Fantastic, look forward to whatever you can find !

Thanks Tom , I didn't think too try the Swedish version of wiki! So Britain won it 4 times, be interested to see when that was.

My big interest is in where we played our matches, I recall I'm sure , we played in Aberystwyth one year , but could be wrong.

BRITTAK, I also used to have all those world of tennis books, I recall John Parsons was the editor, and lance Tingay before him. Sadly I left them behind in some house move or other.

Searching in Swedish helped me find one article from 1983
www.upi.com/Archives/1983/01/30/West-Germany-captured-the-Kings-Cup-indoor-tennis-trophy/8021412750800/

Jan wrote:

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Ooh there's a blast from the past - I remember going to the Dewar Cup at the Royal Albert Hall!

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 Reading one of the reports in the Glasgow Herald, the Dewar Cup moved to Royal Albert Hall in 1970, from Crystal Palace (like chalk and cheese as venues - I went to Crystal Palace for a DC tie v Zimbabwe in the early 90's, indoor of course,  it was like a gym, horrible, with no food or such like). the article suggests that LTA  were criticised because the event wasnt being regarded as an Open event and apparently it was because it clashed with the LTA Covered Court event (as Indoor tennis was known in GB)   . I think the LTA Covered Courts were held at Queens Club, not sure, but were Open and on the Grand Prix circuit so would have attracted a range of top pro's and amateurs in the fledgling days of open tennis, I would guess a lot of the Aussies. So putting Dewar Cup Finals at RAH up against them, same week, seems like a bizarre call and shows tennis politics hasnt changed much in the past 50 or so years!!

It was fun getting all the old books out so as promised here is some info on the Kings Cup) :-


The Kings Cup was an International Mens Team Championship on indoor courts. It was staged on a knock-out basis 1936-38, not held between 1939 and 1951, home/away ties from 1952-74. It was not held in 1975 but was resurrected as the European Cup in 1976. That year was played on a round robin basis and the following year until 1983, ties were on a home and away basis. In 1984 the format changed again with all matches in one venue (spot any parallels here!!!). There was also a Challenge round in 1937.

France won the first competition with a certain Jean Borotra in their team!

Ive kept the rest of this focused on GB interest as it will take too long to compile full records but it doesnt look like GB entered until 1962 in any case.
In that first year we beat Norway 4-1 but then lost to Yugoslavia 2-3.
The following year, 1963, we beat Poland 5-0 and lost to Sweden 2-3.

Then we really ramp it up as we win the competition 4 years in a row!

1964 - beat Germany 4-1, Denmark 3-2, Belgium 3-0, Sweden 3-0
1965 - beat Norway 5-0, France 2-1, Denmark 2-1
1966 - beat Poland 5-0, Finland 5-0, Czechoslovakia 3-0, Italy 3-0
1967 - beat Germany 3-2, Yugoslavia 4-1, Spain 2-1, Sweden 2-1

Interestingly we seemed to play most of our ties away but with the SF and Final being played in one venue over a long weekend.

In the 1976 round robin format we finished runners-up (10 wins) to Hungarys (11 wins) with a team of Cox, J Lloyd, Mottram and Taylor.

We then didnt reach the final again until 1987 when we lost to Switzerland 1-2 having come through a group beating Italy and W Germany (team of Bates and Castle)

Ten years later (1997) we won it for a 5th time with a team of Martin Lee, Danny Sapsford and Arvind Parmas beating Germany 3-0, Czech Republic 2-1 and Netherlands 2-1 in the Final

The last year of records that I have are for 2000 when we were relegated from a Champions division having lost to Bulgaria 1-2 (team of Lee Childs, O. Freelove and Jamie Delgado)

Also just to note a Womens European Cup was created in 1986 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the mens competition. Sweden were the first winners.

GB won in 1992 beating Netherlands 2-1 in the Final (team of Clare Wood and Jo Durie).

GB also reached the final in 1989, 1990 and 2000 (Bally was in team that year). Again that is where my information runs out.

Wonder how much longer it carried in for - wonder whether it might be in some of the iTF books?


Hope this fills a few gaps!!

Also 1976, what a gb team. John Lloyd of course only weeks later went from cold, indoor courts in Europe, down to oz and reached the Australian final where he lost to gerulaitus. Before the 36 years of pain!