The 1953 winners all repeated.
Guernsey and McNeill staged a fine recovery against Hebard and Carlisle after being two sets down. The match, one of the longest on record, lasted 71 games.
For Madge Beck and sister, Maizie Moore, this was their fifth title and the fourth in a row. Madge had now won ten out of the last eleven events played from 1938-1954 (no events were held from 1943-1948 because of WW II and the aftermath).
Source: Fessenden S. Blanchard, Platform Paddle Tennis, 1959
The streak of Mixed wins by Elfie Carroll and her husband came to an end when they lost to the Fox Meadow team of Dick Hebard and Madge Beck in the Finals.
French and U.S. singles and doubles champion Don McNeill (1918-1996) teamed with 1938-1939 NCAA tennis champion Frank D. Guernsey (1917-2008) to win the Men’s.
Fox Meadow members and sisters, Madge Beck and Maizie Moore, both future Hall of Famers, won the Women’s for the third straight time.
Source: Fessenden S. Blanchard, Platform Paddle Tennis, 1959
Historical Factoid: Guernsey, a decorated World War II fighter pilot, had defeated Bobby Riggs in 1939, a week after Riggs had won Wimbledon. McNeill and Guernsey had been Men’s Doubles finalists in the US Open in 1946 losing to Gardnar Malloy and William Talbert 20-18 in the fifth set.
On February 21, 1953, T. Edmund Beck, President of the Fox Meadow Tennis Club, presented silver bowls, on behalf of his club and the APTA, to Jimmy Cogswell and Fessenden Blanchard, to commemorate their founding of the game 25 years ago
About a hundred “devotees of the sport,” as the Scarsdale Inquirer put it, turned up for the occasion, which was a complete surprise to Cogswell and Blanchard who thought it was just another party.
Blanchard adds this personal remembrance of the event: “James M. Carlisle, one of the games best players at the time, read his famous ‘Hiawatha’ poem and proved himself to be a worthy poet laureate successor to the Allens. It really was a proud moment for Jimmy and me.”
Source: Fessenden S. Blanchard, Platform Paddle Tennis, 1959
The Hebard era had begun.
Dick Hebard and Fred Walker won their first title, defeating the previous year’s winners, Kip Couch and Charlie O’Hearn.
The Women’s Championship was reinstated after a hiatus of six years and Madeline Beck resumed winning. She had won the last five events (1938-1942) with Marie Walker and now won with her sister Maizie Moore.
The Mixed was won by the husband and wife team, Ronald and Elfi Carroll, a portent of things to come.
Source: Fessenden S. Blanchard, Platform Paddle Tennis, 1959
There is no record of a Mixed event being held and there was no Women’s event.
The Men’s was one of the longest finals on record – 67 games – with Kip Couch and Charlie O’Hearn finally prevailing over John Moses and Rawle Deland.
Source: Fessenden S. Blanchard, Platform Paddle Tennis, 1959
As in 1946 the Women’s was again not played.
The Fox Meadow team of Moses and Grout overcame the 1942 and 1944 champions Hyde and Wiley from Hartford, CT.
The New Jersey husband and wife team Elwood and Sarah Cooke easily won the Mixed over a Fox Meadow team.
Source: Fessenden S. Blanchard, Platform Paddle Tennis, 1959
Historical Factoid: At the time Moses was 23 and became the youngest player in the history of the game to win a National championship; he was the recipient of the APTA Honor Award in 1976.
Moore was President through some important growth years and was credited with developing the mixed Scrambles or Jamboree event. This format gave the game much of its social overtones and proved to be very popular. Few people had given so much of their time and energy, or been more identified with or dedicated to platform tennis.
Blanchard’s book covered the origins and history of Playground Paddle Tennis and Platform Paddle Tennis. It also chronicled the court configurations, rules governing each game, playing strategies and tournament champions.
Blanchard continued to be a prolific writer about the game and was its most ardent promoter.
The Women’s and Mixed National Championships were not played because of wartime travel difficulties.
Fox Meadow teams dominated the Men’s, which was the only tournament held. Charley O’Hearn won his third title over future Hall of Fame inductee John Moses.
Historical Factoid: At the time Moses, who had grown up at Fox Meadow, was 19 and in military service between stints at Yale; he became the youngest finalist in the history of the game.
Source: Fessenden S. Blanchard, Paddle Tennis, 1944
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