Whilst the nation follows Andy Murray's progress in SW19 and his ability to bow this was no great problem for an Annieslander of yesteryear


Just imagine being a British Lion and playing tennis at Wimbledon.--what a combination--a combination few could aspire to
One such athlete was J.P.R Williams of Wales and the Lions who once beat a certain David Lloyd at Wimbledon but another was a Glasgow Accie who played his rugby on both sides of the Anniesland fence- a certain Louis Greig a quite remarkable sportsman
Louis a half back played his rugby for Glasgow Accies in the decade leading up to the First World War and was capped many times for Scotland including their historic 6-0 defeat of the mighty Springboks at Hampden Park. He toured with the British Isles Team( the term Lions was only introduced in the 1920s) to South Africa playing 17 times. During this period Accies who had played at Old Anniesland since 1883 were in the process of moving to New Anniesland which was officially opened in 1905.
Louis Greig went on to partner the future King George V1 in the Mens Doubles at Wimbledon in 1926.

The Wimbledon website records
When in 1922 King George V, accompanied by Queen Mary, opened the Church Road ground, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII and Duke of Windsor) and Prince Albert (later Duke of York and King George VI) were present. In 1926, on the occasion of The Jubilee Championships, the latter competed in the Gentlemen’s Doubles event in partnership with L. Greig (later Sir Louis Greig, Chairman of The All England Lawn Tennis Club), but they were well beaten in the first round by H.R. Barrett and A.W. Gore.

He was chairman of Wimbledon for years and it was he who had the idea of bringing in the ballboys from Barnados. When there was a small crisis because the lady tennis players wanted - and needed - professional massage, but in those delicate days earlier in the century they could not contemplate being seen by the then exclusively male masseuses, Greig had the brilliant idea of finding a blind masseuse to treat the women players

This article was originally posted on 29-Jun-2010, 18:11 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 30-Jun-2010, 12:45.