"Boring" tennis not a hit with first champion

Wimbledon withdrawal symptoms will have been felt by an army of disappointed tennis fans this summer.

And all because of a dull sport. That, at least, was the opinion of "lawn tennis" of the first ever Wimbledon champion, Spencer Gore, who took the title at the inaugural championships which began on this day, July 9, in 1877.

Gore was an Old Harrovian, and the half brother of Lady Mary Herbert of Styche, Market Drayton, meaning he had a surprising link to a man in the news today – Clive of India.

He excelled at several sports, particularly cricket, and had been born and brought up only a short distance from the playing venue in Wimbledon.

Gore thought it was very doubtful that anybody who had played well at cricket, real tennis, or rackets, would seriously give their attention to lawn tennis "for in all probability the monotony of the game would choke him off before he had time to excel in it.”

Real tennis and rackets, incidentally, are ancient indoor games, rather like a cross between tennis and squash, from which "lawn tennis" is derived.

Back then the home of the All England Croquet Club was beside the London & South Western Railway in Worple Road, Wimbledon. The club had been formed solely to play croquet in 1869, using rented meadowland, but the rising interest in "lawn tennis" led to it being renamed the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club in April 1877.

The inaugural Wimbledon tennis championships began with an announcement in the leisure magazine The Field on June 9, 1877, that "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 championships were, so it is said, organised to raise enough to buy a horse-drawn roller for the croquet lawns. Modern Wimbledon had a croquet lawn until 2007 (when it was built over).

The competition was a men-only affair, and the entrance fee was a guinea (£1.05). There were 22 entrants but one, an Old Etonian, dropped out.

Gore was tall, and seems to have been what we would today call a serve-and-volley player, albeit serving underarm.

The final, watched by about 200 spectators, took place on July 19, having been postponed several times over a number days due to a combination of bad weather and the distraction of the annual Eton versus Harrow cricket match.

He overcame his opponent William Marshall 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 in 48 minutes

The London Evening Standard reported: "Lawn Tennis Championship. — A fine match was played yesterday on the All England Club Ground, Wimbledon, to decide the lawn tennis championship for 1877.

"After a rather one-sided contest it was finally won by Mr Spencer Gore, who obtained three sets to love, and is the first lawn tennis champion.

"The prizes are as under :— Mr. Spencer Gore, the gold prize of the value of 12 guineas and 12 shillings and silver challenge cup, value 26 guineas and 5 shillings. Mr. W. Marshall and Mr. C. G. Heathcote then played for the silver prize, value seven guineas and seven shillings. This was won by Mr. W. Marshall; and Mr. C. G. Heathcote takes the third prize, value two guineas and two shillings."

Gore defended his title the following year but was beaten, after which he gave up tournament tennis, although he continued to play tennis socially.

A land agent and surveyor by profession, he died in a Ramsgate hotel in April 1906, leaving only £100. A son, also called Spencer Gore, became a famous painter.

The first Wimbledon champion's half sister, Lady Mary Herbert, nee Petty-FitzMaurice, was the last member of the family of Robert Clive, Clive of India, to live at Styche Hall, near Market Drayton.

A stalwart of the local community in and around Moreton Say, she died on September 17, 1927, aged 92.

Shropshire's Lady Mary Herbert and Spencer Gore shared the same mother. Mary's father died aged only 25 soon after she was born, and her widowed mother then married Charles Alexander Gore in 1845.

After Gore's win, the popularity of tennis continued to grow, and in 1884 women were allowed to take part in Wimbledon for the first time.

The club moved from its site in Worple Road to the present site at Church Road in 1922.

And as if you didn't know, this year's tournament was due to get under way on Monday, June 29, ending on Sunday, July 12 with the men's singles final.

All that has been swept by the board because of the coronavirus outbreak and now the 134th Championships will be staged from June 28 to July 11, 2021.

There have been many changes over the years, including one to the grass at the only major championships played on natural grass, which is a faster playing surface than concrete and clay, and the balls bounce lower and more horizontally.

In 2001 there was a switch from a mixture of 70 per cent ryegrass and 30 per cent creeping red fescue to 100 per cent ryegrass, to give increased durability. Research has shown that the optimum height of the grass is 8mm, which is slightly less than a third of an inch.