Queen's Club

Last updated

Queen's Club
Formation1886;138 years ago (1886)
TypePrivate members' club
PurposeSport
Location
Coordinates 51°29′15″N0°12′42″W / 51.48750°N 0.21167°W / 51.48750; -0.21167
Chief executive
Ross Niland (as of 2019) [1]
Website www.queensclub.co.uk
Three grass courts in front of the pavilion at the Queen's Club Queen's Club London.jpg
Three grass courts in front of the pavilion at the Queen's Club
Entrance to Queen's Club during preparations for the 2005 Queen's Club Championships Queens Club.jpg
Entrance to Queen's Club during preparations for the 2005 Queen's Club Championships
Goran Ivanisevic and Mario Ancic playing doubles during the 2004 Queen's Club Championships Ivanisevic Ancic Queens Club 2004.jpg
Goran Ivanišević and Mario Ančić playing doubles during the 2004 Queen's Club Championships

The Queen's Club is a private sporting club in Barons Court, West Kensington, London, England. The club hosts the annual Queen's Club Championships men's grass court lawn tennis tournament (currently known as the "cinch Championships" for sponsorship reasons). It has 28 outdoor courts and ten indoor. With two courts, it is also the national headquarters of real tennis, hosting the British Open every year excepting 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Queen's Club also has rackets and squash courts; it became the headquarters for both sports after the closure of the Prince's Club in 1940.

Contents

History

Founded as The Queen's Club Limited on 19 August 1886 by Evan Charteris, George Francis and Algernon Grosvener, the Queen's Club was the world's second multipurpose sports complex, after the Prince's Club, and became the world's only multipurpose sports complex when the Prince's Club relocated to Knightsbridge and lost its outdoor sports facilities. [2] The club is named after Queen Victoria, its first patron. The first lawn tennis courts were opened on 19 May 1887, and the first sporting event was held on 1 and 2 July 1887 when Oxford played Cambridge. The club buildings were opened in January 1888, having taken about 18 months to construct. William Marshall, finalist of the inaugural 1877 Wimbledon Championships was the architect. [3] Among the initial sports offered at the club were real tennis, Eton Fives, rackets, lawn tennis (grass courts and covered courts), football, rugby and athletics. Cricket was also played, but not as an organised sport. The University Sports meeting between Cambridge and Oxford was held at the Queen's Club from 1888 to 1928. [4]

Queen's Club was the venue of the covered courts (indoor) tennis, jeu de paume (real tennis) and rackets events of the 1908 Summer Olympics. [5] On 7 March 1914 George V attended the Navy v Army rugby match. The army won by four goals and two tries to the navy's three tries. [6]

Until 1922, the club was the main ground for the football games of Corinthian F.C. One international was held, between England and Wales on 18 March 1895, the result being a 1–1 draw.

Sale of Queen's Club

On 13 September 2005, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), the governing body of British lawn tennis, which had owned Queen's since 1953, put the club up for sale. The terms required that the rackets club and the Queen's Club Championships remain unaffected (the site's value for residential or commercial redevelopment might greatly exceed its value as a sports club, in the event that planning permission could be obtained, and the LTA wished to preserve the club's role in British tennis).

On 8 March 2006, the LTA announced that it would sell to club members for £45 million, ending seven months of uncertainty about the club's future. [7] However some members disputed the LTA's right to sell the club, which they contested it merely held in trust on their behalf, and began to raise funds to dispute the sale in court. [8] In December 2006, the two sides reached an out-of-court settlement in which the sale price was reduced to £35 million. [9] [10]

In February 2007, the LTA relocated its headquarters from Queen's Club to the new National Tennis Centre in Roehampton. The Cinch Championships remains one of the six most popular grass competitions on the men's ATP tour, along with the Halle Open in Germany, the Aegon International in Eastbourne, the Hall of Fame Open in Rhode Island, the Rosmalen Championships in the Netherlands, and Wimbledon.

The ball girls are selected from year 8, 9, and 10 pupils at St Philomena's Catholic High School for Girls in South London and Nonsuch High School for Girls in Surrey.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wimbledon Championships</span> Tennis tournament held in London

The Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is regarded by many as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is played on outdoor grass courts, with retractable roofs over the two main courts since 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Real tennis</span> Racquet sport played in a walled court.

Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of tennis is derived. It is also known as court tennis in the United States, royal tennis in England and Australia, and courte-paume in France. Many French real tennis courts are at jeu de paume clubs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeu de paume at the 1908 Summer Olympics</span> Jeu de paume at the Olympics

Jeu de paume was an event contested at the 1908 Summer Olympics, the only time the Summer Olympic Games featured the sport as a medal event.

Six tennis events were contested at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. Indoor tennis events, on what were officially called 'covered courts', were held for the first time, along with the usual outdoor events. Women's events were contested, with women's singles and indoor women's singles. The indoor events were held at the covered courts of the Queen's Club and began on 6 May 1908, ahead of the official start of the Games while the outdoor tournament was played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club at Worple Road from 6 July through 11 July 1908. In total 50 players, 40 men and 10 women, competed. Five nations made their tennis debuts, while five more returned to competition for a total of ten nations. Two players, Les Poidevin and Wimbledon champion Anthony Wilding were nominated for Australasia but through administrative bungling they were not entered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queen's Club Championships</span> London tennis tournament

The Queen's Club Championships is an annual tournament for men's tennis, held on grass courts at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London. The event is part of the ATP Tour 500 series on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour. It is currently advertised as the "cinch Championships" after its title sponsor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawn Tennis Association</span> Tennis governing body in Great Britain

The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the national governing body of tennis in Great Britain, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club</span> Private members club in Wimbledon, England

The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC), also known as the All England Club, based at Church Road, Wimbledon, London, England, is a private members' club. It is best known as the venue for the Wimbledon Championships, the only Grand Slam tennis event still held on grass. Initially an amateur event that occupied club members and their friends for a few days each summer, the championships have become far more prominent than the club itself. However, it still operates as a members' tennis club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holcombe Ward</span> American tennis player

Holcombe Ward was an American tennis player who was active during the last years of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th. He won the U.S. National Championships singles title in 1904 and additionally won six doubles titles at the Grand Slam event.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Gore (tennis)</span> British tennis player

Arthur William Charles Wentworth Gore was a British tennis player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Tennis Centre (United Kingdom)</span>

The United Kingdom's National Tennis Centre at Roehampton in south-west London is the high-performance training facility of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA). It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 29 March 2007. The Chief Executive of the centre is Roger Draper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prince's Club</span>

The Prince's Club was a socially exclusive gentlemen's multisports club in London, England. The original 'Prince's Club' was founded in 1853 in Chelsea by George and James Prince and its main sports were rackets and real tennis. Cricket, croquet and lawn tennis were also played. After most of its ground was lost to building developments it closed in 1887. Its successor, the 'New Prince's Club', located in Knightsbridge, opened in 1888 and kept its focus on rackets and real tennis, but no longer had any outdoor sports. In 1896 the Prince's Skating Club was opened. The Prince's Club was in operation until the 1940s.

The Eastbourne International is a tennis tournament on the WTA Tour and the ATP Tour held at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club, Eastbourne, United Kingdom. Held since 1974, it is classified as a WTA 500 series on the WTA Tour and an ATP Tour 250 series on the ATP Tour. The tournament is played on outdoor grass courts, and is generally considered a "warm-up" for the Wimbledon Championships, a major tournament, which begins the following week. It was originally just part of the WTA Tour, but from 2009 it was combined as an ATP Tour event. It replaced the Nottingham Open grass court tournament from 2009–2014. Nottingham returned for 2015–2016 with no men's event in Eastbourne, however Eastbourne replaced the Nottingham event again from 2017 onwards. As of 2022, it is sponsored by Rothesay, with past sponsors including Viking Cruises, Nature Valley and AEGON.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of tennis</span>

The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today as a separate sport with more complex rules. The first Lawn Tennis Club and tournament was held in Royal Leamington Spa on 1 August 1882.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1877 Wimbledon Championship</span> First staging of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships

The 1877 Wimbledon Championship was a men's tennis tournament held at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, London. It was the world's first official lawn tennis tournament, and was later recognised as the first Grand Slam tournament or "Major". The AEC & LTC had been founded in July 1868, as the All England Croquet Club. Lawn tennis was introduced in February 1875 to compensate for the waning interest in croquet. In June 1877 the club decided to organise a tennis tournament to pay for the repair of its pony roller, needed to maintain the lawns. A set of rules was drawn up for the tournament, derived from the first standardised rules of tennis issued by the Marylebone Cricket Club in May 1875.

The Manchester Open previously known as the Northern Lawn Tennis Championships, the Northern Championships, the Northern Tennis Tournament and the Manchester Trophy was a grass court tennis tournament on the ATP Tour held at the Northern Lawn Tennis Club, in the Didsbury suburb of Manchester, Great Britain. The tournament had been held annually from 1880 to 2009.

John Edward Barrett, is a former tennis player, television commentator and author. He was born in Mill Hill, North West London, the son of Alfred Edward Barrett, a leaf tobacco merchant, and Margaret Helen Barrett. He had one sister, Irene Margaret Leppington (1925–2009), a research chemist. His father had the rare distinction of having played both for Leicester Tigers RFC as a wing three-quarter and for Leicester Fosse FC as a wing half.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club</span> Tennis complex in Eastbourne, United Kingdom

The Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club is a tennis complex in Eastbourne, United Kingdom. The complex is the host of the annual ATP and WTA Tour tournament called the Eastbourne International. The stadium court has a capacity of 8,000 people. The Devonshire Park, originally intended as a cricket ground, opened its gates to the public on 1 July 1874 and in 1879, the first tennis courts was marked out on its lawns. In 1877 the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club set about regularising the laws of lawn tennis and produced its first tournament at Wimbledon running from July 9–16 of that year. In 1881 the club staged the inaugural South of England Championships, the event was played annually for 136 years until 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peggy Michell</span> British tennis player

Margaret “Peggy” Amy Michell was a British female tennis player active in the 1920s. She is also known under her married name, Peggy Saunders-Michell.

The 2016 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam tennis tournament which took place at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The main draw commenced on 27 June 2016 and concluded on 10 July 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryan Peniston</span> British tennis player (born 1995)

Ryan Peniston is a British tennis player from Essex. He has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 123, achieved in July 2022, and a doubles ranking of world No. 384 achieved in June 2022.

References

  1. Watterson, Johnny (13 May 2020). "Meet the Irishman in charge at one of sport's most exclusive clubs". The Irish Times . Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  2. McKelvie, Roy (1986). The Queen's Club Story, 1886-1986. London: Stanley Paul. p. 13. ISBN   0091660602.
  3. McKelvie, p. 14
  4. McKelvie, p. 15
  5. 1908 Summer Olympics official report. pp. 220 (covered courts tennis), 233 (rackets) & 314 (jeu de paume).
  6. West London Observer 13 March 1914
  7. Bloomberg. "London's Queen's Club Sold to Members for 45 Million Pounds". Archived from the original on 7 May 2006. Retrieved 25 April 2006.
  8. Mark Hodgkinson (9 June 2005). "LTA legal threat from Queen's Club rebels". The Telegraph. London.
  9. "LTA sells Queen's Club for £35m". BBC. 14 December 2006.
  10. "LTA end Queen's Club dispute". The Telegraph. London. 14 December 2006.
Preceded by
First Edition
Fed Cup
Final Venue

1963
Succeeded by