James Cecil Parke

James Cecil Parke
Country (sports) Ireland
Born (1881-07-26)26 July 1881
Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland
Died 27 February 1946(1946-02-27) (aged 64)
Llandudno, Conwy, Wales
Turned pro 1900 (amateur tour)
Retired 1925[1]
Plays Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Singles
Highest ranking No. 3 (1912, Karoly Mazak)[2]
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open W (1912)
Wimbledon SF (1910, 1913)
Doubles
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open W (1912)
Wimbledon F (1920)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
Wimbledon F (1913)
Team competitions
Davis Cup W (1912)

James Cecil Parke (26 July 1881 – 27 February 1946) was an Irish rugby player, tennis player, golfer and Olympic medallist.

Parke was born in Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland. He played rugby with both Monkstown and Dublin University and between 1901 and 1908 played ten times for Leinster.[3] Between 1903 and 1909, he won twenty Ireland caps.[4]

As a tennis player he won the Wimbledon Mixed Doubles title in 1912 and 1914. He won the Australian Men's singles and doubles tennis titles in 1912. He was Singles Champion of Europe in 1907 and played for Britain in the Davis Cup. In 1908 he won an Olympic Silver medal in Men's Doubles.[5] He won eight Irish Lawn Tennis Singles titles, four doubles and two mixed titles. Parke was ranked World No. 3 for 1912 by Karoly Mazak, and in both 1913 and 1920 he was ranked World No. 4 by A. Wallis Myers of The Daily Telegraph.[2][3][6] He recorded his greatest feats in the Davis Cup where he defeated Norman Brookes and Rodney Heath in the Challenge Round on 28–30 November 1912 when his team, the British Isles captured the Cup and next year he beat Maurice McLoughlin and Richard Norris Williams in the Challenge Round on 25–28 July 1913, though his nation lost the meeting against the USA. He also won the depleted Australasian Championships in 1912.

He played golf for Ireland in 1906 and was also a top-class track and field sprinter and a cricketer. He played chess for the Clones team when he was nine years old.[3] He died in Llandudno, Wales.

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 title

Outcome Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Winner 1912 Australasian Championships Grass United Kingdom Alfred Beamish 3–6, 6–3, 1–6, 6–1, 7–5

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Winner 1912 Australasian Championships Grass United Kingdom Charles Dixon United Kingdom Alfred Beamish
United Kingdom Gordon Lowe
6–4, 6–4, 6–2
Runner-up 1920 Wimbledon Grass United Kingdom Algernon Kingscote United States Chuck Garland
United States R. Norris Williams
6–4, 4–6, 5–7, 2–6

Mixed doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Runner-up 1913 Wimbledon Grass United Kingdom Ethel Thomson Larcombe United Kingdom Agnes Tuckey
United Kingdom Hope Crisp
6–3, 3–5 retired
Winner 1914 Wimbledon Grass United Kingdom Ethel Thomson Larcombe France Marguerite Broquedis
New Zealand Anthony Wilding
4–6, 6–4, 6–2

See also

References

  1. Irish Identity: Ireland's greatest all-round sportsman
  2. 1 2 Mazak, Karoly (2010). The Concise History of Tennis, p. 40.
  3. 1 2 3 "James Cecil Parke". Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Retrieved 24 June 2010.
  4. James Parke rugby union profile Scrum.com
  5. "James Cecil Parke Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Retrieved 2014-01-31.
  6. United States Lawn Tennis Association (1972). Official Encyclopedia of Tennis (First Edition), p. 422.

External links


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