The other British Davis Cup winners

With their first win in 79 years at the weekend Great Britain won their 10th Davis Cup in the 115 year history of the tournament but who were the other nine teams who lifted the cup.

When the tournament started in 1900 it was a match between the USA and Great Britain. It also initially wasn't annual with the USA winning in both 1900 and 1902. But from 1903-1906 Great Britain recorded their first four wins on the bounce.

The Doherty Brothers

Those first winners in 1903 had a lot in common with the team of 2015. It was comprised of the brother Reginald and Laurence Doherty. Both were Wimbledon Singles Champions and claimed the cup in Boston, Massachusetts. . But Reginald gifted the Americans the first game as a walk over. But the two managed to win all four of the remaining matches to bring the cup to Britain for the first time.

The following year the tournament took place outside the USA for the first time on the turf at Wimbledon. It also saw more countries taking part with France and Belgium playing off for the right to challenge the champions.

Frank Risely

Just like in 2015 it was Belgium that would face the British in the final. Reginald no longer took part in the singles his place taken by Frank Riseley who had been beaten by Laurence Doherty in the previous two Wimbledon finals. He secured the first rubber for the lose of just 4 game, Laurence took the second for the lose of just 6. It was then the Doherty brothers who sealed the defence with a 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 win in the doubles.

1905 saw the tournament return to the All England Club in Wimbledon. With the addition of teams from Australasia and Austria plus the return of the USA to the tournament. The other five nations played a challenger series for the to take on Great Britain in the final and it was the USA who for the first time earned the right to play the British for the title.

Frank Riseley was not present this time his place was by his partner in the doubles that would take on the Doherty brothers in every Wimbledon doubles final from 1902-1096, Sidney Smith. Smith himself had lost to Reginald Doherty in the 1900 Wimbledon singles.

Sidney Smith

This time it wasn't so much of a walkover the first match saw the reigning Wimbledon Champion (1905) Laurence Doherty take on the reigning US Champion (1904) Holcombe Ward. Ward took a two set lead 9-7, 6-4 before losing the final three 6-2, 6-1, 6-0. Smith then stepped up for his debut and took the better end of four tough sets against William Larned 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

It was the Doherty brothers next who took five sets to overcome Ward and Beals Wright 8-10, 6-2, 6-2, 4-6, 8-6. With the remaining two rubbers being dead it didn't stop Larned taking Laurence Doherty to his third five set rubber of the match before losing to the Brit. Larned didn't play the final rubber and Smith took an easy win over Goerge Clothier.

The following year saw an unchanged Great Britain team take on a USA team of Ward and Raymond Little who had made the trip to also take on the best at Wimbledon. The two American's lot all five of the rubbers taking only the first set in the doubles off the Doherty brothers and Little taking the first and third off Laurence in the final rubber before succumbing in five sets.

It was to the be the last of that era of played although when Great Britain next won some of the players then had been the young stars trying to make an impact against the Doherty brothers, Riseley and Smith.

Charles Percy Dixon

One of them was Arthur Gore who only played in the challenger round in Folkestone and didn't make the trip to Australia for the final. Another was Herbert Roper-Barrett who had partnered Gore to the gold in the doubles at the 1908 Olympics and well as the following year's Wimbledon title, but by 1912 was the partner of the only British player to play in both the challenger and final series Charles Dixon.

Dixon made the trip to Australia he was to win the men's doubles at the Australian Open as part of that trip in what was an all British final. He also reached the quarter finals of the men's championship. His partner in that final was James Parke, who had won the men's singles as well, he teamed up for one of the beaten pair in that doubles final, Alfred Beamish, as well as playing the other single's matches in the final against the Australians. Beamish had actually knocked Dixon out of the Australian championship.

James Parke

Parke took the first match in the final beating the 1911 Australian men's champion Norman Brookes in four sets. Dixon then took the second rubber with a win over the 1905 and 1910 Australian men's champion Rodney Heath also in four sets.

Parke and Beamish lost out in the doubles and Dixon experienced his only lose in 5 matches in the 1912 International Challenge to Brookes in the reverse singles. It all came down to the final rubber and a battle between the new Australian champion Parke of the British Isles and the previous year's champion Heath of Australia. In the end it was the easiest of the three British wins with the Irishman taking that final rubber 6-2 6-4 6-4. After a five year gap the Davis Cup was returning to Great Britian, little did the players then realise it would be another 21 years before Britain won it again.

The second phase of British dominance in the Davis Cup came in the 1930s. As has been mentioned many times during the recent run of the GB team it was a team with one of the best played in the world as its talisman.

Fred Perry

Fred Perry was that talismanic figure in the British team of the 30. He played in 20 matches and his record was 34 wins from the 38 matches singles and 11 out of 14 doubles that he played in those matches. Andy Murray's current record is 27 wins from 29 singles and 7 out of 12 doubles  matches is comparible.

But unlike Murray who was so far head and shoulders above any other singles player for his nation at the time throughout this period of British dominance Perry had an able spur in Bunny Austin who himself had been world number 2 in 1931 and reached at least the quarter finals in all four of the grand slam tournaments.

Bunny Austin

Between them Perry and Austin were two of the strongest singles players in the world at the time and were more than a match for any of the teams then met along the way. In 1933 they had to come through the Europe zone with wins over Spain, Finland, Italy, Czechoslovakia and Australia between 21 April and 15 July for the right to face the USA in the Inter-Zonal.

The Interzonal match was at Roland Garron on clay and came one week after the Europe zone final on the grass at Wimbledon and a week before the final also in Paris.

The Australian's had Jack Crawford who in 1933 won three of the four legs of the Grand Slam, only missing out in the final of the US championship. He beat both Perry and Austin in the Zone final, but the Brits won both their reverse singles against Vivian McGrath. Perry had paired up Patrick Hughes with whom he's won the French championship pairs that year to secure the vital other point.

Pat Hughes with Fred Perry

For the Inter-Zonal the USA has the 1932 Wimbledon and US Singles champion Ellsworth Vines and Wilmer Allison in the singles. The Brits started with Austin beating Vines and Perry beating Allison both in straight sets. The doubles team were the 1931 French and Wimbledon doubles champion pair of George Lott and John Van Ryn, the latter teaming up with Allison to take the US title as well that year. This pair took a straight set win over Perry and Hughes.

Austin took on Allison in the first of the reverse singles and won it four sets. Perry v Vines was the battle of champions and though it may have been a dead rubber was hard fought. The score was 1-6 6-0 4-6 7-5 7-6 to Perry when Vines had to retired injured.

The final against France feature three of the famous Four Musketeers, the only one missing being the other player from the two nations with a later name in sportswear René Lacoste.
Jean Borotra and Jacques Brugnon teamed up for the pairs and Henri Cochet took part in the singles along with André Merlin.

Merlin lost the first rubber to Austin in straight sets before a five set classic between Cochet and Perry which saw the Englishman triumph 8-10 6-4 8-6 3-6 6-1. Patick Hughes had been joined by Harry Lee in the doubles but the French duo won in straight sets. Cochet won the first of the reverse singles but only by taking the fourth and fifth sets 6-4. It teed up Perry the chance to regain the cup after 21 years and though he lost the first set 6-4 he won the next three 8-6 6-2 7-5.

The following year GB only had to take part in the Challenge round at Wimbledon, the same four players would take to the court. Again the British won both singles on the first day but lost the double. Perry was first up against Frank Sheilds who in 1931 at Wimbledon became the only Grand Slam finalist in history to default without hitting a ball due to injury. That match would have been against his Davis Cup team mate Sidney Wood. The fourth set went to 28 games but was enough to earn Perry a three sets to one win and Bunny Austin also won the dead rubber.

In 1935 there was one change in the GB team with Raymond Tuckey partnering Hughes in the pairs. The opponents were the same nation but Don Budge had taken Shields place in the singles and Wilmer Allison was now partnering John Van Ryn in the pairs. But the British whitewashed the Americans on the grass of Wimbledon.

Which brings us to 1936 and the last of those previous triumphs, it was to be an unchanged side from the year before up against the Australians Jack Crawford and Adrian Quist. Once more on day one the Brits took both rubbers, and once again lost the doubles.

On the final day Austin faced Quist first but lost in four sets so it was Crowford v Perry just as in the zone final that led to the start of the run. This time however it was Perry who had earlier in the month won his third Wimbledon title on the same court who came away victorious in a straight set win to give GB a 3-2 win.

Fourteen events to look forward to in 2014

A new year of sport will soon be upon us so here are some of the highlights from my sporting year ahead. As you know I look beyond the major sports on this blog, though I do of course have to include one of them in this list, it will dominate our newspapers and screens for a month later this year though as you can see there are other sports that will be happening at the same time.

1. Superbowl XLVIII 2 February: To be held in MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex. It means that the AFC and NFC Champions will be looking at the weather reports as much as scouting reports of their opponents in the days before the Game. This is the first time that the Superbowl will be held outdoors in a cold weather location. Meaning this would well be a game that looks different from previous Big Games to the once a year viewer, but could bring all the drama that snow and the cold brings to Football aficionados 
2. Sochi Winter Olympics 7-23 February, Paralympics 7-16 March: I know there has been controversy over the human rights record of Russia and indeed the environmental concerns over the building of infrastructure to create a winter sports centre on the coast of the Black Sea. But for the last four years the world's winter athletes have been looking forward to taking centre stage once again. Women's ski jumping, a figure skating team event, mixed relay biathlon, luge relay, ski half pipe, ski & snowboard slopestyle and parallel snowboard special slalom are all making their debut in the Olympics. Coverage of the Olympics will be on BBC and the Paralympics on Channel 4.
3. Women's Tour of Flanders 6 April, La Flèche Wallonne Féminine 23 April: With the absence of any female Grand Tours on the UCI's road race calendar for women these two springs classics run at the same venue and same weekend as the men's equivalent are the biggest contests on the women's itinerary for women. Brian Cookson who took over the UCI Presidency in 2013 has said he wants to raise the profile of Women's Cycling so it will be interesting to see what gets added to the list for 2015.
4. World Curling Championships Women 15-23 April Saint John, Canada, Men 29 April - 6 May Beijing, China: The major event here is that for the first time in history the World Curling Championships are being held outside of North America or Europe the traditional homes of the sport, the first time they will be hosted by the Pacific-Asia zone. The men's championships are taking place in China at the Capital Indoor Stadium which hosted the volleyball at the 2008 Olympics. China have only be a member of the World Curling Federation since 2002.
5. Giro d'Italia 9 May - 1 June: For the first time the Giro is leaving mainland Europe for its start. The fact that this is happening in Belfast and the first three stages start in Northern Ireland mean that I am really looking forward to watching the worlds top cyclists come to places I know well. Mark Cavendish won all the bunch sprints last year and I'm wondering if he will secure a win in Belfast and Dublin at the start of this year's race. 
6. French Open Tennis 26 May - 8 June: But for one day on 31 May 2009 when he later admitted he was suffering from tendinitis in both his knees this year could have seen an unprecedented achievement of a 10th straight win at Roland Garros for Rafael Nadal. As it is he starts 2014 as the World Number one and that day in 2009 is the only one he has even lost on the clay here. As a result that year it allowed Roger Federer to complete a career slam. But will anyone ever be able to beat a fully fit Rafa here? Novak Djokovic needs this one to complete his career slam. This is the one that Andy Murray will always find it hardest to win, indeed from 13-26 January he will maybe on his return from injury have won the third of that set. However, I think that both of them will have to wait another year to try and wrest this from Rafa he is going for 5 in a row to surpass the open era record of four he currently holds jointly with Bjorn Borg.
7. FIFA World Cup 12 June - 13 July: Brazil is hosting Football's biggest event for the second time, previously it hosted in 1950. The hosts would no doubt like to win their 6th title on home soil, but there is at the time of writing still concern about some of the stadium being completed in time. But before anyone gets their hopes up too high, I don't think England are going to end 48 years of hurt this time, in fact they are in such a tough group they may not even get out of it.
8. Wimbledon 23 June - 6 July: Ok so last year Andy Murray ended the 77 years of waiting for a British man to lift the men's singles trophy. Hopefully he has recovered from his back surgery, he seems to be doing ok in his come back games this week, but the last time a British man retained the title was also that 1936 win of Fred Perry, of the last time any Brit retained a title was in 1984 when John Lloyd retained his mixed singles title with Wendy Turnbill (Aus). We also saw the Laura Robson make it to the 4th Round of the Ladies Single last year, her and Heather Watson are looking to become the first women since Virginia Wade in 1977 to win here at home and Dan Evans made the 3rd Round of the US Open last year and may well start to take some of the attention off Andy as the sole flag bearing in the men's draw.
9. Tour de France 5-27 July: Yorkshire host's this year's Grand Depart so two of cycling's Grand Tours are starting in the UK this year. The last two years have seen a British winner on a British team, when Dave Brailsford announced Team Sky ProCycling in 2009 he said that within five seasons of competing he would expect to see a British winner of the tour. This is the fifth season that Sky have taken part in Le Tour, what are the odds of them making it a hat trick as Chris Froome eyes up a repeat.
10. Commonwealth Games 23 July - 3 August: Glasgow will host the 20th Commonwealth Games, 17 sports will be contested across the city some in purpose built stadia like the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, others updated like the Tollcross International Swinming Centre. One has even seen Commonwealth Games action twice before, the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh will host Tom Daley, Matthew Mitcham and the other divers. It is possible that some of the Tour de France cyclists will be looking to do what Sir Bradley Wiggins did in 2012 and add gold to a good performance in the Road Race on 3 August or time trial on 31st July. One to watch could be Mark Cavendish who won his GB national jersey on the streets of Glasgow in 2013.
11. FEI World Equestrian Games 23 August - 7 September: Another sport on its four year world cycle is equestrian sport coming this time from Normandy, France. Combining para dressage plus some none Olympic sport it is the first qualifying tournament for Rio 2016. Britain currently has the top two show jumpers in world rankings, the top dressage pairing of Charlotte Dujardin on Valegro, as well as multiple Paralympic dressage champions and our Eventing team is always there of thereabouts plus a variety of individual capable on their day.
12.  FIBA Basketball World Cup 30 August - 14 September: The other World Cup in 2014 is that for Basketball being held in Madrid, Spain. But after these championships they will be splitting from their four year cycle to align away from the same years as FIFA's rather bigger version. So the next World Cup in Basketball will take part in 2019. Spain won this event in 2006 but last time out it was the USA, who although they invented the sport and largely have the Olympics all their own way, haven't in the FIBA World Cup. Indeed they need one more title to equal the defunct nation of Yugoslavia. Although Serbia lost out in the last bronze medal match and Croatia took bronze in 1994 so there is still strength in that region that could deny the USA and cause all sorts of issues as to who is the strongest historically.
13. FIVB Volleyball World Championships Men 3-21 September Poland, Women 23 September - 12 October Italy:  It may not be as big as the other prize that Brazil has their eyes on in July, it may not be as glamourous as its beach counterpart, but Brazil's men are going for an unprecedented 4th straight victory in the World Championships. Spanning 13 years of domination no team male or female has ever achieved not even in the height of Soviet Union domination. In Italy the women's event could see a third successive final between Russia and Brazil, with the Brazilian women hoping to finally overcome their nemesis from the last two World Champs on both occasions losing 3-2.
14. Grand Prix of Russia 12 October: Sporting eyes will return to the Olympic Park in Sochi as Grand Prix returns to Russia for the first time since 1914. The last time a Russian Grand Prix was held in St. Petersburg it was won by German Willy Schöll, there will be 18 drivers on the grid in Sochi hoping it won't be another German, while three German's will hope is can be just not one with the initials SV. Another highlight on the F1 calendar is the return on 22 June of the Austrian Grand Prix.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of sport in 2013

I'm going to try and sum up the year in sport in three overriding categories

The Good

There are many contenders for the good. England's win of the Ashes of the summer, sadly that is wiped out by their loss of them again this winter. Chris Froome winning the Tour de France in his own right, he won it with more style of his own on the bike than Sir Bradley Wiggins but with less charisma. But after years of me queuing, sometimes with the next British hope on court that day I think it has to go to Andy Murray and lifting the Wimbledon gents singles trophy.



The Bad
I could start with the way England gave up the Ashes this winter. Or maybe the weather during most of this year's Giro d'Italia, it seemed to affect anyone who took part in it for a couple of months. However, I have gone for the multiple delaminations of Pirelli's tyres that occurred throughout the season, which came to a head at the British Grand Prix in July.



The Ugly
There can only be one contender for the ugly and it happened way back in January. It came after years of denial and ended up in a series of simply yeses to questions put by Oprah Winfrey to Lance Armstrong.

She's Big In Japan

It was four years before Sara Gomer won Northern Californian Open in 1988 that Alphaville has the hit Big in Japan. Yet tonight the 1984 hit and British women's tennis are linked together. Looking back that win was also the year I went to University.

The reason being that in Osaka Heather Watson, who was born a further 4 years after Gomer's success, broke another British tennis long wait, to secure a WTA title by winning 7-5 5-7 7-6 (7-4)  against Kai-Chen Chang of Taipei in the final.

The Guernsey player didn't have to worry about being the first British woman since Jo Durie in 1990 to reach a WTA final, she was merely the first since Laura Robson 3 weeks ago. She now has to go back out on court with Kimiko Date-Krumm, who actually started playing aged 18 on the WTA tour the year after that Gomer win, to secure a doubles title to go with her singles success.

The great year for British Tennis continues and we yet have to wait for Andy Murray to come on court in Shanghai going for this third Shanghai Masters title in a row. He's not due on court before 9am BST (4pm Shanghai time).

So in honour of Watson who is big in Japan today time to travel back to my teenage years.

Britons in both ATP and WTA final

It has been a long time since we had British women getting into WTA finals on the main tour. Before the Laura Robson did so in the Guangzhou Open three weeks ago it had not happened since 1990. The men with John Lloyd, Jeremy Bates, Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski had more success at ATP level in that period before Andy Murray came along and broke the men's longer Slam title duck earlier this year.

However, this weekend has to be the first time in a long while that British men and women will both be competing in a singles final in the main tour events on the same day.

Robson who, for the first time in a WTA event,was seeded 8th got beaten in the quarter finals of the Japan Open in Osaka but Heather Watson will seek a little British revenge when she faces Robson's unseeded opponent Chang Kai-chen of Taipei in the final tomorrow.

While for the men there is no national rivalry for supremacy like Robson and Watson are currently experiencing there is one man who is battling the best in the world week in week out. He is looking to win his third successive Shanghai Masters title tomorrow after once again beating Roger Federer in today's semi-final. But Andy Murray will have to beat Novak Djokovic in tomorrows final. Djokovic may lead their head to head series 8-7 but the last meeting of the two was that US Open final that has given Andy the confidence to strive to be world number one by the end of next year.

But it wasn't just in the singles that success has happened this week. In Japan Heather along with her partner and Japanese legend Kimiko Date-Krumm are through to the final of the women's doubles. While in Shanghai Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchings just missed out on a place in the men's doubles final 10-8 in the champion's tiebreak to India's Rohan Bopanna and Mahesh Bhupathi.

Scottish Highlights of the Rugby Season???

We're in the depths of the Six Nations Rugby tournament and the Scots would normally be gearing up for this weekend's Calcutta Cup match against the Auld Enemy England in high spirits.

But if the reaction to my getting on the coach to return from the football at Hamilton the last international weekend is anything to go by eyes are meandering elsewhere. For I boldly took off my Livingston top to reveal my Ireland jersey on arriving back at the coach around the 5 p.m. kick off time in the Ireland v Scotland game. Only for the initial comments of derision to turn in to comments I think you'll at least be supporting one winning team today.

So with Scottish sporting hopes so low for this time of year step into the breath one Andy Murray. Yes in the depths of Rugby season and tennis is the saviour of the nations hopes. Yesterday he beat wold number 1 Roger Federer without once facing a break point.

Now admittedly in 2008 half of the tournaments Andy has played he has been knocked out in the first round. However, the other half he has gone on to win. In fact he has tended to alternate these two all year. So Roger should have known he was doomed from the start as in the last tournament Andy played in he was knocked out in Round one.

Of course gentleman Rog is not going to hold sour grapes. Ahem!

OK so he'll criticise the style of the youngsters play which he says hasn't changed since they first met in 2005. But hang on he's beating Roger twice in their last 3 outings, is in the top 10. Yes maybe he runs a player around and waits for the mistakes, but he has youth on his side and no doubt his style will change as he gets older. Is Roger getting worried? Methinks he doth protest a little too much.

From the Bahamas with Love...

...good luck.

Well it appears that Sir Sean Connery thinks that young Andy Murray might have been up celebrating reaching the third round at 3 a.m. before his win on Saturday against number 3 seed Andy Roddick. However, his call if probably more likely due to the elder Scot forgetting the time zone difference.

However, as young Andy said there is "nothing cooler than being woken up by James Bond". Even though he went back to sleep and let the answer machine take the message. Good job it was about an important message.

One problem with Saturday's match, apart for the murmur around the court as England failed in the penalty shoot out, was that both players were called Andy. So the cheers from the stands were for Roddick or Murray instead of Andy which could have lifted both players simultaneously. Thankfully that will not be replicated this afternoon. Although the Scot will be facing a Cypriot in Mediteranean conditions it looks like Andy is better conditioned to counter such things this year than last.

Come on Andy.

Scottish Success

Well done Andy Murray on becoming the youngest Brit to win an ATP title. At 18 years 9 months he is 1 year and 1 month younger than Greg Rusedski and 3 years 7 months younger than Tim Henman. Also encouraging is that he has achieved this peak a full year younger than Roger Federer, who he has already played and although beaten was not humiliated.

I know that we shouldn't put pressure on him but I'm impressed he beat Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt on sucessive nights at the end of a tournament so I think we can say his suspect fitness is getting eliminated and pyschologically he is taking on the big players and aiming for success. Unlike Henman, grass may not be his best surface but I'm sure the Wimbledon crowd will be encouraging him all the way when he next appears in SW19.