Vere Thomas "St Leger" Goold, the Bud Collins tennis encyclopaedia will tell you, was a Wimbledon finalist in 1879. Not only was Goold a skilled volleyer, but he was also the Irish champion in 1879.

Pseudonyms were not uncommon during the time and Goold gamely played his sport as "St Leger", losing the Wimbledon final to John Hartley before a crowd of 1,100.

"St Leger" went on to gain greater notoriety in 1907 with French wife Violet Girodin when he was convicted in a French court of murdering Emma Levin and given a life sentence. Unlike the assembly of movie stars who escaped from Devil's Island in French Guyana, the Waterfordborn finalist died two years later in September 1909.