Court on camera, having a ball
Anyone for tennis? MARION McMULLEN serves up the early days of Wimbledon as the famous sporting event celebrates 140 years
THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and tennis stars Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg were among the 15,000 Centre Court spectators who watched Andy Murray celebrate his second Wimbledon victory last year.
The champion once declared: “Everybody always talks about the pressure of playing at Wimbledon, how tough it is, but the people watching make it so much easier to play.”
The pressure of the big occasion was not a problem faced by the first winner. The birth of the now world famous tournament was a much more modest affair with roughly 200 people turning up to see Spencer Gore win the first gentleman’s singles title.
The sports all-rounder also excelled at cricket and football, but made history when he beat all-comers at the first Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship meeting in July 1877.
The oldest tennis tournament in the world began with an announcement in The Field magazine a month earlier inviting sportsmen to take part in the first championships explaining: “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.”
The contest was not open to women, but 22 men paid the guinea entrance fee (21 shillings) to take part.
They had to bring their own rackets and suitable footwear – “shoes without heels” – but tennis balls were provided.
The four acres of rented meadowland had originally been used for croquet but tennis quickly became more popular and a temporary stand was put up for the first tournament to provide seating for 30 people.
Women were finally able to show their tennis skills with the first Ladies Championships in 1884 and the first prize was a silver flower basket worth 20 guineas.
There were 13 women in the first championships and sisters Maud and Lilian Watson, the daughters of a Warwickshire vicar, faced each other in the final. Nineteen-year-old Maud, wearing a white corset and petticoats, won in three sets and claimed victory again the following year. French tennis player Suzanne Lenglen won her place in the record books by winning in 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, and 1925, while American player Gertrude “Gussie” Moran shocked Wimbledon in 1949 with her frilly, lace knickers. She later showed off her new bloomer-type tennis outfit, which was specially designed for her by Pierre Balmain for the Wimbledon championships.
Wimbledon hosted several Olympic tennis events in 1908 and the tournament received a royal seal of approval in 1926 when George VI, then the Duke of York, became the only member of the royal family to take part.
The BBC launched the first radio broadcast of Wimbledon 90 years ago in 1927 with commentators Teddy Wakelam and Colonel R H Brand and the first live television transmission of a sporting event in the UK was made by the BBC from Wimbledon in 1937 – it came a month after the first television outside broadcast of the coronation of King George VI.
Fred Perry was the last British player to win the men’s Wimbledon’s championship before Andy Murray. He took the title three consecutive times from 1934 to 1936 and once said: “To its great credit, Wimbledon has been a leader in bringing about change and improvement in the sport.”
French player Rene Lacoste was also a Centre Court star and the world number one in 1926 and 1927. Nicknamed the Crocodile, he won both Wimbledon and the French Championships in 1925. His company produced the tennis shirts featuring the embroidered crocodile and he often wore them at matches.
The Centre Court was bombed in 1940, but it did not stop play for long and the Wimbledon ball boys were all selected from Barnardo’s children’s homes in 1946.
The first colour television coverage of Wimbledon was launched 50 years ago on BBC 2 in 1967 and the now famous theme tune, Light And Tuneful, was first heard in 1976. It was originally composed by Keith Mansfield as library music for general use in films and television programmes, but proved a Grand Slam match for Wimbledon.
The tournament is now watched by one billion people worldwide each year. As for the famous refreshments, it is said a whopping 28,000 kilos of strawberries and 320,000 glasses of Pimm’s will be served up to spectators this year.