Desborough Perpetual Challenge Cup

The Story of the Event

Trying to summarise the achievements of the Women’s Amateur Athletic Association long jump champions is a daunting task. From Muriel Gunn (later Cornell), the first woman to use the hitchkick and world record holder in 1926, to Katarina Johnson-Thompson, World and Commonwealth heptathlon and World Indoor pentathlon champion, the roll of honour for this trophy is filled with superstars.
Many of the champions were talented in a number of events. Jean Desforges (later Pickering), European Champion in 1954, also competed with success in the hurdles and sprint relay and is one of a number of Olympic medallists (bronze in Helsinki 1952) to have won the event. Dorothy Tyler, better known as a high jumper, became champion in 1951, while the 1964 Olympic 800m champion, Ann Packer, prevailed in 1960.

Amid these champions, the name of Mary Bignal (later Rand) stands out. The length of her 6.76m jump to win Olympic gold in Tokyo in 1964 was measured out twice back home, its length caused such a stir.  One example can still be visited, in the marketplace of her hometown of Wells; the other is in a corridor of Buckingham Palace. Rand’s mark stood as a British record for 19 years, until Bev Kinch’s 6.90m jump at the World Championships in 1983.

The Donor
Lord Desborough was one of the leading figures in British sport at the beginning of the twentieth century. As a representative on the International Olympic Committee from 1905, he is credited by contemporaries as being the leading force in bringing the Olympics to London in 1908, after Rome had to withdraw their candidacy. His knowledge of the needs of a range of sports contributed to the success of the Games, since Desborough served as president of five national sporting associations: cricket (MCC), tennis (LTA), fencing, wrestling, and athletics (AAA 4^th president). A good athlete himself, Desborough finished 2^nd in the 3 Miles at the Varsity Competition between the universities of Cambridge and Oxford and served as President of the Oxford University Athletic Club in the 1870s. In 1906, at the age of 50 he represented Great Britain in fencing in the Intercalated Olympic Games in Athens.

It is rare among the donors of the AAA trophies to find an individual working with both the women’s and men’s organisations and Desborough’s decision to donate this trophy in 1925 when there were events on the men’s programme without trophies underlines his commitment to the early development of the WAAA. In the same year he contributed an introduction to WAAA Vice-President Sophie Eliot-Lynn’s Athletics for Women and Girls. Away from athletics, Desborough served four terms as an MP and was President of the London Chamber of Commerce, serving at one time on 115 different committees. He climbed the Matterhorn three times, swam Niagara twice and enjoyed big game hunting.

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