With the exception of Manursing Island Club in Rye, NY, no other club even came close to affording its members such ample opportunities to play “The Game.”
With seven courts Fox Meadow was the premier club for the game and its “home.”
Source: Diana Reische, Fox Meadow Tennis Club – The First Hundred Years, 1983
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.
As in 1943 the Women’s and Mixed National Championships were not played because of wartime travel difficulties.
Holbrook Hyde and Leland Wiley from Hartford GC, CT, won their second Men’s Nationals in a repeat of the 1942 finals.
Source: Fessenden S. Blanchard, Paddle Tennis, 1944
In 1943, Hazel Barton McClintock bought a twenty-five acre parcel from the Crane heirs, and she agreed to sell the Club nearly all the land on which it already had paddle courts, approximately three-fourths of an acre, for $4,200.
One paddle court still lapped over onto McClintock’s property, but she permitted the Club to leave it in place.
A few years later the McClintocks joined the Club.
Source: Diana Reische, Fox Meadow Tennis Club – The First Hundred Years, 1983
Moore also served as President of the APTA from 1946-1948, which proved to be important growth years. He was credited with developing the mixed Scrambles or Jamboree, a format that gave the game much of its social overtones and proved to be very popular. Few people gave so much of their time and energy, or were so dedicated to platform tennis.
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
Robert S Gordon (1898-1979) was long time civic leader in Scarsdale. He practiced law at Sullivan & Cromwell before becoming general counsel at National Dairy Products Corp. (now Kraftco Corp.).
One of his sons, James P Gordon, (1928-2013) was credited with the development of the fore-runner to the laser and narrowly missed being awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics for his work; he also was a multiple APTA National Champion.
The other son Dr. Robert S Gordon, Jr. coordinated AIDS research at NIH and died in 1985
The 1941 Finalists, Holbrook (Hobey) Hyde and Leland (Lee) Wiley from Hartford GC, CT, capture the Men’s over the 1940 winners from Manursing, Witherbee Black and Paul Hicks. The steady play of the winners and their lobbing skill finally offset the speed of Hicks and the reliable play of Black. Hicks won the Mixed with Madeline Price and FMTC teams again dominated the Women’s with Madge Beck and Marie Walker adding a fifth consecutive title – a record that still stands.
It was in the semifinals of that same tournament that Sidney B. Wood (former Wimbledon tennis champion) and Kenneth Ward beat the lobbing game of Sutter and Maguire, the defending champions, by Sid’s hard-driving and Ward’s deceptive chops. This was a match in which the offense of the winning team overcame the largely defensive play of the losers. Perhaps they were inspired by a remark that Sid made to Ken before the match. Sid and Cliff Sutter had been tennis rivals for many years. “Cliff has never beaten me yet,” said Sid, “and damned if he is going to now.” Sid turned out to be a good forecaster.
Fessenden S. Blanchard, Platform Paddle Tennis, 1959
Historical Factoid: A native of New Orleans, Clifford Sutter was a superb tennis player, winning the NCAA singles championships for Tulane University in 1930 and 1932. He was undefeated in United States Davis Cup play (1931-33; 3-0 in singles), and was ranked No. 5 in the world in 1932.
Don began playing paddle in the early thirties and became a National Champion in 1943 with Charles O’Hearn as his partner. He was friendly with Blanchard and Cogswell and often contributed to the direction in which the game has evolved.
Don was a member of Innis Arden Golf Club in Old Greenwich, CT and an enthusiastic promoter of the game to the membership.
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