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Orrington, MAINE USA

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Princeton, MAINE USA

Thursday, March 01, 2007

The Wimbledon Flower Basket, 1884


The All England Club advances to pay men and women tennis champions equally, meaning no more flower baskets.


image

Wimbledon women’s trophy, 1884

Photo: © AELTC/Museum

19-year-old Maud Watson won the first women’s tennis championship at Wimbledon in 1884. Shades of Venus and Serena, she beat her sister Lillian in split sets but quite unlike the Williamses managed to achieve all this in an ankle length white dress. For her victory,  Maud came away with a silver flower basket. That was the prize.

A few weeks ago, the committee that presides over global athletics’ favorite curtsy on the lawn voted to overturn tradition and pay men and women equally for winning on the court.

“Wimbledon, which dates back to 1877, went ‘open’ in 1968 but had been criticised since then for maintaining a discrepancy in the prize money offered to its male and female competitors. Last year Roger Federer earned 655,000 pounds ($1.28 million) for winning the men’s title while women’s champion Amelie Mauresmo took home 625,000 pounds.” The 2007 prize amounts will be announced next month.

imageMaud Watson

Wimbledon first women’s champion


Photo: via BBC

The unequal pay scales date back to Maud Watson’s win. Her flower basket trophy, of silver, was reportedly “worth 20 guineas, while the men’s winner got a gold prize worth 30 guineas.”

Unfortunately, Bud Collins hadn’t been born at that time, so we don’t know what Maud thought of being shortchanged. But thanks to Matthew Glaze of the Wimbledon Museum, we did learn a bit about Maud’s flower basket. He writes that fifty years after her first Wimbledon victory (Maud also won in 1885) “she presented her prize to the Edgbaston Club for its annual junior tournament.  In the 1980s the Club, then combined with the Priory Club – used the trophy for international competitions.”  The Edgbaston Priory Lawn Tennis Club has “kindly” loaned this historic piece to the Wimbledon Museum for throngs of fans to see.

We think her flower basket very lovely and graceful, quite in contrast with the Klingon-ware platter that contemporary women champs receive ($1 million may be soothing). Did Maud, or anyone else, ever arrange flowers inside her trophy? We hope so. The stylized flowers in its design seem to be tulips, but it could do justice to primroses, even English bluebells.



Posted by Julie on 03/01 at 04:01 PM
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