Joshua Pim - Tennis

Tennis

Josh was a member of Lansdowne club, then known as the All Ireland Lawn Tennis Club, where he was coached by Thomas Burke His first tennis triumph was in 1890, when he won both the English and Irish doubles championships alongside the Dubliner, Frank Stoker, a cousin of the writer Bram Stoker. He reached the semi-finals of the English singles championship, but lost to Willoughby Hamilton from Kildare. The following year, 1891 and again in 1892 (when he was suffering from typhoid) he reached the semi-finals, but lost on both occasions to an English player, Wilfred Baddeley. In 1893 he returned to Wimbledon and won both the single and the doubles (with Stoker) championships. In 1894 he won the singles again. In 1895 he competed in America rather than in England. In 1896, Mahony won in Wimbledon, while Pim concentrated on his medical career, becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons that year.

Dr. Pim played for Ireland against England in 1892, 1893, 1894 and 1896.

In 1902, he was summoned from retirement to be the token Irishman on the British Davis Cup squad to America. Pim was derided for having put on excessive amounts of weight, despite the fact he shed thirty pounds in six weeks. He lost both his matches and laid down his racket thereafter.