The History of the All-England Badminton Championships

Geoff Hinder — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 16:15:41 +0000

The History of the All England Badminton Championships

The first Championships were played at the London Scottish Drill Hall in 1899 with only doubles played, singles being introduced the following year. The Championships would use three venues in London before settling at the Royal Horticultural Hall for 25 years. It was mainly dominated by English and Irish players for the first 35 Championships then gradually more players from overseas participated.

In 1947 when the tournament resumed after the Second World War it would be mainly Danish and Malaysian players winning the titles. Eventually the Championships settled at the Wembley Arena for its longest period of 37 years in one venue. The Championships now being sponsored by Yonex, would make its last move to the National Indoor Arena, now called Arena Birmingham.

In 1898 the Guildford Badminton Club organised the first ever open badminton tournament at Guildford, England, it was a one-day event with men's, ladies and mixed doubles being played. The first tournament at Guildford was such a success that the Badminton Association (England) decided to hold their own event and the following year, after much consideration it was decided to hold the first Championships on 4 April 1899 at the London Scottish Drill Hall, Buckingham Gate, Westminster, London.

Again, the tournament was played on a single day with only doubles being played. The Drill Hall was conveniently close to the main railway stations, and was well lit, lofty with four courts, although the two end courts had balconies hanging over them.

The tournament was played on hourglass courts which are the normal size as we know them today but the width of the net was only 4.88m wide. The barrelled shuttle was used and the lines on the courts were chalked out on the morning of the tournament before play commenced and needed remarking during the day.

The Waist or Hour Glass court was used for the first three years of the All England.

In the second year of the All-England Championships they introduced men's and women’s singles and it was increased to a two-day event.

Ethel Thomson was the first All-England women’s singles champion, who like many top badminton players of the time was a good standard tennis player eventually becoming a Wimbledon tennis champion.

The first men's singles champion was Sidney Smith again a good standard tennis player and a Wimbledon tennis champion.

For the first two years, the Championships was called the Badminton Association Tournament. It was the 1901 tournament that it was renamed the All-England Badminton Championships.

The Championships was played for a third year at the London Scottish Drill Hall before moving to the Crystal Palace for the fourth Championships.

The Crystal Palace was a vast construction of glass, six courts were used over the three days of the tournament but the light was poor and there was a distinct drift, due to strong air currents that altered the shuttle’s true flight.

This would be the first year that the Championships was played on rectangular courts as we know them today, thus doing away with the waste or hourglass court where the width of the net was only 16 feet (4.9m) on a 20 feet (6.1m) x 44 feet (13.4m) court.

1902 saw Scottish and Irish players competing in the Championships for the first time. The Crystal Palace was not considered central enough in London and was only used for the one-year.

The next venue for the Championships would be the London Rifle Brigade's City Headquarters, Bunhill Row, London.

he conditions at this venue were so cramped that incoming players and spectators held up the games as they walked behind and across the courts.

Play on occasions had to be delayed to allow early morning fog to disperse and on other days, snow on the roof cast gloom over the proceedings that the gas burners did little to dispel.

In 1907 the men's doubles final was postponed at 7-2 because of the failing light and was completed four days later.

As the event grew the London Rifle Brigade's venue became too small and in 1910 the Championships moved to the Royal Horticultural Hall in Westminster, London.

They also changed the shuttlecocks they used to the straight type similar to the ones they use today. After initial problems with lighting and the floor the venue became very popular with players and spectators.

The Championships was suspended from 1915 to 1920 owing to the First World War.

Frank Devlin would dominate men’s badminton in the 1920s and early 1930s, he would be the first Irishman to win an All-England title when he won the men’s doubles with Guy Sautter (England) in 1922.

The next year he would team up with his Irish colleague Gordon ‘Curly’ Mack to take the first of their six men’s doubles titles together. Frank would win 6 men's singles and five mixed doubles titles with various partners.

Devlin is the only player in All England history to complete the ‘triple’ three times – he won the three titles in the same year, men’s singles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles in 1926, 1927 and 1929.

He lies second in the most All-England titles league table with a total of 18.

Frank’s daughters Sue and Judy inherited his badminton genes to win 6 All-England woman’s doubles together in the 1950s and 1960s, Judy would win a record-breaking 10 woman’s singles titles.

The Royal Horticultural Hall in the 1920s. The venue would be used for the Championships from 1910 to 1939.
On Friday of the Championships, England would play International Matches.

1930s All-England Champions who dominated women’s badminton and won a total of 26 All-England titles.
From left to right: Betty Uber, Diana Doveton, Marjorie Henderson and Thelma Kingsbury.

Raymond (Bill) White wearing his All-England blazer, he was the first top player to wear shorts, preceding Bunny Austin in tennis.

Bill would win four consecutive men’s doubles All-England titles with Donald Hume from 1932, also 2 men’s singles in 1933 and 1935 and one mixed doubles with Betty Uber in 1938.

Ralph Nichols in his England International blazer, Ralph in 1938 was the last Englishman to win the men’s singles title.

Also in 1938 with his brother Lesley, they would be the last Englishmen to win the All-England men’s doubles title.

In the 1930s more and more overseas players entered the Championships and in 1938 when a large contingent of Danish players entered the Championships this would be the last year that English and Irish players would dominate the event.

1939 saw the first Danish winners with Tage Madsen taking the men's singles title and Ruth Dalsgaard and Tonny Olsen the woman's doubles.

Also, Dorothy Walton would win the women's singles for Canada.

With this influx of high-class international entry, the Badminton Association of England boldly decided for the 1940 event a larger venue was needed, so the 12000-seater Harringay Arena in North London where seven courts could be laid was chosen.

The Second World War would put paid to these plans and the All-England Championships would not restart until 1947.

The first day of the 37th All-England Championships in 1947 was a disaster with only six matches being played.

The night before a blizzard hit London, the wind forced snow down the ventilators in the roof and froze hard on the wooden floor laid over the ice rink. A fuel shortage meant that there was no heating in the arena and the temperature remained low.

This would be the first year of Herbert Scheele’s 24-year reign as tournament referee, also the first of 36 years that RSL shuttles would be used at the Championships.

The Championships would remain at Harringay for another two years before moving to the Empress Hall, Earls Court, London.

This would be the start of Malaysian player’s dominance in the men's events during the 1950s.

In 1957 the Championships would move to the Wembley Arena where it stayed for the next 37 years, currently the longest home for the Championships of any of the venues.

Wembley was renowned for its air drift but also tremendous crowd atmosphere particularly on semi-final nights.

Prior to 1977 the All-England was considered to be the unofficial World Championships.

There were many great players that played at Wembley. Two of the legends were Judy Hashman from the USA who won a total of 10 ladies singles titles, a record that has never been surpassed and the other legend was Indonesian Rudy Hartono who won a total of eight men's singles titles, again this record has not been surpassed.

Wembley Arena, London. The home of the Championships for 37 years.

Photo by Peter Richardson

Kirsten Thorndahl and Finn Kobbero

Kirsten Thorndahl was one of the most successful Danish players in badminton history.

In 1948, she became the first non-British female to triple crown at the All England.

Finn Kobbero was one of the most successful players in the history of the All-England Badminton Championships with 15 titles between 1955 and 1966.

Erland Kops and 'Eddy' Choong

'Eddy' Choong (Malaya) came to England to study law at University, he would win 4 men’s singles All England titles and 3 doubles titles with his brother David.

Eddy spent nine years based in England which allowed him to travel easily across Europe.

The next year Erland Kops would take the singles and doubles titles to start his incredible career with a total of 11 titles to become a Danish All-England legend.

Rudy Hartono is one of the truly great All-England champions.

In 1976 Rudy Hartono from Indonesia broke the record for eight men’s singles titles. Erland Kops of Denmark had previously held the record of seven.

Rudy started playing at the All-England Championships in 1968 and would dominate world men's singles badminton for the next 10 years.

Even in his first championship, he broke an All-England record by becoming the youngest men's singles champion at the age of 18 years and 7 months. From 1968, he would win the men's singles title for 7 consecutive years.

Rudy Hartono at the height of his dominance in men’s singles in 1971, playing six matches to win the All-England singles he only had 39 points scored against him.

In Rudy’s 10-year All-England career he only ever lost two matches. It was in 1975 making his first attempt at breaking the record of eight titles Rudy would lose his first-ever match at the All England.

Playing tentatively in one of the most exciting and memorable finals he lost to the Dane Svend Pri in straight sets.

Finally, in 1976 playing against his fellow countryman, Liem Swie King, Rudy would achieve his record-breaking eighth All-England crown.

Some people say that Hartono is the greatest men's singles All-England champion; he was certainly the youngest men's singles champion and there never has been a player that dominated the event for so many years.

The Japanese who dominated women's singles and doubles in the 1970s

Photos by Graham Habbin

In 1976 Gillian Gilks MBE won all three All-England titles – women’s singles, doubles (with Sue Whetnall) and mixed (with Derek Talbot) in the same year,

Gillian remains the last player in the world ever to have achieved this.

Gillian in 1978 is also the last English woman to win the women’s singles title at the All-England. Over a period of 15 years, she won a total of 11 All-England titles, 2 women’s singles, 3 woman’s doubles and 6 mixed doubles.

Gillian Gilks MBE
A triple All England Champion in 1976

Photo by Louis Ross

Celebrities Cliff Richards and Sue Barker watching the 1982 Championships with All-England Champion Gillian Gilks MBE

Photo by Peter Richardson

Shortly after the unification of the two-world badminton governing bodies the Chinese participated in the Championships for the first time.

In 1982 a 27 strong squad of Chinese players entered the All-England Badminton Championships. In the woman's singles there would be nine Chinese players starting their challenge to be the All-England champion, with the 24-year-old Chinese Zhang Ailing being the top seed.

By the time the event had reached the quarter-finals there would be seven Chinese players occupying the last eight places. Only Lene Koppen from Denmark, the previous year’s runner-up surviving to this stage, a probable all Chinese final was almost inevitable.

In the final it would be the 18-year-old Li Lingwei versus the established star, Zhang Ailing, a badminton instructor from Shanghai.

Seven times previously they had joined battle in other tournaments, seven times Zhang Ailing had triumphed, and yet again the “teacher” beat the “pupil” this time without any great effort, 11-4 11-6.

Photo by Peter Richardson

The first time a Chinese pair would win the men's doubles title at the Yonex All England Badminton Championships would be 1987 with the famous pair of Li Yongbo and Tian Bingyi taking the title.

For the mixed doubles title, it would be the next year 1988 when Wang Pengren and Shi Fangjing would lift their Yonex All-England trophies.

The Move to Birmingham

Photo by Badminton Photo

In 1993 after a successful Badminton World Federation World Championships at the National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, the Badminton Association of England decided the next year to move the Yonex All-England Championships to the NIA.

2007 saw the Championships joining the BWF’s Super Series.

Spectator numbers continue to grow at the Arena Birmingham, as the NIA is now known.

With many good hotels and restaurants in close proximity, the arena has become one of the finest badminton venues in the world.

Photo by Alan Spink - Action Photography

1999 saw the hundred year anniversary of the first All England

1999 was the Centenary All England Championships and to put the icing on the birthday cake the English pair of Joanne Goode and Simon Archer won the mixed doubles title.

Simon Archer and Joanne Goode (England) v Ha Tae-Kwon and Chung Jae-Hee (Korea). Simon Archer and Joanne Goode won 15-2, 15-13.

Photo by Peter Richardson

England had to wait six years for their next and last gold medals, brought to them by Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms, who beat Thomas Laybourn & Kamilla Rytter Juhl from Denmark in the 2005 final.

Photo by Alan Spink - Action Photography

2010 celebrated the staging of the 100th All England

In 2013 Tine Baun playing in her last tournament of her magnificent badminton career, made it a hat-trick of Yonex All-England titles by winning the woman’s singles.

Tine, the 33-year-old Danish former world number 1, became the oldest All-England champion in the Open era when she defeated an opponent who would have been the youngest champion as she outplayed the 18-year-old Intanon Ratchanok of Thailand.

Photo by Alan Spink - Action Photo

2021 the year of facemasks and no spectators

Photo by Alan Spink - Action Photography

Due to COVID restrictions, the 2021 tournament took place behind closed doors with no spectators present.

Players were limited to one coach courtside and during the early rounds the coach and teams had to watch from the concourse on specially set up monitors. During the later rounds the second coach was permitted to watch from inside the arena, observing safe distancing.

The exciting finals on the Sunday took six hours to complete, without the noise from the thousands of enthusiastic spectators that normally attend the Championships you could hear every shuttle being struck and the players landing on the sprung floor.

All this enhanced the atmosphere for the millions of worldwide fans watching on television, it felt like your armchair was by the side of the court.

Japan would have all six pairs in the doubles finals, guaranteeing them three titles, Nozomi Okuhara winning the woman’s singles gave them their fourth title.

Yuta Watanabe would win the men’s and mixed doubles making him the first male player in two decades to win two titles in the same year.

In the men’s singles, sixth seed Malaysian Lee Zii Jia reach the final without losing a game. On the other side of the draw, reigning champion Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen did not have such an easy passage as three out of his four matches were hard-fought three-setters.

In the final the first game went the full 59 points with Lee winning the deciding point.

The second game was an equally tough match with Axelsen winning it 22-20.

All was set for a third and final marathon game, but the Dane faded in the second half allowing the 22-year-old Lee Zii Jia to lift the famous Arthur Barron Silver Challenge Men’s Singles Trophy.

2024, the 125th All England

2024 marked the 125th staging of the All England Badminton Championships, with very special guests.

The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh visited the event, watched some games and visited the museum display where they learned about the history of the All England Badminton Championships.

Geoff Hinder and Jim Mann from the Badminton Museum showing the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh the history of the All England Badminton Championships

Post written by Geoff Hinder

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The History of the All-England Badminton Championships