Spotlight Magazines Spotlight on Stenson Fields and Sinfin June 2015 | Page 8

Spotlight Magazine

Anyone For Tennis

It’s Wimbledon fortnight

A broken pony-roller belonging to the All
England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club
was the catalyst which led to the birth of
the most prestigious tennis tournament in
the world: Wimbledon.
When the roller broke in 1877 the members
decided to hold a lawn tennis competition
to raise funds for repair.
There were 22 male competitors who
each paid a one guinea entrance fee. The
champion was 27-year-old Spencer Gore
who won 12 guineas and yes, it did rain on
the day of the finals!
In spite of the weather the competition
was such a success that it became an
annual event. In fact there have been only
ten Wimbledon-free years since that first
competition: four years during the First
World War and six during the Second
World War.
At the start the only event was the
gentlemen’s singles. Then, in 1884 the
ladies’ singles and the gentlemen’s
doubles were added, followed by the
ladies’ doubles and the mixed doubles in
1913.

of titles just before the Second World War.
Then, in the glorious summer of 2013 Andy
Murray finally brought the title home to
Britain and won the heart of the nation.
He’s on a high this year having married his
fiancé Kim Sears in the spring. Wouldn’t it
be wonderful if he made this a real fairytale
year and won Wimbledon again?
Wimbledon: Fascinating Facts
The first black person to win Wimbledon
was a woman, the American Althea
Gibson, in 1957 and 1958. The first, and
only, black male to win was Arthur Ashe,
who beat Jimmy Connors in 1975.
The last British woman to win Wimbledon
was Virginia Wade in the silver Jubilee year,
1977.
It is the only tennis competition where
players are required to wear all or
predominantly white clothing. In 2002 Anna
Kournikova had to change her black shorts
for white ones on court!
Every year about 27,000 kilos of
strawberries, 7,000 litres of c ɕ