Merseyside For Sport - Lottie Dod

 

 

Charlotte Dod was born on the 24th of September 1871 in Lower Bebington, Cheshire, the youngest of four children to Joseph and Margaret Dod. Joseph, from Liverpool, was a banker and cotton broker who had made a fortune in the cotton trade. In her childhood Lottie played the piano, banjo and was member of a local choir. Lawn tennis, invented in 1873, was highly fashionable for the wealthy in England, so when Lottie was nine years old, two tennis courts were built near the family's estate, Edgeworth, and all of the Dod children started playing the game frequently. Tennis parties were occasionally organized and among the invited guests were future Wimbledon champions Joshua Pim and the brothers Herbert and Wilfred Baddley and when she was eleven she joined the Rock Ferry Tennis Club in Birkenhead. Lottie had a sister, Annie, and two brothers, Willy and Tony, all of whom also excelled in sports. Annie was a good tennis player, golfer, ice skater and billiards player, whilst Willy won the Olympic gold medal in archery at the 1908 Olympic Games, and Tony was a regional level archer and a chess and tennis player. All the Dod children received a private education by tutors and governesses.

Because she was only 15 years old, she was allowed to wear clothing that looked like her school uniform on the tennis court. The ensemble consisted of black stockings and shoes, a white flannel cricket cap atop her black hair, and a calf-length dress. She was unencumbered by the eras more confining layered outfits and full length dresses that restricted movements, giving her a considerable advantage. She could swiftly run around the court and her lateral and horizontal movements provided mobility her opponents lacked. Tennis historian Elizabeth Wilson, interviewed by The Canberra Times, said that "Dod always spoke up in favor of the right of women to dress in a manner that did not impede their tennis. At 5' 6", she was tall for the time period and hitting a hard forehand, was the first woman to volley, 'smash', and serve underhand, which was a confounding tactic for opponents not skilled in handling such a manoeuvre. It was not a lady-like game, but Lottie made no excuses. "As a rule, ladies are too lazy at tennis," she once said. "They should learn to run and run their hardest, too, not merely stride. They would find, if they tried, that many a ball, seemingly out of reach, could be returned with ease; but instead of running hard they go a few steps and exclaim, 'Oh, I can't’ and stop."

At the Northern Championships in 1885, she came to prominence when she nearly beat the reigning Wimbledon champion Maud Watson in the final, losing 6–8, 5–7. However she won the doubles event (with her sister Annie) and had earlier won the first singles title of her career at the Waterloo tournament where she was also victorious in the doubles and mixed doubles events.These performances earned her the nickname "Little Wonder" in the press. Encouraged by these results, she decided to enter the Wimbledon Championships in 1887 and defeated defending champion Blanche Bingley in a rout, 6-2, 6-0, winning the final 10 straight games, and a second set that lasted 10 minutes. An account of her achievement appeared in the 14th of July 1887 Sheffield Independent: "About the ladies’ singles there is little to be said – only five entered as against eight last year. Miss Lottie Dod simply 'cantered' through the two rounds in which she had to play. In the final round she met Mrs. C.J. Cole, formerly, as Miss Coleridge, well known as a tennis player. In the challenge round she easily vanquished Miss Bingley, who only got two games in the two sets." Lottie went on to win four more championships in 1888, 1891, 1892, and 1893, all against Bingley, now known by her married name Blanche Hillyard, and lost only one set in all the five championships. In the 1893 finale, the then 21-year-old Lottie lost the first set 8-6, took stock in that rare occurrence, and won the next two, 6-1, 6-4. In her four previous victories, she lost just 13 games. In 1887, she won the Irish Nationals Singles Championship, defeating Maud Watson 6-4, 6-3.

Lottie Dod was also an extraordinary athlete who was accomplished in skiing, archery, field hockey, and golf. Having forsook tennis to play golf, in 1904 she became the British National Golf champion. Her eye-hand coordination made her skilled in archery, earning her a place on the 1908 Olympic Archery team where she won the Silver Medal. She passed the St. Moritz Ladies's Skating Test, the most prestigious figure skating event for women at the time; she rode the toboggan on the famous Sankt Moritz Cresta Run, and began mountaineering with her brother, climbing two mountains over 4,000 m in February 1896. She also competed in Curling and in 1897 took up the new sport of field hockey and was one of the founding members of a women's hockey club in Spital. Playing as a central forward, she was soon named captain of the team and by 1899 had made it to captain of the Cheshire county team, representing her club at meetings of the Women's Hockey Association for the northern counties. She first played in the English national team on the 21st of March that year, winning 3–1 over Ireland. Both English goals in the 1900 England and Ireland rematch were scored by Lottie, securing a 2–1 victory. Having helped establish a ladies' golf club at Moreton in 1894 she played in the 1904 British Ladies Amateur held at Troon where she qualified for the semi-finals for the third time in her life, and won it for the first time. 

In the autumn of 1905, she and her brothers sold 'Edgeworth' and moved to a new home near Newbury, Berkshire where they had been practising archery from the times before, but all three became more serious now and joined the Welford Park Archers in Newbury. She won her first tournament by 1906, and finished fifth in the Grand National Archery Meeting of 1906, 1907 and 1908. Her performances in the 1908 season earned her a spot on the British Olympic team. In 1910, she came close to winning the Grand National, which would have made archery the third sport in which she became a national champion. Both Lottie and her brother William led after day one, but moved down to second on the final competition day. After the Welford Archers were disbanded in late 1911, the Dods' interest in archery faded, meaning the end of Lottie Dod's long competitive sports career.

She died, unmarried, at age 88, at the Birchy Hill Nursing Home in Sway, Hampshire, passing away while listening to the Wimbledon radio broadcasts in bed. She had never failed to attend the Wimbledon Championships until she was in her late 80s and was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1983.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2026/07/merseyside-for-sport-william-dod.html