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From potential to champion and struggles on the course
Steven Lynch February 1, 2010
Laura Robson is Britain's latest hope for tennis glory
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The victories by Laura Robson and Heather Watson have raised the hopes of British tennis fans, but have many winners of junior Grand Slam events actually gone on to be successful in the adult game?
Although both Laura and Heather look very promising, it has to be said that success in the junior events does not necessarily guarantee a glittering senior future. The boys' and girls' singles events at Wimbledon started in 1947, and since then only eight of well over 100 junior champions have gone on to win the senior singles there. The first man to do so was Bjorn Borg, who followed his junior title in 1972 (when he beat Britain's Buster Mottram in the final) with five singles titles, the first of them in 1976. Pat Cash won the boys' singles in 1982 and the men's in 1987, and he was followed as junior champion by Stefan Edberg, who went on to win the singles proper in 1988 and 1990. Finally for the men Roger Federer was the junior champion in 1998, and won the first of his senior titles in 2003. Four winners of the girls' singles at Wimbledon have also gone on to women's singles success: Britain's Ann Haydon won the girls' singles in 1956, and finally lifted the women's singles title (as Mrs Jones) 13 years later. It didn't take as long for Karen Hantze, who won the girls' singles in 1960 and the senior title (as Mrs Susman) two years later. Since then both Martina Hingis (who won the girls' singles in 1994, when she was only 13, and the main event three years later) and Amelie Mauresmo (girls' 1996, women's 2006) have won both.
Given the state of British sport at the moment, which host country has "enjoyed" the least successful summer Olympics?
The only host nation which did not win a single gold medal when they staged the Olympics was Canada, in 1976 when the Games were held in Montreal (they did manage five silver medals and six bronzes). And Canada completed an unwanted double 12 years later, when they staged the Winter Olympics in Calgary - they didn't win any golds then either. The last time the Olympics were held in London, in 1948, Great Britain won three gold medals, two in rowing (one of them was won by the comic actor Hugh Laurie's father) and one in sailing.
Who was the first British golfer to win a major and who was the latest?
The first event now recognised as a major was the British Open, which was first staged in 1860 and wasn't joined by the American equivalent until 1895. In that period every winner of The Open was British - most of them Scots - and the very first winner was Willie Park senior, who won over three 12-hole rounds at Prestwick. He edged "Old Tom" Morris - who would go on to win four Opens, as did his son "Young Tom" - into second place by two strokes. The first overseas winner of the British Open was the Frenchman Arnaud Massy in 1907. The boot is on the other foot now - no British golfer has won a major since Paul Lawrie's surprise victory in The Open at Carnoustie in 1999 (Padraig Harrington, who has won three majors, is Irish). So a British win is overdue - and with a talented field containing the likes of Paul Casey, Ross Fisher, Rory McIlroy, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood - surely it can't be long delayed now?
Paul Lawrie lifted the famous Claret Jug at Carnoustie in 1999
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Has any horse ever won all five of the English Classic races?
No horse has ever won all five, and it's exceedingly unlikely to happen now. For a start the horse would have to be a filly (the 1000 Guineas and the Oaks are exclusively for female horses), and also the two Guineas races, then the Derby and the Oaks, are traditionally run only a day or two apart, allowing little time for recovery. However, going back a few years one horse did win four of the five Classics: in 1902 Sceptre won the 2000 and 1000 Guineas (two days apart), then - suffering from an injured foot - finished fourth in the Derby before winning the Oaks and, later in the year, taking the St Leger too. Before that, in 1868, Formosa won the 1000 Guineas, the St Leger and the Oaks, and dead-heated (with Moslem) in the 2000 Guineas. In 1970 Nijinsky, ridden by Lester Piggott, became the most recent of 15 male horses to win the "Triple Crown" of Derby, 2000 Guineas and St Leger. In 1985 Oh So Sharp won the fillies' equivalent (the 1000 Guineas, Oaks and St Leger).
Why did England not play in the football World Cup until 1950?
The simple answer is that the British football associations had an unhappy relationship with FIFA (the international body) at the time of the earlier tournaments. They had relinquished their membership in 1919 in protest at the possibility of being forced to play against countries with whom they had recently been at war, and after rejoining shortly afterwards resigned again later in the 1920s in protest about a FIFA decision to allow "broken-time" payments to supposedly amateur players. Still, the Uruguayan FA specifically invited England to the first World Cup in 1930, but they declined. The British associations rejoined FIFA in 1946 and were offered two places in the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, the qualifiers to come from the Home Championships involving England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. England won, but second-placed Scotland had decided beforehand that they would only go if they won the group, and stayed behind. England might have wished they had stayed at home too - they managed to lose 1-0 to the unrated USA team, and failed to progress from their first-round group.
Has sport ever been played in the UK on Christmas Day, and, if so, what was the last major sporting event to do so?
The main event used to be League football, which was regularly played on Christmas Day until the 1950s. The last-ever matches were played at Blackburn and Coventry on December 25, 1959, and the last more or less full League programme happened in 1957. I'd like to see them try it now, with no public transport! One oddity that arises from this is that Walter Robins, the former England cricket captain, played two Football League matches as an outside-right for Nottingham Forest - both of them on Christmas Day (in 1929 and 1930). Perhaps he didn't like mince pies ...
If you want to ask Steven a question, use our feedback form. The most interesting questions will be answered here fortnightly on Mondays.
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Steven Lynch
If you want to ask Steven a question, use our feedback form. The most interesting questions will be answered here fortnightly on Mondays, and you can challenge him on Facebook too Steven Lynch won the Wisden Cricket Monthly Christmas Quiz three years running before the then-editor said "I can't let you win it again, but would you like a job?" That lasted for 15 years, before he moved across to the Wisden website when that was set up in 2000. Following the merger of the two sites early in 2003 he was appointed as the global editor of Wisden Cricinfo. In June 2005 he became the deputy editor of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. He continues to contribute the popular weekly "Ask Steven" question-and-answer column on Cricinfo, and edits the Cricinfo Guide to International Cricket, the fourth edition of which was published at the end of 2009.
