History Notes - Tennis and Muriel Wilson
SOME TENNIS HISTORY IN BARRABA Part 3 – Muriel Wilson
Last week I said that this week would be the story of the many adventures (and victories) of the Barraba Country Week Teams in the early 1900s. However, reading further about the many outstanding Barraba tennis players, another player really stands out; Muriel (Muff) Wilson. Here’s what Ron McLean (“Country Cracks – The story of NSW country tennis”) wrote (p 50):
“Barraba came to fame through the exploits of the Spencers and Williams in the 1920s. But there was a young girl who also had a long and successful career in Country tennis. She was Muriel Wilson, known to everyone as Muff, and she probably owed her emergence as a top player to the genial Barraba men, who often practised with her on the court on her family’s property, Mayvale. She became the regular mixed doubles partner of Bob Spencer and her solid play at the back of the court forced many short balls for her partner, who hardly missed anything loose. They won the second Country mixed title in 1923, repeated the dose in 1924, and one again in 1926 and 1930…. By the end of the decade, she had clearly established herself and Country’s best (woman) player. In fact, in the whole history of Country Week, no-one has surpassed her record of seven singles championships. She won the Country singles for the first time in 1929 and between then and 1936 the only year she missed out was 1935, when she was overseas. She played at Wimbledon that year, a mighty achievement for a player from rural Australia. Her singles record was impressive at Country level but added six doubles titles (all with Betty O’Donnell) and five mixed (four with Spencer and one with Guy Williams) and you gain appreciation of her quality.
Country titles, however, were not her only claim to fame. She was a top-ranking competitor each year at the NSW Hardcourts at Dubbo, winning the singles championships four times between 1930 and 1934, the doubles twice with Miss Dingle, and the mixed in 1930 and 1931 with Guy Williams. And she played in three of the four Tamworth teams to win Country week from 1926 to 1929.”
Records show that Muriel Wilson was born in 1902, one of three children of Clifford Philip and Kathleen (nee Cadden) Wilson of Mayvale. Census records show that she was still living at Mayvale in the 1950s. I assume Muriel (Muff) must have played at the Barraba courts in the lifetime of some of our local residents; we would love to hear from you.
Next week – The Barraba Country Week team and its exploits.