1955 Wimbledon

In the second Time Doctors story, Just in Time, Jen’s time-travel adventure takes her back to 1955, where she watches her gran playing tennis at Wimbledon.
This was a cool thing for me to research, having been a huge fan in my teens (1970s) when Americans like Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert were America’s golden couple, supported by Arthur Ashe, and Billie Jean King. Then along came a Bjorn Borg and Martina Navratilova who just kept winning with machine-like precision. Of course I had a real soft spot for the mercurial Ilie Nastase but when John Mc Enroe tried to emulate his “bad-boy” showmanship, it just came across as unsporting to us Brits. And, of course we were all thrilled to pieces when darling Ginny Wade lifted the Venus Rosebowl trophy in the Queen’s jubilee year, 1977.

One of the things I’d never realised was how well the British Juniors did at the beginning – the first junior championships only having started in 1947 – starting the decade by taking both of the singles titles. For the next seven years, either a girl or boy won, handing the baton like some kind of relay (apart from 1955, when Brits again got both). Also, I never knew how few youngsters actually made the draw back then, with average of 18 boys and 12 girls for the first 5 years of the decade, with only one British girl and boy making the draw for each year. To put it into perspective, in 2022, there were 64 in each draw, with 8 boys and 10 girls qualifying from the UK.

Similarly, in the senior singles titles, the British contingent was much more prominent, with 38 of the 96 women (40%) and 30 of the 128 men (23%). Compare that to 2022, with 6% (8/128) women and 7% (9/128) men.

The sheer number of games to be played these days makes the whole thing a scheduling nightmare, with so many extra categories, including wheelchair, invitational (exhibition matches of “Legends”) and under-14s has meant a change with 2022 marking the first year that the championship was planned to take place over 14 days, with the introduction of play on the Middle Sunday to the permanent schedule.
Having gathered a bunch of photos of the on-court fashions of the day, and even watched videos of the matches, the thing which surprised me most was how little things had changed. Sure, we have fancy electronics to display (and analyse) the scores and do away with the need for a net cord judge to risk damaged eardrums from being hit by the return on a serve approaching 130 mph (since 1996 when the Trinity device was first used). Apart from these minor details, the whole event was just as well-attended and publicised six decades ago as it is now. What could be more typical of an English summer than huddling under umbrellas, eating strawberries and cream and enjoying a glass of Robinson’s Barley Water?