tennishistory.com.au

Hi Tennis History Readers!

One of our team, Michael has been working on a a new tennis web site! http://tennisassist.com To celebrate they have arranged an interview with John Newcombe this week. If you have any questions please write your questions in the comments sections on the Tennis Assist.com web site. http://tennisassist.com

Browse http://tennisassist.com for information to improve your game. There is a free Mini Course in which Michael and Peter Tramacchi discuss Petes insights into becoming a champion player.

Enjoy!

While collecting Tennis memorabilia is still quite affordable, items are definitely on the increase or at the very worst holding up well in the current economic crisis. This doesn’t just apply to racquets, balls, presses and other equipment maintain strong demand. There are still plenty of low cost woodies from the early 1900’s around to keep values at under $50 but when something special comes along you can bet the collectors come out in force.

This very nice Slazenger Demon Fishtail has just sold for AUS $786 plus freight and is consistent with the Hazell Streamlines of similar high quality.

While many might believe that value is in the older racquets, let me assure you that the unusual graphites and odd shaped racquets are also bringing huge dollars. Recently a Wilson Javelin sold for $350 US.

If you own a collection of old or unusual racquets hang on to them since they continue to rise in value.

I have been amazed at the way you can buy and sell tennis memorablia for a profit as long as you understand the global demand for various brands and specific collectible items.

Collecting tennis memorabilia is great fun. There is plenty of items around and normally the prices are pretty average.

Another interesting facet is that many collectors have varying parameters. Some like memorabilia by decade, player, manufacturer and materials ( metal,aluminium etc). Please visit the links on www.tennishistory.com.au and see other interesting collections from racquets to tennis balls.

Good luck hunting out some bargains………… Rod

This week was I was very lucky to find a 1981-85 Head String Lock Edge. Having never seen one before, I thought what an interesting stringing system. Each string is independent, allowing an owner to simply replace the one string which had broken. I jumped on the phone to my stringer and he recalled the system as being quite a good idea. I realise that many players hold the view that when one string goes they all should, but that was never the way. In the 1900’s they used to replace strings when they looked like breaking but never did the full restrings like they do today. One can’t imagine Norman Brookes explaining he needed 7 racquets strung on match day to whatever exact requirements and this included yesterdays unused racquets which had to have their strings cut out and replaced. I kid you not this standard practice today. Anyway the Head String Lock is a very rare example of an unusual stringing system which may well have been ahead of its time.

Head String-Lock Edge

While there can be little doubt that 1874 and the launch of “Sphairistike” by Major Wingfield, marked the starting point for the global spread of the modern game of Lawn Tennis, many other racquet and handball sports were tried over the centuries. A great book on this subject is Tennis by Gianni Clerici which was produced in the mid 1970’s. Specifically in the UK, mention is often made of an early form of tennis being played on the estate of Harry Gem at Leamington in 1872, however we have just received the illustration below from a book produced in 1837 (Games and Sports, by Donald Walker) showing what appears to be a typical doubles style game on a court, divided in two, with racquets and even is described as “Long or Open Tennis”.

Since the book is very rare this illustration is not widely known amongst tennis historians and does seem to pre-date the aforementioned variations. Clearly a difficulty with early forms would be the poor bouncing capabilities of the ball whereas the 1874 period saw the development of the rubber ball and lawn mower which both permitted the modern game with relative ease.

I will run this passed Wimbledon Museum for a comment.

Please see the Book Section of website for reference by photo of Clerici’s book.

Games and Sports by Donald Walker Published by Thomas Hurst, St Pauls Church Yard 1837 1st Edition.

Thanks to Sebastiaan van Hoorn (Netherlands) for the photo.

Under the “Unusual Racquets” sections on the site you will see a couple of racquets which provide the user the option to remove and replace the string sets. The Tretorn version is a very unique collectible and so here we would like to present some additional photos which show how this racquet works.

This is the racquet ready to play.

Undo the butt cap which screws into the handle. Then this allows the handle to pushed forwards. The Butt cap can then be removed with a simple sliding action and the handle can then be slid off the frame.

Then you undo the spindle nut connecting the two frames. This has a long wire effect which stretches out as the frame opens.

And here you have the string set out of the frame ready for replacement and simply re do all the above steps.

It takes only a couple of minutes.

Back in 1906, Anthony Wilding from New Zealand was forging a name for himself with other Australian players not only at Wimbledon but also at the Davis Cup. At this time Australasia permitted players from NZ and Australia to compete together at the Davis Cup and at Wimbledon the dominance of Australian Norman Brookes and Anthony helped cement public interest in the development of tennis in the lands down under.

Norman (pictured right) won the singles in 1907 and 1914. Tony (left) won it four years straight from 1910 -1913 plus they won the doubles together in 1907 and 1914. In 1908 and 1910 when Norman didn’t play, Tony won the doubles with M Ritchie. In addition, Tony won the mixed doubles in 1906 and 1908.

Tragically, in World War 1, Tony was killed in action at Flanders. As with so many other sports, who knows what may have been had the war not taken so many talented young men.

In honour of Tony’s life and to celebrate his success at the elite levels of tennis one hundred years on, a relative, Anna Wilding has set up a charitable foundation.

The press release reads as provided:

Anna Wilding Launches Charity- the Wilding Foundation Melbourne May 2009 – A new charity has launched, the Wilding Foundation, that aims to fill an overlooked gap in the charity and non profit marketplace. www.wildingfoundation.com The founder, award winning actress director and producer Anna Wilding said it is “a diverse, exciting and contemporary charity that is also couched in history”

Anna Wilding, a supporter of humanitarian and environmental issues as well as a gifted filmmaker, has personally experienced what it is like to miss out – of not being able to pursue a chosen direction due to financial factors. Ms Wilding, tipped to go to Wimbledon and join the professional circuit herself as a youngster could not afford the required training overseas.She hopes that this charity will help bridge a gap for those impoverished who display talent and cannot afford the training, travel, study or equipment.

Tennis History is pleased to support this foundation in honour of a truly inspiring contributor to the development of tennis.

Cheers Rod

Just for subscribers I have just updated the site with some pics of these two racquets.

The Rival is a very unusual shape and the Orbitech is also being a perfect circle. Both have a very wide throat design to accommodate the width required.

In the 1920’s racquet manufacture took a giant leap forwards with the introduction of metal racquets. In the USA it was Dayton and in the UK it was a Company called the Birmingham Aluminium Company. Their first racquet, was the all metal “BIRMAL” which I think you will agree would not look out of date lined up against many of the 1970’s metal derivatives.

The first grip option was the (pictured) cord wrapping which was then followed by a traditional leather grip variation. The strings as per Dayton were also piano wire. They are highly sought after by collectors and come up rarely on the international market and this photo was kindly supplied by Joe from www.woodtennis.com in the USA. A UK patent was granted in 1922 so it would certainly appear to be one of the the first all metal racquets produced at least for the mass market, remembering that Dayton were principally a wood handle steel head/throat combination. In Jeanne Cherry’s book Tennis Antiques and Collectibles, she lists a company in Scotland called the Metallic Racquet Corp. advertising a metal racquet with standard gut stringing in 1887, so quite a few attempts may have been made in this area.

Do you think we might find one of these Birmal racquets as originally supplied to Australia? Well amazingly, we might and maybe moreso in Queensland/NT. In a moment of good luck we spotted this advertisement from March 1924 which clearly points to the Birmal’s unique qualities of aluminium and the steel strings. The ad was published in the Northern Territory Times where heat extremes may well have been a factor in choosing a racquet. We are yet to find any advertising in the southern states, so perhaps the tropical areas (Toowoomba, Townsville etc.) were the prime targets.

If anyone has more information about the Birmal racquets please contact us.

And if you do find one, hang onto it. It will go up in value faster than any superannuation scheme. Approx. value $ 450-$1000 depending on condition.

If you don’t find one, fear not, Tennis Australia have a couple in their museum collection which will only be a few years away from being displayed.

In the process of uncovering stories for the tennishistory site, US tennis champion Jack Kramer stands out as the man who over a period of some 20 plus years bucked the tennis administration by creating professional tennis tours. For the players who signed on, it meant the end of their amateur status and no longer could they compete at tennis tournaments and in Australia not even at club level or any event sanctioned by the LTAA.

While professional tennis existed before Jack Kramer, it was more his systematic approach, grueling schedules and longevity in the spotlight that gives him the rightful place as one of the most influential people to impact the game.

In 1968, when Wimbledon finally caved into the fact that to many top players were leaving the amateurs for professional tennis and crowd numbers were dropping accordingly, the public finally witnessed the ultimate battles for World Champion status. After Wimbledon conceded, the rest of the World followed and Open Tennis began.

We can only marvel at Rod Laver winning the grand slam in 1962 as an amateur and then as pro not playing for 6 years until he won the grand slam again in 1969 in the Open era. The results of many tournaments over the years would have been remarkably different had the competition not been divided.

As an indication of what might have been and clearly with a huge amount of conjecture, in Kramer’s book “The Game” from page 238 he hypothesizes about these outcomes from 1931 for Wimbledon and Forest Hills. To keep it brief the table below starts at 1950.

Amateur Champions Kramer’s choice for “OPEN” Champions

Year Wimbledon….. US Wimbledon…..US

1950 Patty Larson Kramer Kramer

1951 Savitt Sedgman Kramer Gonzales

1952 Sedgman Sedgman Gonzales Kramer

1953 Seixas Trabert Kramer Gonzales

1954 Drobny Seixas Sedgman Gonzales

1955 Trabert Trabert Sedgman Gonzales

1956 Hoad Rosewall Gonzales Sedgman

1957 Hoad Anderson Hoad Gonzales

1958 Cooper Cooper Gonzales Hoad

1959 Olmedo Fraser Gonzales Gonzales

1960 Fraser Fraser Rosewall Gonzales

1961 Laver Emerson Gonzales Rosewall

1962 Laver Laver Rosewall Gonzales

1963 McKinley Osuna Gonzales Laver

1964 Emerson Emerson Laver Rosewall

1965 Emerson Santana Rosewall Laver

1966 Santana Stolle Rosewall Laver

1967 Newcombe Newcombe Laver Rosewall

Obviously, this is based on the average skill and performances on a year by year basis and rules out the potential for the upsets and wild card wins which we occasionally see today.

Nevertheless, the table does show the high esteem held for Gonzales. Frank Sedgman who turned pro for 1953 would have won the titles he won in 1952 and Ken Rosewall would have won the tournament he missed out on winning (Wimbledon) possibly 4 times.

Please read more about Frank Sedgman’s tennis career in the amateurs and professional ranks www.tennishistory.com.au

The photo shows Frankwith other professionals in the late 1950’s.

While we have focussed on the website about the 1920’s being a boom time for local tennis racquet manufacturers and ball production, other industries also capitalised on tennis.

Globite Tennis Case

Recently, I found this old Globite tennis case and dressed it up as best I could.

Leather bags to hold racquets have been around since the 1880’s and some of the French designer label variants can cost into the hundreds. At least this is Australian made.

The brand in the picture was produced in Melbourne, by a company called Globite, who made a wide range of general luggage as well. They commenced manufacture in 1921 as you can see in the newspaper article below.

The photo isn’t quite right, as the racquet and press is actually meant to sit behind the dark leather flap thereby protecting the strings and clothing from contact.

Keep an eye out at the markets and you might get one for $30-60 depending on condition.