Junior and senior singles and pairs in 1906

The Figure Skating Club held competitions in single and pair skating at Prince’s Skating Club on March 17 and 21, 1906. The Field reported that

The inclusion of pair-skating in the club programme proved a great attraction, and a good entry was secured in both the senior and junior sections.

“The Figure Skating Club,” The Field, March 24, 1906, 471. Courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive.

Seven skaters (all men) entered the senior singles competition, and seven (all women) entered the junior singles competition. Six of the seven women were “Miss”; the only married woman was Mrs. Smith, who I presume is Dorothy Greenhough-Smith, who went on to win the ladies’ bronze in the 1908 Olympics. She won the event.

It’s quite interesting that senior = men and junior = women, seemingly without being planned that way. The Field remarks that the event was “composed entirely of ladies,” as if that were not necessary: this was not intended as a ladies’ event, and yet it became one. I suspect that the senior event was not intended as a men’s event.

What is even more interesting to me is the pairs. There were three senior pairs, each composed of a man and a woman, and five junior pairs, each composed of two women. I wonder what was behind this division.