This year (1900) it is interesting to note that the champion of to-day, Miss D. Boothby, won the Handicap Singles at Beckenham, receiving 15.4.  This year, too, saw my first appearance at Wimbledon.  I was not in the lists very long, meeting Miss L. Martin first round.  I do not think the game lasted long, and I have only a very faint recollection of it; but I remember thinking Miss Martin’s strokes were the finest I had ever seen.  At Eastbourne a couple of months later I was lucky enough to meet Miss C. Cooper on a very off day and run her close in the open singles.  The match caused quite a sensation.  We started rather late, in the tea interval, and nobody took the least interest in what was considered a forgone conclusion.  However, when it got abroad that Misss Cooper had actually lost the first set, people came hurrying round the court in great consternation lest Miss Cooper, whom they all knew so well, should go down to a play who was quite unknown; I had been in the second class only the year before.  Miss Cooper eventually secured the match, 3/6, 9/7, 9/7.  I met Mrs. Sterry on many subsequent occasions before I could get anything like so close to her.  I really used to get quite weary of being beaten by her.  When the Handicap Singles came out the day after this match I was put to owe 15 in the first class, which pleased me immensely.  Miss Robb, Mrs. Greville, and Miss C. Cooper were owe 15.3 and Mrs. Hillyard owe 30.  I was in the classification for the first time at the end of this year.

Mrs. Hillyard           Scratch
Miss C. Cooper          1/6

Miss Martin             2/6
Mrs. Greville           2/6

Mrs. Pickering          3/6
Miss Robb               4/6
Miss Bromfield          5/6
Mrs. Evered             5/6
Miss C. Hill            5/6
Miss Longhurst          5/6
Mrs. Winch              5/6
Miss Lane               15
Miss A.M.  Morton        15
Miss Tulloch            15
Miss D.K.  Douglass      15

In 1901 I won my first Challenge Cup in an open tournament, beating Mrs. Greville in the challenge round at Beckenham.  Mrs. Greville’s defeat came as a great surprise to every one.  It was her third year for the cup, and this may have accounted for her being much below her usual form.  I had certainly improved a great deal, even in that one week, for I had had a hard match every day, meeting Miss Tulloch, Miss Morton, and Countess Schulenberg (with whom I had a tremendous three-set match) in the preceding rounds.  Mrs. Greville, on the other hand, had been standing out—­the custom at Beckenham, one that I personally always find a great disadvantage.  I was easily beaten this year at Wimbledon by Mrs. Sterry.  Classification for 1901: 

  Mrs. Sterry Scratch