ETHEL THOMSON
Only three doubles events were played at the first All-England Badminton Championships in 1899. So, it was the next year, 1900, that the tournament was expanded to two days to include the men’s and women’s singles.
In 1900, at the age of 20, Ethel Thomson from Budleigh Salterton, Devon, England, became the first All-England woman’s singles champion. Ethel had to play fellow Devon player Muriel Lucas in the semi-final – they were considered the two best women players in the tournament. At that time, there was no seeding in the Championships; seeding was not introduced to the All-England Badminton Championships until 1932. In the final, Ethel beat Miss E. Mosley from Sutton Coldfield 17-15, 15-11. She also won the women’s singles title in 1901 and 1903, winning the trophy outright in 1904. Before 1979, if an All-England Champion won a trophy for three consecutive championships or four Championships in total, they were awarded the trophy outright. At the 1906 All-England Championships, she was the first woman player to complete the triple, winning the singles, women’s and mixed doubles titles.
At the very first All-England Championships in 1899, Ethel Thomson played women’s doubles with fellow Budleigh Salterton Badminton Club partner Jean Theobald, and they reached the final, only to be beaten by another pair from Devon, Muriel Lucas and Violet Graeme from the Teignmouth Badminton Club.
Murial Lucas and Ethel Thomson.
From 1902, Ethel would team up with Muriel Lucas in the women’s doubles, and they would share the first 11 women’s singles titles of the All-England from 1900 to 1910, with 5 in favour of Thomson and 6 in favour of Lucas. Together, they won 4 All-England women’s doubles titles. It was reported that they never lost a doubles match in tournament play. Ethel Thomson would win 3 All-England mixed titles with George Thomas. She retired from top-class Badminton in 1906 when she married Dudley Larcombe - Secretary of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club.Ethel returned to badminton and tennis in 1911. Like many good badminton players of that time, Ethel Thompson was also a top-class tennis player, playing 70 matches at Wimbledon from 1902 to 1921. At the age of 33, she won the Wimbledon Women’s Singles Championships in 1912, and she also added the mixed doubles championship title partnering Cyril Parker from Ireland in 1914.Ethel Thomson and Sidney Smith, the first-ever All-England Badminton men’s singles champion in 1900, played tennis mixed doubles together, and they were the mixed doubles Wimbledon All-Comers tournament winners in 1903 and 1904.Wimbledon, until 1922, had a system where players played in the All-Comers tournament, and then the winner played in the Challenge Round final against the holder of the title from the previous year; the winner of this final would be the Wimbledon champions.
Geoff Hinder
