One hundred and twenty-five years ago, the zeppelin or navigable balloon was patented as a significant world invention, as was aspirin; alpha and beta radiation was discovered; and the great cricketing icon W.G. Grace played his final test for England.

In terms of notable historical events, the breaking news from Worple Road in the leafy London suburb of Wimbledon was that the All England Lawn Tennis Club had re-incorporated croquet, changing its title to the one it holds today: The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club.

Shooting hoops

Talk about a hoopla! Mallets were raised in victory by ladies in long petticoated dresses and men in blazers and straw boaters.

The renaming of the Club represented a triumphant comeback: 22 years earlier, it was the All England Croquet Club that had embraced the newly popular sport of lawn tennis, with the genteel pastime taking precedence in the Club nomenclature.

By 1882, interest in croquet had waned and The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club dropped ‘croquet’.

Roll on another 17 years, and croquet was back, even if its status in the line-up of words ranked lower than lawn tennis. The fact that it has remained there ever since – alongside the game that evolved into a multimillion-pound professional global sport – is a trademark celebration of the Club’s heritage. 

But croquet has always remained a part of Club life and culture, with a reported five to 10 per cent of members enjoying a whack of the red, blue, yellow and black balls between the months of April and September, currently under the captaincy of Julie Willson.

During The Championships, the croquet lawns are dressed as spill-over practice courts for the world’s best tennis players, but the alternative grass-court game remains at the heart of the spirit of the Club.

A few years ago, wimbledon.com challenged leading players to try their skills on a mini-croquet lawn set up on the Players’ Balcony. Roger, Rafa, Andy and Novak led an all-comers field that included Garbiñe Muguruza, Grigor Dimitrov, Caroline Wozniacki and Johanna Konta.

Federer, ever the King of Grass, effortlessly displayed his skill in steering a ball through a wicket, even while wielding his mallet in a non-athleisure smart linen suit.

Breaking the mould

The year 1899, most particularly the 24th of May, was also hugely significant for Wimbledon in featuring the birthday of Suzanne Lenglen. La Divina, as she would grow up to be hailed, dominated The Championships during the 1920s, winning an extraordinary 15 titles (six singles, six doubles and three mixed) with a 91-3 win-loss record in matches contested here. 

More flamboyantly even than her presence in the record books, Lenglen turned Wimbledon into a headline event, drawing newshounds to report on stories other than those generated by the scoreboard.

Everyone wanted to see the trailblazer who renounced corsets and petticoats in preference for shorter, looser one-piece dresses that exposed her shoulders, arms and calves (shock, horror), who sported a bobbed hairstyle with bandana – on one occasion adorned with diamonds – and wore newly fashionable lipstick and nail polish.

Initially branded ‘indecent’ and ‘shameless’, Lenglen was by 1926 heralded by Vogue magazine for her iconic style: ‘The French champion sports an extraordinarily chic tennis look for the freedom, appropriateness and excellence of its simple lines.’

A year later, she was back wearing a pleated short skirt conjured from translucent silk. Women’s tennis wear never looked back.

Other significant birthdays in 1899 – the year Reginald Doherty beat Arthur Gore and Blanche Hillyard defeated Ruth Durlacher to lift the singles trophies – included Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense; P.L. Travers, the creator of the quintessentially English Mary Poppins; and Harold Abrahams, the athlete who inspired Chariots of Fire – all people whose lifetime achievements contributed to the values we look for in sporting drama at Wimbledon today.

Crafting history

It was also 125 years ago that Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington, which today houses an item of totemic significance to Wimbledon: The Temperance Basin.

The Wimbledon ladies’ singles trophy – the sterling silver, partly gilded Venus Rosewater Dish – is a reproduction of this serving platter decorated with a mythological theme. 

The Victoria & Albert Museum has 15 reproductions of the original design, which dates from 1585, but the one that is the holy grail for Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka and co represented the ultimate in 19th-century innovation when it was first crafted by Elkington & Company of Birmingham in 1864. 

A final note: the summer of 1899 was the hottest summer on record since 1659. Will 2024 be a scorcher as it was 125 years ago? Perhaps not in meteorological terms.