TENNIS
August bank holiday 1908 tournament
Reproduced with kind permission of the Library of Birmingham
Groundsman Bob Cooper
croquet was also introduced in March 1870 and shared the ground. In 1874, there was a guy from London called Major Wingfi eld who launched a game called Sphairistike (an ancient Greek term, meaning skill in playing at ball), however he very soon changed it to lawn tennis and that was the fi rst commercial version of the game as we know it.” “It’s important to mention at this point that there were two guys, Harry Gem and Augurio Perera, based in Birmingham, playing a precursor to the game (then known as ‘Pelota’) in 1859 and Harry was a member of Edgbaston Archery Society in the 1860s. They moved to Leamington in 1872/3 and showed the game to a couple of doctor friends - who got quite enthusiastic, so the four men formed the world’s fi rst Tennis Club in the grounds of the Manor House Hotel in 1874. This club did not survive for very long, although there is today, of course, a Leamington Club. The game very quickly switched to Major Wingfi eld’s game because Gem and Perera had no commercial interest in ‘Pelota’. Wingfi eld, in London with his Sphairistike, appointed an
agent to sell his kit and the game very soon spread around England and, subsequently, across the world.”
After Leamington, the fi rst Club to take up the game of lawn tennis appears to have been Edgbaston Archery and Croquet Society, although it must be admitted that the Edgbaston Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club and Solihull Lawn Tennis Club must run it fairly close. However, the evidence supports that, with the demise of the original Leamington Club, the Society is the oldest surviving tennis playing club in the country and, therefore, by implication in the world. The club has all its minutes recorded since 1860, which are stored in the archives at the Birmingham Library. “In 1875, we introduced Sphairistike to Edgbaston Archery Society; it was very popular and well established in that same year. It is possible they were playing it in 1874, but I can’t prove that hand on heart. However, in the 1875 records, it says they were actually playing competitions which leads us to think that (because our grass courts are still in their same position and orientation), there is no playing surface
80
PC December/January 2021
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116
