The British title had gone to Americans for the previous ten yea ever since 1923, when A. G, Have just beat Walter Hagen by one stroke and so prevented him from winni the championship for three consecutive years British players have won the competition for the last three years:
1985 Alfred Perry, of Leatherhead, won with an aggregate of 283; Alfred Padgham triumphed in 1936 with a total of 287, while last year Cotton won with 290,—Reuter.
The wicket was not mown, because they had no mowing machines in those days and no rollers, all cutting being done by scythes. Pads and loves were hardly known, and one enterprising chap' called Robinson, once went in to bat with two boards tied to his shins, When the ball hit the wooden guards it made such a clatter that Robinson decided he would sooner be cracked on the shins than have to stand such a racket, so he threw them away. They were tough lads in those days said one, William Beldam; sometimes you would see a lump heave under the stocking, and even blood come through, but I never knew a man to be killed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.