Spencer William Gore was an English tennis player who won the first Wimbledon tournament in 1877 and a cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club.
Background
Spencer William Gore was the son of Charles Alexander Gore and Augusta Lavinia Priscilla (née Ponsonby), a daughter of the fourth Earl of Bessborough. He was born and raised within a mile of the All England Croquet Club in Wimbledon Common, Surrey.
Education
He was educated at Harrow school, where he excelled at all games, especially football and cricket, and was the captain of the school cricket team in 1869.
Career
Gore made his first class cricket debut for Surrey against Middlesex in 1874 hitting 17 runs off the first four balls he received in his first match. He played cricket mainly for I Zingari at club level, playing his last match for them in 1893. He played two first class matches for I Zingari which were against Yorkshire in 1878 and 1879 and one match for Gentlemen of the South in 1879.
In 1877 the first Wimbledon lawn tennis championship was held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club which had been renamed from the All England Croquet Club since tennis had been established there two years earlier.
He was the first player who ever used the technique of volleying, therefore he is considered the creator of the style of volley. Gore was among the twenty-two men who paid a guinea to enter the inaugural 1877 championship (women did not have a competition until 1884).
The 21 matches were spread over five days. The championship was suspended for the weekend so as not to clash with the annual Eton v Harrow cricket match at Lord"s Cricket Ground.
The scheduled final on Monday was postponed for four days because of rain.
Dropping only two sets in four rounds, the 27-year-old Gore reached the final after beating CG Heathcote in the semifinal. Gore collected the first prize of 12 guineas and a silver cup presented by The Field, a sporting magazine. He lost the Gentleman"s Singles challenge round to Frank Hadow 7–5, 6–1, 9–7 and did not compete in the Wimbledon Championships again after that match.
Gore joined Pickering and Smith, the property advisory firm of his father-in-law Edmund James Smith who became President of the Surveyors" Institute.
Gore was promoted to partnership and the firm was renamed Smiths and Gore. Grand Slam tournaments
= Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up) =.