BEGINNINGS

The Liverpool Tennis Club has a long, if murky, history. Although the exact date of its conception is unknown, the best guess (based on informal conversations with longtime local residents) is that the club was probably born in or around 1922. It certainly was formed no more than a year later, since a junior membership card for the 1923 season, given to a Ms. M. Mitchell, still exists. A 1954 edition of the Bowater-Mersey paper mill company's Mersey Quarterly, which appears to be the only major published source of information on the club's history, has this to say about the club and its early life:

"A very active and successful tennis club was in operation when Mersey came to Liverpool [in 1929]. Three doubles courts and a singles court were in use as well as a fine club house.... Mersey participation in the active sport of tennis was limited to a few employees.... Socially, however, a large number of wives of employees took part in the Friday afternoon tennis teas. What with visits to and from other clubs these social gatherings at times eclipsed the game itself.... In the winter, the courts were flooded, and provided good skating for the community."

CHAMPIONS

The club reached its zenith in 1935, when it won the coveted South Shore Championship, defeating Bridgewater and Lunenburg. Here is a photo of that championship group, from the July 21, 1935 edition of the Queens Advance newspaper (click it to view a high-resolution scan made from a reprint of the photo in the Mersey Quarterly):

The 1935 South Shore Champions: Liverpool Tennis Club. Left to right, back row: John Lawson, Fred Manning, Reg Wigglesworth, Phillip Murphy, Fred Townsend, Wendell Tidmarsh. Centre row: Margaret Hutchins, Grace Nickerson, Ruth Cohoon, Helen Spurr, Barbara Murphy, Edith Tupper, Dot Mulhall. Front row: Merrill Rawding, George Mulhall, Dick Mulhall, Bill MacDonald.