyclopedia and Record Book 2010 New Chapter Press [New York] 978-0-942257-70-0 2nd Gillmeister Heiner Tennis : A Cultural History https://archive.org/details/tennisculturalhi0000gill registration 1998 Leicester University Press London 978-0-7185-0195-2 Little Alan 2013 Wimbledon Compendium 2013 The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club London 23rd 978-1-899039-40-1 Marshall Julian Julian Marshall The Annals of Tennis 1878 "The Field" Office London https://archive.org/details/annalstennis01marsgoog 12577084 Parsons John The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Tennis : The Definitive Illustrated Guide to World Tennis 2006 Carlton London 978-1-84442-157-2 Rev Robertson Max Max Robertson The Encyclopedia of Tennis : 100 Years of Great Players and Events 1974 Allen & Unwin London 978-0-04-796042-0 Rowley Malcolm Wimbledon : 100 Years of Men's Singles 1986 Sidgwick & Jackson London 0-283-99223-9 15658165 Somerset Henry Tennis, Lawn Tennis, Rackets, Fives Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes 1894 Longmans, Green and Co. London 3st Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort https://archive.org/details/tennis00ainggoog 558974625 6939991M Tingay Lance Lance Tingay 100 Years of Wimbledon 1977 Guinness Superlatives Enfield [Eng.] 0-900424-71-0 607858270 Todd Tom The Tennis Players : from Pagan Rites to Strawberries and Cream 1979 Vallency Press Guernsey 6041549 External links Tennis Official Wimbledon Championships website sports Wimbledon Championships 1878 Wimbledon Championships Wimbledon Championship Wimbledon Championship Wimbledon Championship Category:History of tennis Category:July 1877 in the United Kingdom