North of England Championships

The North Yorkshire Tournament was first staged in 1884 at the South Cliff Lawn Tennis Club at Scarborough, North Yorkshire.[1] In 1886 its name was changed to the North of England Championships. It was for a long period a popular summer tournament in the British lawn tennis calendar. In 1910 it changed venue to be played at the Yorkshire Lawn Tennis Club through until 1966.[1] The only other places to host the North of England Championships was at Kingston-upon-Hull in 1892, then Harrogate in 1904. In 1967 the event temporarily moved to Hoylake in what was then Cheshire, before returning to Scarborough the following year. In 1969 the championships moved permanently back to Hoylake until 1974 when it was abolished

Notable winners of the men's singles included Ernest Browne (1886), Harry Sibthorpe Barlow, Laurie Doherty (1910),[1] George Lyttleton Rogers (1937), Jaroslav Drobny (1949), Ashley Cooper (1958) and John Newcombe (1970).[2] Previous women's singles champions included Alice Simpson Pickering (1899), Dorothea Douglass(1901), Elizabeth Ryan (1919), Joan Hartigan (1934), Ann Haydon (1956), Virginia Wade (1967), Margaret Smith Court (1968), Billie Jean Moffitt King (1971) and Evonne Goolagong (1972).

For the years 1892, 1894–1900 and 1904–1905 the tournament was also valid as the Yorkshire Championships. For the years 1960 and from 1967 the tournament was also valid as the Hoylake Open Championships.

In 1968 at the start of the open era the championships were sponsored by the newspaper the Liverpool Post and branded as the Liverpool Post North of England Championships. In 1969 the tobacco manufacturer Rothmans took over sponsorship of the event was then called the Rothmans Open North of England Championships until 1974.[3]

The championships were mainly held at Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Great Britain from (1884–91, 1893–1903, 1905–1966, 1968), but was also hosted at other locations including Ilkley (1885), Kingston-upon-Hull (1892), then Harrogate (1904), Sheffield (1905) and finally Hoylake (1967–69, 1970–74) when the event was discontinued.

• Most men's overall singles titles: Ernest Browne (4)
• Most men's NOE singles titles: Laurie Doherty & Charles Kingsley & Bobby Wilson (3)
• Most women's NOE singles titles: Lucy Kendal (6)

• North of England Hard Court Championships

• Jeffreys, Kevin (22 April 2021). "The Illustrious History of Tennis in Scarborough". on-magazine.co.uk. On: Yorkshire Magazine. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
• Lake, Robert J. (3 October 2014). A Social History of Tennis in Britain. Oxford: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-44557-8.