Tennis Had Variation

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30559, 30 September 1964, Page 12

Tennis Had Variation

A TENNIS club was first formed in Christchurch in 1879 and by 1885 the Canterbury, Riccarton, Sheffield. Rangibra, Lancaster Park, Sumner and South Canterbury clubs were in full swing. One of the first men to win the Canterbury championship was E. J. Ross in 1886. At that time he was also the best player in New Zealand.

It was a period of poor tennis balls and no very rigid rules, in fact the courts were hardly standardised, Ross learnt his tennis on a court in Armagh street which had only two feet of run-back. The owner of the court placed tongue and groove boards at the back reaching up 6ft and added some rules of his own. The ball could be played off the ground or off the rebound

from the boarded back. If it had been in England, with enough publicity it might have superseded the present game, for those who played in this Christchurch court described the game 3s fascinating. The court with the boarded back was not the only innovation to the game Christchurch gave. The method of handicapping was by bisques a point that could be taken any time in each game. Each player had so many bisques a set and he could use them as he chose. He could use four of his bisques and take a game or use two or three when the position demanded it. Players came off the courts nervous wrecks through the strain of deciding when to take their i bisques. Mr F. Wilding, the father; of Anthony Wilding, learned ■ his tennis in England be-; fore the game was out of i the makers’ hands. He i played at the home of his ■ wife’s parents on his wed- • ding day and came to Christchurch as a tennis enthusiast. He was a fine player, so good that Henry Wigram (later Sir Henry Wigram) bet Mr R. W. Feraday that Wilding could beat Feraday, Feraday a racket. The match Wilding to use a beer bottle, was played but the result has been lost.