Spencer Gore (sportsman) - Sporting Career

Sporting Career

Gore made his first class cricket debut for Surrey against Middlesex in 1874 hitting 17 runs off the first four balls he received in his first match. He played again for Surrey against Middlesex in 1875 when Surrey won by 10 wickets and he did not have a chance to play a second innings. He played cricket mainly for I Zingari at club level, playing his last match for them in 1893. He played two first class matches for I Zingari which were against Yorkshire in 1878 and 1879 and one match for Gentlemen of the South in 1879.

In 1877 the first Wimbledon lawn tennis championship was held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club which had been renamed from the All England Croquet Club since tennis had been established there two years earlier. Gore won the Gentleman's Singles beating William Marshall 6–1, 6–2, 6–4 on 19 July 1877.

Gore was among the twenty-two men who paid a guinea to enter the inaugural 1877 championship (women did not have a competition until 1884). The 21 matches were spread over five days. The championship was suspended for the weekend so as not to clash with the annual Eton v Harrow cricket match at Lord's Cricket Ground. The scheduled final on Monday was postponed for four days because of rain.

Dropping only two sets in four rounds, the 27-year-old Gore reached the final after beating CG Heathcote in the semifinal. Against Marshall, he won in straight sets, 6–1, 6–2, 6–4, in forty eight minutes. Gore collected the first prize of 12 guineas and a silver cup presented by The Field, a sporting magazine.

Gore lost in the following year's Gentleman's Singles final to Frank Hadow 7–5, 6–1, 9–7.