Lives in Cricket No 46 - George Raikes

117 at their best. At an open summer meeting Maud and her twin sister Ethel (note 3) tied for the ladies’ foursomes final, George and Maud won the mixed foursomes whilst Ethel and Captain Trollope carried off the mixed approaching and putting competition. They were still chasing silverware as late as June 1930; first, Maud was one shot off winning the Monthly Medal and then, contesting the Boycott Shield, she won the prize for the best outward half. Meanwhile George finished second in the Barratt Cup, also missing out by just one shot, despite being 57 years of age. Whilst the golf season was somewhat unstructured, with events spread through the year, tennis in south Norfolk was centred around the annual Bungay Open Tennis Tournament, at the end of August (note 4) . Up to 200 players entered this prestigious event each year. There were no reports in the press of a tournament in 1921 but the next year a full programme was organised for the 12 th running of the tournament, including men’s singles, ladies’ singles, men’s doubles, ladies’ doubles, mixed doubles, events for juniors and a special handicapped competition for mixed couples who lived within a ten mile radius of Bungay. By this time George, who had been a very fine social player, and Maud, who was the better of the two and had won the Welsh Women’s Singles when younger, were a little old to be playing in the more strenuous singles events. They were frequently joined in these competitions by some of George’s many nephews and nieces. The one relative who did compete in the singles was his niece ‘K’ Raikes (note 5) who was a fine player. Mary Ruth Mann ( nee Raikes), a great-niece of George remembers that her aunt ‘K’ “used to inspect the prizes on offer before a tournament, to decide which to aim for”. She first appeared in 1922 and 1923 as Miss Raikes and later took part under her married name of Mrs Oliver Bevir. The 1922 tournament was dominated by the Raikes family. ‘K’ was to the fore, winning the ladies’ singles, the Eastern Daily Press commenting that “considering the number of matches Miss Raikes played yesterday, she did excellently.” George and his nephew Arthur Raikes carried off the men’s doubles whilst the open mixed doubles was very much a family affair; both pairs reached the final, with George and Maud being due to play Arthur and ‘K’. In the end they decided to share the title – perhaps tiredness on the part of ‘K’ was the reason for the lack of a divider for, as well as winning the singles, she reached the semi-finals of the handicapped ladies’ doubles. The press did not comment on the domination of the tournament by the family. George was appointed to the management committee for the 1923 tournament which was plagued by winds so strong that the Eastern Daily Press published the headline ‘Comedy Tennis In A Gale’ and described the conditions as ‘horrible’. One of the few players to thrive was the trophy- hungry ‘K’; she reached the semi-final of the ladies’ doubles (playing with Maud) and more notably retained the women’s singles, seemingly without losing a set. Mercifully, the weather behaved itself in 1924 and everyone had much more fun. In the absence of ‘K’ the Raikes family failed to secure any silverware but the press was moved to comment favourably of George: The Rector of Bergh Apton - The End of a Muscular Christian