INTERNATIONAL SPORT

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30559, 30 September 1964, Page 13

INTERNATIONAL SPORT

LAWN TENNIS is one of the few sports which can be claimed to be truly international in which the individual can play for most of his lifetime. About 50 countries have entered at various times in Davis Cup competitions. This universal game for nations and ages has reached its present popularity in a period of less than 100 years. For lawn tennis, as distinct from tennis, is of comparatively modern origin. An independent member of the family of ball games which are thought to have had their beginnings in Egypt or Persia 500 years before the Christian era, it is a descendant of the early game of tennis played within walls. In 1874 Major Walter Wingfield laid out a private grass court in the shape of an hour glass in the back-country village of Nanslwyd, North Wales, put up a five-foot het, and gave the game its start. The major wanted relief from playing against walls. He did not realise the far-

reaching nature of his achievement. The. height of his net, shape of his court, and, not surprisingly, the name he gave it—“sphairistike”—did nqt survive but the game spread rapidly throughout the British Isles and to Bermuda in the same year. Lawn tennis was first fostered by the controlling bodies of other sports and when it is considered that the game in Australia has sometimes topped cricket for public interest there is a touch of irony for it was the M.C.C. which gave the authority of its name to the movement and drew up the first code of rules for play. Then the All-England Croquet Club at Wimbledon discovered its exchequer was almost empty and added the term “lawn tennis” to its title and several grass courts to its. facilities. The club, which to this day runs the tournament which is generally acknowledged to be the world championships, changed the size and shape of the court, altered the scoring method, and substituted for the M.C.C.’s Jaws those which are, with only slight amendment, in force today.