Racquet Sports
Intro: Racquet sports have had a chequered history at the Olympic Games; tennis featured from 1896 to 1924, but was dropped after an argument over professionalism in the sport, returning only in 1988. Table tennis was added in 1988, followed by badminton in 1992. Squash has never been an Olympic sport.
Bedfordshire has produced two world-class badminton players in Daphne Young and Gail Emms.
Gail Emms, MBE, of Bedford (born 1977) represented Great Britain at badminton from 1995 until her retirement in 2008. She took silver at the 2004 Olympics in the mixed doubles with Nathan Robertson (pictured here), and gold at the 2006 World Championships.
Daphne Young, (second right) later Warrington, of Bedford (1915-1993) won the All England badminton singles championship in 1938, as well as national singles titles in France, Scotland and Ireland in 1937-38. Daphne broke a toe shortly before defending her All England title in 1939, and with her mobility restricted she lost to Dorothy Walton of Canada (courtesy of National Badminton Museum).
Letter from Daphne Young to William E Sowter, Mayor of Bedford, thanking him for his good wishes when she won the All England badminton championships. 5 March 1938. (ref X854/4)
A lawn tennis scene from an 1880s greetings card. The invention of the rubber ball and efficient lawnmowers encouraged the development of tennis as we know it today. (ref SM/E83)
The minute book of the South Beds Croquet Club describes the earliest known tennis tournament in the County, at Wrest Park on 29th August 1876. This was a year before the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships was founded. (ref LL17/323).
Tennis players at Bromham House, the seat of the Allen family, 1903 (ref Z50/21/49)
The Bedfordshire ladies tennis team at Buxton, 1938. Club and league tennis was very popular at this time, partly thanks to the exploits of the last British Wimbledon singles winners Fred Perry (1934-1936) and Dorothy Round (1934 and 1937). (ref X792/3)
Valerie Eveline Scott of Bedford (born 1918) won the Junior Wimbledon singles in 1935 and reached the last 16 of the senior event in 1939, losing to the number 4 seed, Simone Mathieu of France. Her career was cut short by the Second World War. (from ref X769/4/3)
Youngsters at a junior tournament at Flitwick Squash Club, January 1982 (ref BP64/18/6)