The East of England Championships also called the East of England Lawn Tennis Championships was a men's and women's

grass court A grass court is one of the four different types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Grass courts are made of grasses in different compositions depending on the tournament. Although grass c ...

tennis tournament founded in 1885 as the Felixstowe Open Lawn Tennis Tournament. In 1889 the event had by this time become a regional level tournament that ran until 1983 when it lost its status as a senior international tour level event. However the championships are still being staged today as the East of England and an LTA British Tour (Premier Event).

History

The Felixstowe Open Lawn Tennis Tournament hosted by the Felixstowe Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club became a regional level tour event called the East of England Championships in 1889. It was located

Felixstowe Felixstowe ( ) is a port town in Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest Containerization, container port in the United Kingdom. Felixstowe is approximately 116km (72 miles) northea ...

, Suffolk,

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshi ...

. The tournament was usually staged in mid-August, this later changed the middle or third week of July following the Wimbledon Championships. The East of England Championships ran for 98 years before it was discontinued in 1983 as a senior international tour level event. However the championships are still being staged today as the East of England and an LTA British Tour (Premier Event).Felixstowe Lawn Tennis Club This tournament became an interrelating regional event to the North of England Championships (f.1884), the

South of England Championships The South of England Championships, also known as the South of England Open Championships, was an outdoor tennis event held on grass courts at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club in Eastbourne, United Kingdom from 1881 until 1972. History The ...

(f.1881) and the

West of England Championships West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

(f.1881). Notable winners of the men's singles championship title incuded

Reggie Doherty Reginald "Reggie" or "R. F." Frank Doherty (14 October 1872 – 29 December 1910) was a British tennis player and the older brother of tennis player Laurence Doherty. He was known in the tennis world as "R.F." rather than "Reggie".

(1906),

Herbert Roper Barrett Herbert Roper Barrett, KC (24 November 1873 – 27 July 1943) was a tennis player from Great Britain. Biography Barrett was born on 24 November 1873 in Upton, Essex. At the London Olympics in 1908 Barrett won a gold medal in the men's indo ...

(1897-1899, 1901-1902, 1910),

George Hillyard George Whiteside Hillyard (6 February 1864 – 24 March 1943) was a male tennis player from the United Kingdom. Under his supervision as secretary of the All England Club from 1907 to 1925, the Wimbledon Championships moved to its current site ...

(1907-1908),

Héctor Cattaruzza Hector () is an English, French, Scottish, and Spanish given name. The name is derived from the name of Hektor, a legendary Trojan champion who was killed by the Greek Achilles. The name ''Hektor'' is probably derived from the Greek ''ékhein'', m ...

(1926), Jiro Yamagishi (1934-1935, 1937), George Worthington (1949), Jan Leschly (1957-1957), Mark Cox (1963, 1965-1967) and Saeed Meer (1977). Former women's singles winners included Dorothea Douglass Chambers, (1902, 1906-1908, 1910-1911), Geraldine Ramsey Beamish (1921-1922), Elsie Goldsack Pittman (1931-1932),

Jadwiga Jędrzejowska Jadwiga "Jed" Jędrzejowska (; 15 October 1912 – 28 February 1980) was a Polish tennis player who had her main achievements during the second half of the 1930s. Because her name was difficult to pronounce for many people who did not speak Polis ...

)1937),

Shirley Bloomer Shirley Brasher (née Bloomer; born 13 June 1934) is a former tennis player from England who won three Grand Slam titles during her career and who was the top-ranked singles player in her country in 1957. Early life She attended Cleethorpes Gir ...

(1954),

Jill Blackman Jill Alison Emmerson (born 24 July 1942) is an Australian former tennis player from Sydney. She competed under her maiden name Jill Blackman until the late 1960s. Emmerson was a singles quarter-finalist at the 1963 French Championships and 196 ...

(1966),

Patti Hogan Patricia Hogan Fordyce (born December 21, 1949) is a retired professional tennis player from the U.S. She competed in the Fed Cup a number of times from 1970 to 1973.Greer Stevens Greer Stevens (born 15 February 1957) is a retired professional tennis player from South Africa. Career Stevens in 1980 reached a career high singles ranking of world No. 7 and the Wimbledon quarterfinals in both singles and doubles]. With ...

(1973).

Notes

In the late 1880s and an East of England tournament was established in Filey, North Yorkshire, but was predominantly a local tennis meeting only.

Event names

* Felixstowe Open Lawn Tennis Tournament (1885-87) * East of England County Lawn Tennis Championships (1889-96) * East of England Championships (1897–1967) * East of England Open Championships (1968–72) * East of England Tournament (1973) * East of England Championships (1974–82)

References

{{Reflist, 2

Sources

* Daily Mail Year Book. (1966) London: Associated Newspapers Groups. * Events. clubspark.lta.org.uk. Felixstowe Lawn Tennis Club. * The Ipswich Journal. (14 August 1886) Ipswich, Suffolk, England. * The Sketch: (1924) A Journal of Art and Actuality. Ingram brothers. 110: 127. Defunct tennis tournaments in the United Kingdom Grass court tennis tournaments