http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/9649638/There-is-a-black-hole-at-the-heart-of-Chelsea-and-a-persecution-complex-developing-in-their-minds.html

It would be interesting to hear Di Matteo’s view on the state of play at the moment – he’s been conspicuously quiet too about it all, I suspect for quite different reasons from Abramovich. It must feel v. frustrating for Di Matteo – from his & the team’s achievements at the end of last season, the club should have an exciting, positive energy going forward…

Along the lines of Sara Gomer & the slightly fey approach of British tennis of old , Kay Stammers was the 1930s equivalent of Heather Watson and Laura Robson: i.e., an extremely good and successful British tennis player. The British media of the time spent little time dwelling on her considerable achievements, such as being in the World’s top ten for several years however. Instead they provided insights like: “Pretty Kay Stammers…who likes lacrosse, cricket, lump sugar & planter’s punches”. At least we can be sure that we and British tennis have evolved somewhat!

Kay Stammers, 1930s British Tennis Champions. SKU 22263

GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND RYDER CUP TEAM 1927. SKU 4480

This photo was entitled from the start as ‘Great Britain & Ireland Ryder Cup Team 1927′ with full legend underneath.It should in fact have been called ‘JH Taylor’s team of Prominent Golfers 1927′, which just happened to include 5 Ryder Cup team players.

The photo was taken in October 1927 when Oxford University’s Golf Club played what must be the most eminent match in their history. The Oxford team of the time included the son of JH Taylor, the five-time Open Champion, which led Taylor senior to invite the British Ryder Cup team from earlier that year to take on the Oxford University team. In the event only four of the eight-man original Ryder Cup team accepted the invitation, so Taylor changed it into a team of ‘Prominent Golfers’ by adding himself and another five-time Open champion, James Braid. Together with Arthur Havers (1923 Open Champion) and Ted Ray (1912) from the Ryder Cup. Sandy Herd (1902) and Henry Cotton (who would go on to win three Opens) joined them too so that six of the 10-man ‘Prominent Golfers’ team were or would become Open Champions.

In each game the Oxford team was given a three-up start but the Prominent Golfers prevailed 9-6. Half of Oxford’s points came from Baugh, a Rhodes Scholar from Alabama, and Mathieson, whose father, Donald, founded ‘Golf Monthly’. They respectively beat Havers and Ray and then combined to beat Jolly and Cotton in the fourballs.

Walter Hagen, Spring Lake Golf & Country Club, 10th September 1914. SKU 5846

Walter Hagen came from a working class background, the only son of five children. He started playing golf as a caddy  and made his professional debut at 19 years old, when he came a respectable 11th at the 1912 Canadian Open. Hagen was also a very skilled basketball player & in 1914 he cancelled a tryout with the Philadelphia Phillies in order to take part in a golf tournament. Later that week he won the US Open (20-21st August at the Midlothian Country Club, Blue Island, Illinois) for the first time, aged 21, his first major golfing title. The photograph above is taken three weeks after that life-changing golf event.

Thereafter Walter Hagen won so many golf tournaments in such flamboyant and cheerful manner that he raised the then lowly status of the golf professional singlehandedly. At that time golf pros often weren’t allowed entry in golf clubhouses. When Hagen won the 1922 British Open at Royal St George’s, he hired a limousine in protest at his barred entry there. He had the car parked directly in front of the clubhouse, changed his clothes in the vehicle and ate his celebratory meal there.

He went on to win 11 professional major championships,  won 22 straight 36-hole games in the PGA  & defeated his then great rival, Bobby Jones, in a 72-hole golf tournament in 1926 to (temporarily at least) decide who was the greatest golfer of the the day.

One of the photographs in the catalogue provide us with a cracking ‘trivial pursuits’ question (for the orange ‘sports’ triangle obviously): What golf club is the only club in history to have a reigning monarch as its captain? Walton Heath. The Duke of Windsor became the club’s captain in 1935 and was crowned (albeit rather briefly) as King Edward VIII during his year of captaincy. His term as Walton Heath golf club captain lasted marginally longer than his reign. Despite its unique status, the club has never been given the Royal Charter – slightly odd, although maybe their significant association was with the wrong kind of Royal…here is a great photo of the Duke of Windsor playing at the club:

H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES PLAYING GOLF AT WALTON HEATH 1935, SKU 18072

This is what British Grand Slam tennis champions looked like seventy odd years ago:

Fred Perry on court at the Roland Garros Stadium in Paris in the 1930s: SKU 20171

1913 Hampshire Cricket team during the Bournemouth Cricket Festival

Spooky or what? The Hampshire Royals beat Yorkshire at Cardiff on 25th August 2012 to become T20 Champions again…rewind 99 years to 25th August 1913 and Hampshire was at the Bournemouth Cricket Festival , embarking on an exciting cricket match against Yorkshire…which Hampshire won. In the 1913 match, Brown managed to hit twelve 4s for Hampshire to take his score to a very useful 122 runs.

If ever, however, there were an unsung British hero in the history of Wimbledon battles, it has to be Jonathan Marray, the first British men’s Wimbledon doubles champion since 1936. Somehow he completely slipped under the feverish media radar of British tennis talent to  play sublimely with Denmark’s Frederick Nielsen & take the 2012 doubles championship from the dour favourites (and three times runners-up), Lindstedt & Tecau…so of course it makes blinding sense that Marray won’t be representing Team GB at London 2012 (NOT)! Read this Independent article and weep:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tennis/britain-has-no-place-in-olympic-games-for-jonathan-marray-the-history-man-7923517.html