Surbiton Lawn Tennis Club

Newsreel coverage of the finals of the 1922 Surrey County Championships in tennis at Surbiton

The Coronation Topical Gazette newsreel takes to the sidelines at Surbiton Lawn Tennis Club to cover the finals of the 1922 Surrey County Championships - the first big tournament of the grass season and a popular ‘warm-up’ for many Wimbledon hopefuls. Although the cameraman is limited to fixed angle shots, for the mixed doubles some clever editing between the two pairs has been used to create a real sense of energy and action rarely seen in early newsreels.

The Surrey County Championships was for a long time seen as an important warm-up for Wimbledon and attracted many big names. The men’s singles runner-up here, Britain’s Randolph Lycett, made the men’s singles final at Wimbledon later in the summer. Both women’s finalists, Elizabeth Ryan and Irene Peacock, went on to lose at Wimbledon to the French legend, and eventual winner, Suzanne Lenglen.