Border Cups Tennis Tournament

The history of the Border Cups is sketchy but it is estimated that it dates back to the 1920’s, when most of the cups were believed to have been donated by Lord Annandale.

The event used to be played as part of the South of Scotland tournament at Moffat, however the event got so big for the tournament it was decided in 1980 to hive it off from the tournament to 2 separate weekends but still played at Moffat. The tournament was set up with Men’s singles, Ladies doubles, Ladies singles, Men’s doubles and Mixed doubles.

The original event was for people who were born in or who had resided in the Border counties of Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbrightshire, Wigtownshire, Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire and Berwickshire which now form Dumfries and Galloway and Borders regions.

The tournament was extremely popular during the 1980’s and 1990’s but thereafter interest started to wane after 2000 and the courts at Beechgrove began to deteriorate.

It was decided, by South of Scotland County LTA to experiment with opening it to Ayrshire, which was part of the South of Scotland County but not a border county strictly, and also to try moving the event around the 3 districts which made up the county.

This didn’t prove to be fruitful and the last events are believed to have been held at Melrose between 2004 & 2006 with Dalbeattie holding the tournament for the last time back in 2007.