Obituary: Winnie Shaw

Winifred Mason, tennis-player: born 1910; married Angus Shaw (one son, and one daughter deceased); died 13 February 1994.

THE DEATH of Winnie Shaw brings to a close one of the great associations of Scottish tennis.

A Scottish national champion 11 times - three singles and five doubles - she was also the mother of Winnie Wooldridge, who died in 1992, probably the best ever woman player to come from north of the Border.

Shaw's reign of fame was in the 1930s, a great time when Betty Nuthall, Helen Wills Moody, Elizabeth Ryan and Helen Jacobs ruled the world.

A Glaswegian, Winifred Mason, as she was then, came to the fore as a member of the Pollokshields and Clarkston Club. By the time she was 20, she had Scottish tennis at her feet. She represented her country 11 times in international events and among her victories was one over the English player Mary Hardwick.

A petite figure, Shaw possessed a fearsome forehand, as her opponents were quick to learn. She was also a good golfer and taught her daughter both sports at which she was to become an international.

Shaw's fame was widespread in her day, expecially in Scotland. Dennis Carmichael, the former Chairman and now the Treasurer of the Lawn Tennis Association, recalls his earliest recollection of Shaw when he was taken to see her at the age of five or six as an occasion that fostered his great love of the game.

Winnie Shaw was married to Angus Shaw, a Glasgow journalist, and had two children, Angus and Winifred, named after their parents. Mrs Shaw never drove a car and never held a driving licence but faithfully rode her bicycle to tennis. She was carried on riding her bike until she was almost 70.