SIXTY YEARS AGO

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21976, 28 December 1936, Page 2

SIXTY YEARS AGO

TENNIS—THEN AND NOW “Players must provide their own rackets and wear shoes without heels. Balls may be obtained for practice by personal application to the gardener/’ This information was supplied to tennis players who took part in ‘he first All England lawn tennis championship at Wimbledon nearly 60 years ago—in July, 1877. Those were the days when the game was comparatively new, when courts were almost any length, and any breadth, when nets were of all heights, when there were official rules—but few knew them. There< was no over-arm serving at Wimbledon in 1877, nor was under-arm serving very popular. The “doggy” serve of those days was round-arm, and was delivered from a point level with the shoulder. And poisonously successful it was, too. . The hatless, scantily dressed, stockingless, hard-hitting women players of to-day would be amused at the opinion expressed by a newspaper correspondent in London in 1877. “I do not think,” he wrote, “that any lady can, or ever will, be able to play this game, as it is very hard work for a man, and dress is such a ‘drag.’ . . . Furthermore, no lady_ would ever be able to understand the system of scoring.” But notwithstanding these misgivings, feminine interest in the game was aroused, and steadily increased, and the question of how it could be made suitable for women was fully discussed. It was suggested that gentlemen should “serve easy” to them, and that ladies could refuse as many services as they liked—-or disliked. And it was more than hinted at that gentlemen should make a point of playing the ball as near, if they were gentlemen, the lady as possible.