[Illustration: Miss A.M. Morton]

[Illustration: Miss A.N.G. Greene]

I feel I owe an apology to Mrs. Luard for writing about a match in which
I happened to beat her, as she is, and was then, a player altogether a
class above me. No doubt it became "memorable," as I certainly never
expected to win at the outset, and still less so when I was undergoing
one of those ghastly "creep-ups" in the final set. It happened in 1904
at Wimbledon, on the centre court, in the semi-final of the
Championship. Miss Wilson (as she then was) started well and won the
first set 6/3, the second went to me at 6/4, and the third set seemed as
if it would go to either of us in turn. Everything went well for me till
I actually got to 5/1 and it was 15/40 on her service; then I lost two
points quite easily--those winning shots are so hard to make! And at
deuce we had a tremendous rally, which ended in a good side-line shot by
my opponent that I couldn't get to and didn't even try. The linesman
called "out," which I contradicted, and general confusion took place,
the spectators joining in the fray--and it all arose through the ball
being given "out" in the middle of the long rally when a train was
passing, and we neither of us heard it. I never knew the explanation
till after the match and was quite convinced I had "sneaked" the point,
and somehow I went all to pieces, and everything went as badly as it
had gone well before, till Miss Wilson crept up to 6/5. Then I made an
expiring effort just in time. I dare say she was tired, for I won that
game fairly easily. We had a great fight for the thirteenth, which I
fortunately won, and finished the match with a love game. And no one was
more surprised than I.