Between the wars
Australia · born Ballarat, Victoria, 1906 · died 1996 · Australian junior champion 1924 and 1925
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2
Australian junior singles titles, 1924 and 1925
QF
Australasian Championships singles, 1927
7
Wimbledon singles appearances, 1936 to 1948
Harold Alan Ernest Coldham, known as Alan and nicknamed Tiny, was born in Ballarat, Victoria, in 1906. He was Australia's national junior champion in 1924 and 1925, and in 1925 he played his first Australasian Championships, losing in the first round to Rice Gemmell. In 1926 he lost early to Pat O'Hara Wood; a year later he beat him and reached the quarter-finals, where Jack Hawkes stopped him. In 1930 he beat Hawkes but lost in the third round to Jack Clemenger, and reached the doubles quarter-finals. In the 1930s he settled in England, where he also played golf. He made his Wimbledon debut in 1936 and played the singles seven times up to 1948, with a run to the third round of the mixed doubles in 1949. He died in London in 1996.
| Major singles titles | 2: Australian (1924, 1925) |
|---|---|
| Junior titles, where | 1924 at the Warehouseman's Cricket Ground, Melbourne; 1925 at White City, Sydney. Both on grass, as part of the Australasian Championships |
| Australasian Championships | Singles: first round 1925; quarter-final 1927, beating Pat O'Hara Wood before losing to Jack Hawkes; third round 1930. Doubles quarter-final 1930 |
| Wimbledon | Singles second round 1936, 1937, 1939, 1946 and 1948; first round 1938 and 1947. Doubles second round 1937, 1946 and 1947. Mixed doubles third round 1949 |
The person behind the player.
Sydney 1925
In the same Australasian Championships at White City in which he kept his junior title, Coldham entered the men's singles for the first time. He lost in the first round to Rice Gemmell, who had won the championship himself in 1921.
Source: WikipediaAustralasian Championships 1927
Beaten early by Pat O'Hara Wood in 1926, he met him again a year later and won. Reports described a match of long rallies in which Coldham went for his shots, came to the net to finish points and ran the twice former champion all over the court. Jack Hawkes beat him in the quarter-final.
Source: WikipediaWimbledon 1936 to 1948
Having settled in England in the 1930s, he made his Wimbledon debut at 29 in 1936 and lost in the second round to Josef Caska. He kept entering after the war, and his last singles appearance came in 1948, when Cyril Kemp beat him in the second round. He played the mixed doubles again in 1949.
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