Owing to the success of Australian Player, Jack Crawford many famous trophies went missing, whereabouts unknown.
Jack won the Junior Australian Championships in the mid 1920’s three times running and that forced the retirement of that trophy. He then proceeded to win the Australian Mens Championship in 1931, 1932, 1933 and 1935. The three straight wins retired the original Australasian Championship trophy originally donated by Slazenger and brought back to Australia by the 1905 Davis Cup Team for the first championship later that year.
After Jack had taken this into his possession it was replaced by the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup which will never be won outright. In his later years, Jack was not in a sound financial state and so many of his International and domestic trophies were sold. The story goes that Jack took the Australasian trophy to a Sydney based jeweler to melt down for the value of the silver sometime in the 1980’s along with some other prized trophies including the Wimbledon Renshaw Cup, numerous Davis Cups and the Australian Men’s singles trophy for 1931 to name a few. Sadly, these trophies disappeared off the radar. That was until late last year when the Albury Museum negotiated their donation from the jewelers family who were keen to honour the region in which Jack was born and developed as a junior player. So now, Australian Tennis has the full historic record of the complete span of the Men’s Singles event on the two perpetual trophies.
Amazingly, if you did a google search of the Wimbledon Gents Trophy, you would find this one to be almost a replica and was stated as such in newspaper articles explaining that Slazenger had donated such a trophy for our inaugural event.
In addition to having ones name inscribed on the Slazenger Cup, the winner would also receive two other trophies or medals.
The main cup was called the SUN CHALLENGE CUP and the secondary prize was the Anthony Wilding Memorial gold medal in the 1920’s which switched to a green lead trophy in the 1930’s (see below).
Fellow collector, Tom Paton with the 1935 Anthony Wilding memorial trophy and the Australian Junior Cup won outright by Jack in 1926, 1927,1928,1929. Special thanks to the Albury Museum who acquired quite an array of Jacks lost trophies late last year.
Apart from the sheer history and possibly the value of silver, there are many collectors who look for tennis trophies. These comprise both tournament wins and participation mementos such as those given to Davis Cup players.
This section contains a myriad of tennis “awards” such as trophy racquets and cups. While predominantly lawn tennis we have included some elements from Royal Tennis which commenced in Australia when the first court and UK tennis professional arrived in 1875 at Hobart, Tasmania.
These racquets were awarded to the first Royal Tennis club champion in 1876 & 1877. They are both in the collection held by the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum who kindly gave us permission to use these shots. You will note the elaborate work on the second racquet and this practice moved to Lawn Tennis as well.
Both of these racquets were the traditional lopsided design first used also in Lawn Tennis.
The trophy above comes from 1880 and must be one of the earliest tennis trophies in existence today. The event was conducted by the Geelong Recreation Club and titled the Lawn Tennis Challenge Cup. Players from Melbourne’s Cricket Club (MCC) traveled down to win both of the 1880 bi-annual tournaments. Francis Highett, won this trophy in October 1880 (the second winner) and again in 1881. This must have entitled him to keep the trophy for their are no other names other than his and the first winner W. Officer. Francis went onto win the second Victorian Championships a few weeks later which, in actual fact could well be considered the first Australian Tennis Tournament widely advertised event to players in all of the colonies. Thanks to the Highett family for contacting Tennis History and for taking such good care of the trophy for all these years. Note the racquets are tilt top styles of the very early game.
Above is a beautiful 3D silver plate produced in Sydney by Elkington & Co. for the 1892 Strathfield Lawn Tennis Challenge. This tournament was the preeminent grass court event in Australia and was keenly contested. The winner we presume was Dudley Webb who won the NSW Championships a few times in this era. Tennis Australia now own this plate and to see it on display will be a treat.
Prior to the Australasian Championships which commenced in 1905, the Colonial State Championships linked to Intercolonial events were the preeminent tournaments. This particular trophy was won by Alf Dunlop and Stanley Diddams three times in a row from1895-1897 permitting them to retain, or retire the trophy into their possession. In total, Alf won the Doubles 5 times with Diddams and twice with Norman Brookes and Rodney Heath. He won the singles twice also. In relation to major events, Alf went on to play Davis Cup in 1905 as Australasian captain, 1911 and 1912. He won the Australasian Doubles in 1908 with USA Davis Cup foe F.B. Alexander. Other notable names on this trophy are Ben Green who was one of the Victoria’s great singles /doubles players of this era. See Intercolonial tennis for more stories.
Over in the USA in 1903, 1904, 1905 Australian Edward Bury Dewhurst was studying to become a dentist, but also played tennis for the University of Pennsylvania. He won many prestigious events and this is one his trophies from 1904.
This medal is from Wimbledon 1919. How many of you of heard of these great Australian players? Not many, but the story is as good as any which could be told by Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde.
You can read more about Randolph Lycett under his own profile article. Rodney Heath won the very first Australian Championships in 1905.
In 1905 the UK Slazenger company donated the “Slazenger Cup” to become the major trophy for the inaugural Australian Open to be held in 1905. According to the 1933 Australian Championship programme, the winner of the men’s singles was to receive ” The Anthony Wilding Memorial medal and a replica of the “The Sun Challenge cup”. The winner of this event will have the right to hold for one year the Cup presented by the “The Sun” Newspaper Co., which shall become the property of any player winning it three times in succession , or five times in all.”
In actual fact “The Sun”challenge cup was the donated original Slazenger trophy. This is confirmed in the 1928 Australian Championship programme ” The winner’s name will be engraved on the Cup, which was presented to the Lawn Tennis Association of Australasia as a Perpetual Trophy by Messrs. Slazenger Ltd., in 1905″
The Slazenger Cup was designed along very similar lines to that of the Men’s trophy from Wimbledon which is perhaps a tad strange.
Jack Crawford’s win the Australian singles title in 1933 was the third straight win, so the trophy was awarded to him. Only in 2013, 8o years after being awarded to Jack, this trophy amazingly has been rediscovered having gone missing 30 years ago when Jack sold it off owing to a lack of funds . The pictures below show the individual trophy won in 1931. “The Sun Challenge Cup”. With the main Slazenger trophy now in Jack’s private care, the tennis association introduced the “Norman Brookes” challenge cup without the opportunity of winning it outright, hence this trophy remains today.
The Sun Challenge Cup awarded to individual Men’s championship singles winners appears distorted but is in fact the correct shape.
This was warded to Jack Crawford in 1931
After forming the Australasian Lawn Tennis Association in order to qualify a team into the Davis Cup in 1904, the first National Championships were played in 1905. Donated by manufacturer F H Ayres, the cup could only be awarded to a doubles players private trophy cabinet if won three times in a row or five times in all. John Bromwich & Adrian Quist won three times straight in 1938, 1939, 1940, although Adrian had won it in 1936 and 1937 with Don Turnbull. John and Adrian went onto win 1946-1950 as well in an unbroken, except by WWII, record of 8 straight wins. Photo permission courtesy of Kooyong LTC, Kooyong Foundation and the Bromwich family.
Davis Cup trophies are equally precious. The small silver cups are given to players who played in the Challenge round of the Davis Cup. Silver to the runners up and gold to the winners. c late 1940’s three cups, three years of being runners up mainly to the USA.
While the above are in the upper echelon of collecting, from the very early days of tennis success in competitions was rewarded with medals and various other trinkets.
These medals were usually given to club champions and they make for an interesting link back to the early days. Who knows, with luck, you might find a recognised player inscribed on the medal or even a medal affixed to a racquet in recognition that the owner was the champion.
