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As with most older Lawn Tennis clubs, Epsom derived from the game of croquet,
which began in the 1850s, being played on the lawns of Woodcote House adjacent
to the present premises.
By the 1870s croquet was in decline with the advent of the bouncing rubber ball
and, as with the All England Club at Wimbledon, tennis began to be played on
the croquet lawns. Epsom was one of the leading croquet clubs and were national
champions in 1907. The All England Club had begun to concentrate on the new
game of tennis and held its first championships in 1877, which was the
principal tournament in the country. Following the championships most of the
players entered the Epsom Open and this continued until the early 1920s, by
which time many other tournaments, principally the Davis Cup, were affecting
entries due to clash of dates and the event was terminated in 1928.
By 1913 the Epsom Club had 5 lawn tennis courts and three croquet courts and in
1914 2 hard courts were laid for winter play on what is now the car park. In
1923 the last remaining croquet court was converted to a grass court. Whilst
the Epsom Club did not evolve into the leading club as it so easily could have
done, it has gone from strength to strength over the years. It now has 5 good
quality grass courts, 3 floodlit artificial grass courts, 2 all-weather hard
courts and 2 floodlit porous acrylic courts.
With these facilities the club has earned itself the present reputation of a
large friendly club with a good standard of club play, provisions for better
players to enter match play, a thriving junior section, a resident coaching
facility and an improving social scene within the ever improving pavilion
facilities.
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