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Abstract
This article is about ‘Wimbledon’, widely celebrated – not least in its own publicity material – as the world’s premier tennis tournament. It examines ‘Wimbledon’ essentially as a text (hence the inverted commas), viewed politically and historically. In this context, ‘Wimbledon’ is seen as a signifier of a certain kind of Englishness, carefully adapted to meet changing social and economic circumstance. Loose parallels are drawn between the cultural trajectory of ‘Wimbledon’ and that of the British royal family. The transmutations of ‘Wimbledon’ as a tennis championship are also seen as reflecting Britain’s decline as a world power during the twentieth century.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. The word ‘myth’ is used here in the sense popularized by Roland Barthes – i.e. as ‘depoliticised speech’ (see Barthes Citation1976). Tennis discourse invariably now renders Wimbledon as representing ‘tradition’ – a designation that usually passes without further comment.
2. The US Open was established in 1881 and Australian in 1905. The French Open, although, inaugurated in 1891, was not recognized as a ‘Grand Slam’ until 1925.
3. http://www.geni.com/people/William-Charles-Renshaw/6000000017044957522 Access 26 March 2015.
4. Although leading writers on the subject have identified the period 1880–1920 – in effect, the first four decades of Wimbledon – as key in the transformation of Englishness, they have made little mention of sport – see Colls and Dodd (Citation1986) and Colls (Citation2002). Simon Featherstone is one of comparatively few writers in this field who relate sport to Englishness. He uses the Body Line cricket tour of 1932–3 and the anti-intellectual tendencies in English football as case studies – see Featherstone Citation2009, 122–39.
5. http://www.tennistheme.com/wimbledontennishistory.html Access 27 March 2015.
6. See W.H. Frederick ‘Brookes, Sir Norman Everard (1877–1968)’ Australian Dictionary of Biography http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/brookes-sir-norman-everard-5373 Access 28 March 2015.
7. See Asher Simons ‘Sporting Heroes: Anthony Wilding – Wimbledon champ died on Western Front’ The Independent 24 January 2014 http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tennis/sporting-heroes-anthony-wilding--wimbledon-champ-died-on-western-front-9084382.html Access 28 March 2015.
8. See Virginia O’Farrell ‘Patterson, Gerald Leighton (1895–1967)’ Australian Dictionary of Biography http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/patterson-gerald-leighton-7982 Access 28 March 2015.
9. See Kerry Regan ‘Crawford, John Herbert (Jack) (1908–1991)’ Australian Dictionary of Biography http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/crawford-john-herbert-jack-17495 Access 28 March 2015.
10. The book can now be read in full on the internet at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10961/10961-h/10961-h.htm Access 29 March 2015.
11. From the CNN website: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/06/sport/tennis/suzanne-lenglen-french-open-tennis/ Access 29 March 2015.
12. http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/06/sport/tennis/suzanne-lenglenfrench-open-tennis/ Access 29 March 2015 See also Engelmann Citation1988.
13. On its own website: http://www.countrylife.co.uk/publication/country-life Access 29 March 2015.
14. Play was televised for the first time in 1937, when matches were transmitted by the BBC from Centre Court for up to half an hour each day of the championship.
15. From Oliver Goldsmith’s poem of 1770, ‘The Deserted Village’.
16. http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/visitor_a_to_z/201205141337004580049.html Access 31 March 2015.
17. https://www.tennisforfree.com/ Access 31 March 2015.