James Cecil Parke

James Cecil Parke (26 July 1881 – 27 February 1946) was an Irish Rugby union player, tennis player, golfer, Olympic silver medallist and Australasian Championships winner.

James Cecil Parke
Country (sports)United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Born(1881-07-26)26 July 1881
Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland
Died27 February 1946(1946-02-27) (aged 64)
Llandudno, Conwy, Wales
Turned pro1900 (amateur tour)
Retired1925[1]
PlaysRight-handed (one-handed backhand)
Singles
Career record193-40 (82.83%)
Career titles31
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian OpenW (1912)
WimbledonSF (1910, 1913)
Doubles
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian OpenW (1912)
WimbledonF (1920)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
WimbledonW (1914)
Team competitions
Davis CupW (1912)
Medal record
Representing  Great Britain
Tennis, Summer Olympics
1908 LondonOutdoor doubles

Parke was born in Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland. He played rugby with both Monkstown and Dublin University and between 1901 and 1908 played ten times for Leinster.[2] Between 1903 and 1909, he won twenty Ireland caps.[3]

As a tennis player, Parke was a baseliner whose best shot was a running down-the-line forehand.[4] Parke won the Wimbledon Mixed Doubles title in 1914. He won the Australian Men's singles and doubles tennis titles in 1912. He was Singles Champion of Europe in 1907 and played for Britain in the Davis Cup. In 1908 he won an Olympic Silver medal in Men's Doubles.[5] He won eight Irish Lawn Tennis Singles titles, four doubles and two mixed titles. Parke was ranked world No. 4 in both 1913 and 1920 by A. Wallis Myers of The Daily Telegraph.[2][6] He recorded his greatest feats in the Davis Cup where he defeated Norman Brookes and Rodney Heath in the Challenge Round on 28–30 November 1912 when his team, the British Isles captured the Cup and next year he beat Maurice McLoughlin and Richard Norris Williams in the Challenge Round on 25–28 July 1913, though his nation lost the meeting against the USA. He also won the depleted Australasian Championships in 1912.

He played golf for Ireland in 1906 and was also a top-class track and field sprinter and a cricketer. He played chess for the Clones team when he was nine years old.[2] He died in Llandudno, Wales.

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 title
Result Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Win1912Australasian ChampionshipsGrass Alfred Beamish3–6, 6–3, 1–6, 6–1, 7–5

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)
Result Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Win1912Australasian ChampionshipsGrass Charles Dixon Alfred Beamish
Gordon Lowe		6–4, 6–4, 6–2
Loss1920WimbledonGrass Algernon Kingscote Chuck Garland
R. Norris Williams		6–4, 4–6, 5–7, 2–6

Mixed doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)
Result Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss1913WimbledonGrass Ethel Thomson Larcombe Agnes Tuckey
Hope Crisp		6–3, 3–5 retired
Win1914WimbledonGrass Ethel Thomson Larcombe Marguerite Broquedis
Anthony Wilding		4–6, 6–4, 6–2

See also

References
  1. Irish Identity: Ireland's greatest all-round sportsman
  2. "James Cecil Parke". Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Retrieved 24 June 2010.
  3. James Parke rugby union profile Scrum.com
  4. "J. Cecil Parke". www.tennis.co.nf.
  5. "James Cecil Parke Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 16 December 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  6. United States Lawn Tennis Association (1972). Official Encyclopedia of Tennis (First Edition), p. 422.


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