tennishistory.com.au

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.