TENNIS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 4 October 1924, Page 11

TENNIS.

EARLY YEARS OF LAWN TENNIS. FASCINATING HISTORY OF THE GAME. (By Ralph Straus.)' . A. Although there lias been a prolonged and sometimes rather acrimonious, controversy over the origin of lawn tennis, the actual facts are hardly- in dispute. v As you may see it player! at Wimbledon to-dav, it is barely able to cele- . brate its jubilee this year, for even Major Wingfield’s invention’ of 1874 it was given ,the appalling, if. understandable, name of sphairistike—was played in a court which was shaped like an hour-glass, and service might he delivered only from one side of the net: As played to-day that is to say, lawn tennis is a recent game. At the same time "it would not be unfair to say that its history goes hack to the days when, according to Homer, Nausicaa amused herself; playing at ball. ■ • ; ; V I The game “tennis,” of which both Chaucer' and Shakespeare p speak more than once, is, of; course, a very different game. Called “real tennis” now. the game is of French origin ' and played in a closed court with a pent-house running round three of its walls, underneath which are various netted galleries. PLAYED BY ELIZABETH’S COURTIERS. The earliest form, .however,, of-tennis' itself was not played in a closed'court, but in. an open space, and this variety is actually played to-day in France under the name of longue paume. Elizabeth’s courtiers, we are told, moreover, played some such game in the open, and in the early davs of the, nineteenth century Lord Arthur Hervey, then Bishop of Bath and Wells, amused himself ‘and liis friends with a lawii game derived from tennis and scored in much the same fashion. In later .years ;at Leamington (England) club claimed to be the inventors of lawn tennis, fori they had been playing a similar game in 1859, hut it wasnot until . the. ..beginning of ... the ’eighties that there’appeared anvthiug approaching what we should call first class play at lawn tennis, when net, court, and racquets were to all intouts and purposes what they are at present. . In an extraordinarily short space, of lime, however, the Rciisliaw brothers showed the world new and startling possibilities in the game, the All-, England Lawn Tennis Club started upon.its triumphant career—it is curious to read. by. the way, that this club iii the first place put croquet before lawn tennis in its name —and a generation arose almost ignorant of the fact, that their favourite game had a step-father in tennis which was still being played. New codes of laws were drafted, first by the Middlesex Countv Club., hut afterwards by the All-England Club, and championships instituted. FORTY YEARS OF THE GAME. The story is an interesting one, and it is told very interestingly in Commander Hillyard’s book, “Forty Years of First-class Lawn Tennis.” Not a. lawn tennis player but should he indebted to Commander Hillyard. As everybody knows, by is the present secretary of the > All-England Club, but he is very much more than the mere occupier of a secretarial post. He has probably done 'more' for lawn tennis than any other living man. He is the greatest authority on the making.of a court. His reminiscences will be all the more interesting to players because.

they are freely interspersed with personal opinions of the play itsell throughout the years. There are enthusiasts who believe that the game you will see at Wimbledon to-day is entirely different from that witnessed only twenty-five year: ago. but Commander Hillva-rd is not So sure. •‘Tve yet to see the man.'’ he writes, “who hits harder or more accurately than S. H. Smith, volley? better and more persistently than E W. Lewis, or who is fleeter of foot than Ernest Renshaw. H. L. Doherty, anu others X could name.” POINT'S FORi BEGINNERS. Whlf S ° ,° ft_repeated question: Vhai, would happen could Tilden hare played Doherty or Renshaw Johnston, each player being at his best, is wisely not answered Jtach generation has its own chain pious, and with a single exclption Tn the case of Mile. Lenglen it would £ unprofitable to make a definite statement on the point t h?t?,TZ S ’ he grateful to chtJl nf ;« lOy rarely loses *•>« chance of offering some hint or other whereby you may better your game Any analysis of the various necu ATt6 S be f „f the gre i ,P' ay *ra cS , h of use . fuel here the author the°past. "™ W U,e °< +b^2 re ’ h J- de , vofces a whole chapter to those particular points to which s 0 m ilh pl . a f ers ’ wh& , nn ght improve much quicker than they do, will not give enough thought. Lawn tennis is not the astonishingly difficult game that real tennis is. but it must be learnt. The unorthodox player, like Mishu tor instance, may occasionallv find himself victorious, but it is hardly safe to follow his example. And Commander Hillyard, in addition to being an interpretative historian of the game, is a very wise guide. His book will be assured of a very wide welcome.