Lady from Boston

What the Curtis Cup is to women golfers, the Wolfe-Noel Cup is to women squash racqueters: a prize for a U. S. v. England team match, played alternately in England and the U. S. British squash racquets differ considerably from squash racquets in the U. S. The court is wider, the ball slower. Games are nine points instead of 15. Consequently the U. S. team which won the cup last year in Boston was at a considerable disadvantage defending it last week in London. However, not even onlookers who had seen members of the U. S. side being beaten by English ladies in the British National champion ship were fully prepared for what happened when the two teams met. England won all five matches. Three were in one sided straight games. The U. S. ladies got a total of two games, one in each of the other matches.

When England won the Wolfe-Noel Cup it doubtless disappointed the young ladies whom they defeated. It could scarcely have discouraged the non-playing captain of the U. S. team, Eleonora ("Eleo") Sears of Boston. For a full generation she has been the spectacular epitome of an aristocratic U. S. sports woman. For Eleonora Sears, at 52, a trip to England as captain of a squash team, some of whose members were young enough to be her daughters, is no more than an incident in a sporting career which, since it became altogether legendary years ago, can only be viewed in its current phases as a promise of what she may be expected to accomplish in the future.

Sprig of a patrician Boston family whose wealth came from shipping and New England real estate, Eleonora Sears is a great-great-granddaughter of Thomas Jef ferson. Her mother's father was Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, onetime (1892-93) Minister to France. Her father graduated from Harvard in 1875, is currently celebrated in Boston for his habit of taking a long constitutional around Back Bay every day, rain or shine. Frederick Richard Sears's daughter was a late-flowering hyacinth. Her appearance on a polo pony in men's riding breeches caused Boston women's clubs to raise their eyebrows long before the War, but it was not until a California Mothers' Club passed a resolution against her conduct in 1912 that she really became a national celebrity. Delighted, Eleonora Sears adopted shocking costumes for swimming, sailing, figure-skating and tennis. Before that, she had been up in an airplane with Grahame White (1910), paid a $25 fine for driving without a license and driven a four-in-hand coach down Manhattan's Fifth Avenue on a January morning to win a $25 bet (1912). She had swum 4 1/4 miles, from Bailey's Beach to First Beach. Newport, and formed the nucleus of a collection of cups which, when she last counted them, numbered 240. She had also been one of New England's outstanding trapshooters. She once organized a football team on which she played fullback. She also played baseball and hockey. She exhibited her interest in tennis by helping win both the women's doubles and mixed doubles championships.

After the War Eleonora Sears discovered the pleasures of walking. She hiked from Boston to Providence. R. I. five times. Her best time over this 47-mile route was 9 hr. 53 min. In June 1934 she did it in 10 hr. 25 min. When asked whether she had been trying for a record, she replied: "It would be ridiculous to try for a speed record at this time of year, when it is so warm and muggy. I was just walking for the exercise." From Newport to Boston (73 mi.) her best time was 17 hours. In 1934 she walked 35 miles to call on a friend. Month later, dressed as a Girl Scout, she walked 23 miles to see another. When out for a walk Miss Sears is usually followed by her chauffeur, with Thermos bottle & sandwiches.

Squash racquets attracted Eleonora Sears's attention in 1918. Some male player brashly asked if she had ever tried her hand at the game. "No," she said, "but I could." She challenged the ablest male player in Rye, N. Y., won the match. After that, she pioneered by playing squash racquets on the courts of men's clubs in Boston. When a women's championship was finally arranged in 1928, she won it. Since then, she has remained one of the ablest players in the country.

In 1910 Eleonora Sears was chosen by Tennist May Sutton as the most attractive and best dressed woman in the U. S. Just before she sailed for England last month, she was guest of honor at a Boston banquet, hailed as U. S. Sportswoman No. 1. Currently Sportswoman Sears is interested in squash racquets, walking, tennis and riding, though she no longer rides in steeplechases on her favorite horse Barney Mor.

Last week she had the misfortune to sprain her back. Consequently, in her match against Betty Knox, No. 5 on the British team, in the first round of the British Squash Racquets Championship, she won the first six points, then lost 8-10, 4-9, 4-9.

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