The Derbyshire Championships originally known as the Championship of Derbyshire was a men's and women's grass court tennis tournament held at the Buxton Lawn Tennis Club, Buxton, Derbyshire, Great Britain from 1883 to 1953

History

A tennis tournament was originally held at Buxton Garden's^[1] as early as 1880.^[2] By 1883 the club had attracted more players and a men's championships was staged for the first time which was won by Minden Fenwick,^[2] he went on to win the New Zealand Championships three times from (1892-1894).^[3] In 1884 the owners of the Buxton Gardens, the Buxton Improvements Company, decided to stage a fully open event featuring men's and women's singles, with ladies' and gentlemen's singles played under the title 'Championship of Derbyshire', and a ladies' doubles played with the imposing title of 'The All-England Ladies Doubles'.^[2] The inaugural ladies' singles champion was Agnes Noon Watts.^[2] This latter championship was the first of its kind, being inaugurated before Wimbledon.^[2] In July 1914 the Derby and District Lawn Tennis Association was officially incorporated,^[4] this organisation later became known as the Derbyshire Lawn Tennis Association who were responsible for the staging of this event.^[5] The championships were not staged during World War I or World War II.^[2] It remained a featured tournament in the annual tennis tours. The tournament is still held today as a closed tennis event.

Notable winners of the men's singles included Grainger Chaytor (1892–1894, 1899), Wilberforce Eaves (1904), Laurie Doherty (1909), Adrian Quist (1936) and Franjo Kukuljević (1949). Previous women's singles champions included Louisa Martin (1886), Blanche Bingley Hillyard (1906), Elizabeth Ryan (1921) and Gem Hoahing (1948). The Derbyshire Championships ran until 1953 when it was abolished.^[2] The final men's singles champion was Nigel Cockburn from South Africa and the final women's singles title went to Britain's Mary Harris.

Finals

Men's singles

Incomplete Roll:^[6]

Year	Champions	Runners-up	Score
1883	Minden Fenwick	Robert Parsons Earwaker	6-2, 6-3[6]
1884	Charles Walder Grinstead	Ernest Browne	5-7, 6-2, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.[6]
1885	Eyre Chatterton	James Dwight	6-2, 6-1, 6-3.[6]
1886	Tom Campion	Percy Bateman Brown	5-7, 6-2, 6-1, 9-7.[6]
1887	Tom Campion (2)	William Drumond Hamilton	6-2, 6-3, 6-4.[6]
1888	Tom Campion (3)	Percy Bateman Brown	7-5, 6-4, 7-5.[6]
1889	Percy Bateman Brown	T.G. Hill	6-2, 6-2, 6-1.[6]
1890	Manliffe Goodbody	Harry Sibthorpe Barlow	6-2, 7-5, 6-3.[6]
1891	Grainger Chaytor	George Ball-Greene	6-1, 6-1, 6-3.[6]
1892	Grainger Chaytor (2)	Tom Chaytor	w.o.[6]
1893	Grainger Chaytor (3)	Alfred Ernest Crawley	6-0, 6-2, 6-2.[6]
1894	Grainger Chaytor (4)	Harry Sibthorpe Barlow	6-1, 6-2, 1-0, ret.[6]
1895	Harold Mahony	Grainger Chaytor	6-2, 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.[6]
1896	David Davy	J.A. Rooke	6-4, 6-4, 6-4.[6]
1897	Sydney Howard Smith	George Hillyard	6-2, 6-2, 6-2.[6]
1898	Sydney Howard Smith (2)	Grainger Chaytor	6-3, 6-0, 6-2.[6]
1899	Grainger Chaytor (5)	Sydney Howard Smith	6-3, 6-3.[6]
1900	George Hillyard	Frank Riseley	3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4.[6]
1901	Laurie Doherty	George Hillyard	6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-2.[6]
1902	George Hillyard (2)	George Ball-Greene	2-6, 6-3, 6-8, 6-3, 6-2.[6]
1903	Xenophon Casdagli	Walter Cecil Crawley	6-3, 7-5.[6]
1904	Wilberforce Eaves	E.V. Jones	6-1, 6-3, 6-4.[6]
1905	Xenophon Casdagli (2)	Ernest Charlton	8-10, 0-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.[6]
1906	Roy Allen	John Frederick Stokes	8-6 6-4.[6]
1907	Alfred Leonard Bentley	Geoffrey Blenkinsop Youll	3-6, 6-2, 6-4.[6]bi
1908	Xenophon Casdagli (3)	Arthur Wallis Myers	6-2 4-3 ret..[6]
1909	Roy Allen (2)	Xenophon Casdagli	6-2, 7-5, 7-5.[6]
1910	Charles A. Orpen Tuckey	C. Whitehouse	6-3, 6-3, 6-3.[6]
1915/1918	Not held (due to world war one)
1919	Louis Bosman Raymond	Brian Norton	6-3, 6-3, 6-3.[6]
1920	Alain Gerbault	Roger Worthington	6-3, 6-3, 6-2.[6]
1921	Henry Vere Shirley Dillon	Cecil Campbell	6-4, 6-4, 8-6.[6]
1922	Edward Darcy McCrea	George Fletcher	6-4, 6-4.[6]
1923	Edward Darcy McCrea (2)	José Domingo	6-3, 6-4.[6]
1924	Charles Kingsley	Horace Keats Lester	6-1, 6-4.[6]
1925	Gordon Crole-Rees	George S. Fletcher	6-2, 6-4.[6]
1926	Charles Kingsley (2)	George S. Fletcher	6-2, 3-6, 6-4.[6]
1927	Gordon Crole-Rees (2)	George Golding	2-6, 6-0, 6-1.[6]
1928	Gordon Crole-Rees (3)	Norman Farquharson	3-6, 9-7, 6-1.[6]
1929	Gordon Crole-Rees (4)	Donald Greig	5-7, 6-0, 7-5.[6]
1930	Horace Keats Lester	Eric Conrad Peters	7-5, 6-2.[6]
1931	Vernon Bob Kirby	Frank Wilde	6-2, 6-3.[6]
1932	James Edmett Giesen	Colin Ritchie[7]	6-4, 5-7, 6-4.[6]
1933	Vernon Bob Kirby (2)	Irving Wheatcroft	6-2, 6-2.[6]
1934	Douglas Freshwater	Jimmy Jones	8-6, 3-6, 6-3.[6]
1935	Jimmy Jones	George Lyttleton-Rogers	8-6, 3-6, 6-3.[6]
1936	Adrian Quist	Murray Deloford	6-2, 6-4.[6]
1937	Cristea Caralulis	Ronald Shayes	8-10, 10-8, ret.[6]
1938	Murray Deloford	Jimmy Jones	3-6, 7-5, 6-4.[6]
1939	Don Butler	Alejo Domingo Russell	9-7, 3-6, 6-4.[6]
1940/1945	Not held (due to world war two)
1946	Dennis Slack	C.F. Hall	6-3, 6-2.[6]
1947	Khan-Iftikhar Ahmed	Constantin Tanacescu	4-6, 9-7, 6-3.[6]
1948	Franjo Kukuljević	Matt Murphy	6-1, 6-3.[6]
1949	John Horn	George Godsell	6-3, 6-3.[6]
1950	Geoff Brown	Brian Rooke	6-0, 6-1.[6]
1951	Nigel Cockburn	Andras Kalman	8-6, 6-2.[6]

Women's singles

Incomplete Roll:

Year	Champions	Runners-up	Score
1884	Agnes Noon Watts	Florence Stanuell	6-3, 6-3, 8-6.
1885	Blanche Bingley	Louisa Martin	6-3, 6-3.
1886	Louisa Martin	May Langrishe	6-3, 6-0.
1887	May Langrishe	Bertha Steedman	6-3, 6-4.
1888	Blanche Bingley Hillyard (2)	May Langrishe	7-5, 6-1.
1889	Bertha Steedman	Louisa Martin	5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
1890	Louisa Martin (2)	Mary Steedman	6-2, 6-4.
1891	May Marriott	Beatrice Wood	6-2, 6-2.
1892	Helen Jackson	Miss Vicars	6-0, 6-1
1893	Blanche Bingley Hillyard (3)	Helen Jackson	6-0, 6-1
1894	Blanche Bingley Hillyard (4)	Charlotte Cooper	6-4, 4-6, 7-5
1895	Helen Jackson (2)	Blanche Bingley Hillyard	6-3, 3-6, 6-3
1896	Blanche Bingley Hillyard (5)	Bertha Steedman	6-4, 3-6, 7-5
1897	Alice Simpson Pickering	Blanche Bingley Hillyard	6-4, 5-7, 6-4
1898	Ruth Dyas	Blanche Bingley Hillyard	6-2, 6-4
1899	Muriel Robb	Blanche Bingley Hillyard	6-3, 6-3
1900	Muriel Robb (2)	Blanche Bingley Hillyard	7-5, 6-3
1901	Blanche Bingley Hillyard (6)	Alice Simpson Pickering	6-2, 7-5
1903	Dorothea Douglass	Ethel Thomson	6-2, 6-1
1904	Dorothea Douglass (2)	Ethel Thomson	6-2, 4-6, 6-3
1905	Connie Wilson	Dorothea Douglass	4-6, 6-1, 7-5
1906	Blanche Bingley Hillyard (7)	Connie Meyer	6-4, 6-3
1907	Maude Garfit	Connie Meyer	3-6, 6-3, 6-4
1908	Charlotte Cooper Sterry	Maude Garfit	6-2, 6-2
1909	Maude Garfit (2)	Helen Aitchison	2-6, 6-2, 6-2
1910	Maude Garfit (3)	Helen Aitchison	w.o.
1911	Ethel Thomson Larcombe	Helen Aitchison	6-3, 6-1
1912	Ethel Thomson Larcombe (2)	Hilda Lane	6-0, 6-1
1913	Ethel Thomson Larcombe (3)	Winifred Longhurst	6-2, 6-1
1915/1918	Not held (due to world war one)
1919	Elizabeth Ryan	Ethel Thomson Larcombe	3-6, 6-4, 7-5
1920	Elizabeth Ryan (2)	Ethel Tanner	6-1, 6-2
1921	Elizabeth Ryan (3)	M. Wright	6-0 6-1
1922	Kathleen McKane	Irene Bowder Peacock	divided title
1923	Blanche Duddell Colston	Phylis Radcliffe	6-0, 6-4
1924	Joan Fry	Kathleen McKane	6-4, 3-4 retd
1939/1945	Not held (due to world war two)
1950	Doreen Wedderburn	Gladys Southwell Lines	6-0, 6-8, 6-4
1951	Billie Woodgate	Gladys Southwell Lines	6-0, 6-8, 6-4
1952	Billie Woodgate (2)	Beryl Penrose	divided title
1953	Mary Harris	Rosemary Walsh	7-5, 5-7, 6-2

Statistics

Mens singles

Most titles	Grainger Chaytor	4
	Gordon Crole-Rees
Most consecutive titles	Grainger Chaytor (1890–1894)	4

Women's singles

Most titles	Blanche Bingley Hillyard	7
Most consecutive finals	Ethel Thomson Larcombe (1911–1913)	3
	Elizabeth Ryan (1919–1921)

References

Sources

• "Derbyshire Lawn Tennis Association". Derbyshire Tennis Association. LTA.
• The History of Tennis in Buxton, Buxton Tennis Club. Buxton. England http://www.buxtontennisclub.co.uk/history.
• Lake, Robert (2015). A social history of tennis in Britain. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 9781134445578.
• "Tennis New Zealand 2012: Chapter: National Championships" (PDF). Tennis Kiwi. Tennis New Zealand. Retrieved 4 October 2022. Chapter: National Championships