Glasgow University Tennis Club

History

 

Tennis at Glasgow University revealed itself for the first time in 1879, when the Senate granted permission to “a proposed club of about 12 students and recent graduates to play in the evenings in the West Quadrangle”. The courts that small group of people played on were later moved to “The Field”, which was a general area (where the Zoology Building is now) where most sports were played.

A 1891 edition of GUM (Glasgow University Magazine) expressed a lot of enthusiasm coming from the flourishing tennis institution. Queen Margaret students (women) were allowed to join the club sometime after 1893, and in 1894 they were claimed to be the best tennis team in the west of Scotland after Pollokshields.

At the end of the 19th century the university was planning to construct new buildings for botany and engineering, and in 1898 it was decided that the botany building was to be erected on the site of two of the four available tennis courts. It was agreed by the University Court that new tennis courts would be provided, however when the constructions began, all four existent courts were built over, leaving the tennis section of GUAC without training or playing space. It wasn’t until 1908 that two new courts were erected next to the botany building to allow members of the section to play again.

The need for the new courts was shown by the huge membership size in the next few years: in 1910 there was a total of 73 subscriptions, and due to the lack of space the club had to cap the membership at 80 in 1911.

Competitively, the club was also well on its way: in 1913 the men’s team won 8 matches out of 10 played, which lead to their promotion from 3rd to 2nd division on the West of Scotland league.

When WWI broke out, the courts were still available but closed for most of summer. The club had a very small membership (16 subscriptions, no competitive matches) but remained active, and re-wrote its constitution in 1917. After the war, the tennis section was only one of the 4 sections in GUAC which survived, along with rugby, Q.M (women’s) hockey, and cricket. There was suddenly a huge influx of memberships because of returning ex-service men, on top of “freshmen”. Again, there were too many members for the club to accomodate, as it still only had the two tennis courts built in replacement of the old ones in 1908.

In 1919, all sections of GUAC had very inadequate facilities. A public appeal was triggered in ordered to raise money for reparation and replacement. Along with facilities for the other sections, the plan was to provide ten “blaes” tennis courts on the new ground, which we now know as Westerlands, which had been adopted as sports ground in October 1913. Along with the 2 existing Gilmorehill tennis courts, this would provide enough playing space to allow the 1911 membership limit to be lifted by the tennis section. However, the section had several setbacks with lack of funds and estimated time needed for the construction of the new courts. Eventually, only 6 tennis courts were provided and were ready for use by April 1922, two years after they were meant to be finished. After the opening of the new courts, the two old ones at Gilmorehill were passed to the Staff Tennis Club.

Subscription fees started in the 1920’s because of serious financial issues of the Club following the need for facilities. In 1919, membership costed £1, and memberships rose to 40, with a priority for admissions: Pre-war men members, men prevented by military service from joining before then, and last on the list of priority were returning members from the year before. With this, the tennis club ended up with a membership of 50 and even had a waiting list of another 50.

When Blues and Half blues awards regulations were finalized (1926), it was decided to award “major” and “minor” blues to GUAC sections based on their standing in the Scottish universities. Both men’s and women’s tennis received the award by 1926.

In the early 20’s, the club’s men’s and women’s competitive teams were battling their way up the West of Scotland divisions, and with membership limitations being lifted in 1922 (with the Westerland courts available), 2nd teams and mixed teams now entered the league competition. By 1923, the men’s, women’s and mixed teams were all playing at the top of their game in 1st division. The men’s team fell back to 2nd division in 1925, but had a very successful year in 1927 apparently. The ladies stayed in 1st division in 1926 and 1927.

Records show that between 1937 and 1939 the tennis section of GUAC suffered major debt problems, as well as individual memberships not being paid, as a consequence of which the Council of GUAC applied a sanction of suspension on a number of members.

In a space of three years the tennis section teams managed to fight their way from 4th to 2nd division in the west of Scotland league. It started 1932 with only one of the old teams still available, which managed to stay in 3rd place that year and the year after. Women’s team fell back to 3rd division. In the later 30’s there was a constant issue with unpaid debts with the GUAC council, so much that in 1938 the women’s section asked to become a separate section from the men’s. This, however, didn’t happen. In 1941 it was said that the section had its best season for years, but during the war it apparently stayed inactive, as minutes from a GUAC council in November 1945 states that “the tennis section is intending to re-start next summer”.

After the war, in March 1948, executives of the tennis section asked for permission to use the Westerlands courts on Sundays, which was quite controversial at the time as the courts had never before been used at weekends. It took two years for the request to be granted by the GUAC council, but the university court still didn’t allow it, and it wasn’t until 1965 that Westerlands were used on Sundays. During the ‘70’s, these courts were overused and not well-kept, causing several complaints.

With about 100 members in the early years after the war, complaints were made about not enough court space because the fixture list was too full, and membership started decreasing. However, the men’s team won west of Scotland club champs trophy in 1954, plus successful tour in England in the same summer (including a win over University Associations Union champions, Nottingham uni). Roy McAlpine and Frances MacLellan are among the names of GUT that stood out at the time. The men’s team were Scottish universities champions in 1964, winning all their matches. Women’s team won international caps and held Scottish and british universities singles titles for two years in a row.