King's Cup Tennis - can anyone help?

Lady M · Newbie

RE: King's Cup Tennis - can anyone help?

Lady M · Newbie

I am sure Michael Cole(photographer and son of Arthur) or his sister Suzi, who were Tennis World will have all the original magazines archived somewhere.

One other quick thing, in 1977? when your mum was playing she got friendly with my pal Barbara Wales. That year she played the girls doubles at Wimbledon in the days when the players had to rely on "food vouchers" Barbara and I helped her with sandwiches etc and have always thought in so doing we ,all be it, indirectly helped a future star

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

Mentioning the Dewar Cup, the Palace Hotel in Torquay was also a venue. Arthur Roberts was the coach there and discovered the talents of Mike Sangster, Sue Barker and Angela Mortimer. The hotel closed in 2017 and future development plans have been hit by financial problems.

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

I can remember going to London(Royal Albert Hall)I in the autumn of 1976 for the indoor event which had been part of the Dewar Cup. There was certainly a male and female competition. I can remember watching Glynis Coles playing Rosie Casals and Jaime Fillol playing but I cannot remember his opponent. I also have a copy of all the World of Tennis Annuals 1969 to 2001 and a copy of all the ITF Tennis Yearbooks which covered the years 2001 to 2016. But I do not keep many copies of magazines.

steven · Tennis legend

The Times archive (the bit that's available to us, at least!) only goes up to 1985 but it seems to have plenty of articles about the King's Cup - just search Kings Cup tennis at https://www.thetimes.com/archive and then narrow down the date range as necessary.

For example, https://www.thetimes.com/tto/archive/article/1969-12-05/15/8.html#start%3D1784-12-31%26end%3D1985-01-01%26terms%3Dkings%20cup%20tennis%26back%3D/tto/archive/find/kings+cup+tennis/w:1784-12-31%7E1985-01-01/1%26prev%3D/tto/archive/frame/goto/kings+cup+tennis/w:1784-12-31%7E1985-01-01/1%26next%3D/tto/archive/frame/goto/kings+cup+tennis/w:1784-12-31%7E1985-01-01/3 introduces the 1969 semi-final, when GB played the Czechs on cork linoleum in the Rot-Weiss stadium in Cologne.

It includes a paragraph about the history of the event, which corroborates some of the things people have said in this thread:

"This is the twenty-first King's Cup competition. It was inaugurated in 1936, on the initiative of the King of Sweden, in indoor equivalent of the Davis Cup. Britain did not enter until 1962. They have since been beaten only by Yugoslavia (1962), Sweden (1963) and Denmark (1968). Co has won 15 of his 18 King's Cup singles. Stilwell, in his first season as a British international, has won three out of four."

Anyway, if you're looking for more details of individual ties, locations, etc between 1962-85 and are prepared to do a bit of digging, the Times archive can be an absolute gold mine. Be prepared for some shocking 'of its time' sexism, etc, in tennis reports from a long time ago ... and to find out that British tennis reporters were just as scathing about British players and the LTA decades ago as they are now, if not worse!

steven · Tennis legend

GAMEOVER wrote:
I can remember going to London(Royal Albert Hall)I in the autumn of 1976 for the indoor event which had been part of the Dewar Cup. There was certainly a male and female competition. I can remember watching Glynis Coles playing Rosie Casals and Jaime Fillol playing but I cannot remember his opponent. I also have a copy of all the World of Tennis Annuals 1969 to 2001 and a copy of all the ITF Tennis Yearbooks which covered the years 2001 to 2016. But I do not keep many copies of magazines.

Here's the 5 November report on play on 4 November. Fillol did indeed play there and beat Arthur Ashe in the QFs but that must have been on a different day, because the only women's singles match reported on was Susan Barker v Betsy Nagelsen, which included an "Alice-in-Blunderland set in which eight of the nine games went against the server" biggrin https://www.thetimes.com/tto/archive/article/1976-11-05/10/11.html#start%3D1976-10-01%26end%3D1976-12-31%26terms%3Ddewar%20cup%20fillol%26back%3D/tto/archive/find/dewar+cup+fillol/w:1976-10-01%7E1976-12-31/1

I also enjoyed: "The umpire today should have said : 'Cox, stop your b*tching, or you're out.' "

Ah, here we go - Fillol played one of the best players ever to come out of Wales, Gerald Battrick - the previous day's report says that Rosie Casals beat Glynis Coles 6-1 6-7 6-0 the same day as Fillol ("undeterred by a blow on the nose" - photo caption) beat Battrick 6-1 6-3. It was also the same day as Virginia Wade thrashed Betty Stove 6-0 6-1, which would have been just over half a year before they met in the Wimbledon final. https://www.thetimes.com/tto/archive/article/1976-11-04/12/9.html#start%3D1976-10-29%26end%3D1976-11-12%26terms%3Dfillol%26back%3D/tto/archive/find/fillol/w:1976-10-29%7E1976-11-12/1%26next%3D/tto/archive/frame/goto/fillol/w:1976-10-29%7E1976-11-12/2

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Thanks Steven and others. I asked the question at the start of this thread 6 years ago so amazing its been resurrected! Sadly the times articles dont appear to be in the archive but behind the paywall, so I cant access them, its asking for my Times log in details.

Not sure if it is possible to try and repost?

The Kings Cup and Dewar Cup were fascinating events - I was too young to go in person at the time they took place; what struck me was the sheer volume of tennis played at the time by players; they would play more than 100 matches a season without blinking at a time when travel wasnt as easy as now, in terms of logistics and options, and prize money wasnt as generous as it is now.

The idea of a British indoor circuit with top players going around from one regional venue to the other over a number of weeks is fascinating to think about; and a team event played over the winter months on largely fast indoor venues.

Miss those days!

steven · Tennis legend

Oh sorry, I do have a Times subscription but I thought the pre-1985 archive wasn't part of that, obviously it (now) is.

I know what you mean about how often players used to play, but that's probably because even if the logistics were harder, the matches generally weren't - nowhere near as much physicality and matches with similar scorelines lasted little more than half the time they do now.