tennishistory.com.au

Now as far as head shape goes, the Head Legend c late 1970’s wins another award for taking design ideas to the maximum. You can see the shape is extremely oblong while still not being wider than a standard size frame. I haven’t hit with it, but an interesting addition to the collection. I also have a Slazenger Titanium with a similar look. Enjoy……and comments about other racquets welcome. See www.tennishistory.com.au for a site full of racquets and other memorabilia …………. Rod

When I first caught a glimpse of the 1920’s Dayton Steel racquets made in the USA, I was struck by the range of colours and the uniqueness of the design and the indestructible steel piano wire strings. While often quoted as specially suited to schools, these racquets did make their way to Australia in 1923.

The article (very bottom) was published in January 1923 while Australian Tennis champion Gerald Patterson on the right (below) is shown using one in Melbourne in March 1923. He went on to become a Sales Manager at Spalding in 1925 who also produced an early metal/ wood racquet. We also have an article about Jean Borotra from France arriving in Melbourne in January 1928 and playing with Pat O’Hara Wood at South Yarra tennis Club using steel racquets in very wet conditions and the Frenchman (like many first class players) was not very complimentary towards them even though this was the first time he had ever used them. See more about Dayton racquets under unusual racquets at www.tennishistory.com.au

I am thrilled to find this valid connection linking Dayton racquets to Australian collectors.

Last week I came across a very early New Zealand wooden racquet made by Slazenger, presumably, in New Zealand.

As you can see, the Slazenger Matchpoint, a name used in various markets is in nice condition.

Whilst being interested in Australian racquets our interest extends to racquet makers from around the World. See the full site at www.tennishistory.com.au

What is very nice about this design is the recessed throat from gently shaped shoulders. This provides for a really well contained area for the graphics which you can see here are in pretty nice condition and different from similar vintage designs.

So we need to know more about Slazenger New Zealand, when it opened and closed the factory, what age is this model (my guess 1940’s) Any other unusual models or stories about racquet or ball makers in New Zealand.

Since Australia is the 3rd island of New Zealand maybe some local kiwis can help us out with some good history.

Cheers & enjoy…. Rod

From 1874 when Major Wingfield patented his lawn tennis game called “sphairistike”, the game caught on quickly and headed around the globe. In the USA, the story goes that in February 1874 a Mrs Outerbridge brought a set back from Bermuda where British Troops were playing the game, although Wingfield had only applied for his patent at this exact time ( 23-2-1874) . Maybe there were early sets made prior to the patent, but it seems odd that sets would be on the other side of the world prior to the patent application which would be required to protect the intellectual property. The Wimbledon Museum actually has the sales records for Major Wingfield’s partner business French & Co. for the period from 6 July 1874 to 26 June 1875, noting that none of these records contain any information about direct sales bound for the USA or Australia. They also believe that many sets may well have been sent out many before and after these dates – probably up to 1880. As for the early lawn tennis game devised at Leamington Spa by Major Gem, he did not market his game and just produced a set of rules.
From the above, it would be reasonable to assume that British military bases which required consistent supplies may well have included sporting items such as tennis sets. However, the whole scenario as to how tennis arrived here is wide open. The first Australian, official croquet club commenced in South Australia in 1867 and this club was connected to the All England Croquet Club. As the UK parent was instrumental in defining new rules of the game this could be a very strong candidate for the first set arriving. Of course Cricket clubs were also widespread even in the USA and tennis was a popular way to provide the ladies a pastime while the menfolk played their game. Many of the cricket manufacturers easily adapted tennis into their sporting goods range.

In Australia, in January 1876 we have our earliest mention of the new and now fashionable game of tennis from a retail store ad in Launceston, Tasmania. For there to be an ad means that demand and interest had already been established at some point over 1874/1875. But perhaps one of the greatest insights, is the Courier Mail 1888 article looking back at tennis arriving in Queensland in August 1876 and the early development of the local clubs. The description of the high net and scoring method seems to point to this set being a Wingfield version that the schoolmaster of Brisbane Grammar, Mr Roe brought with his family from the UK. The social popularity of the game via Sunday afternoon lawn tennis parties and individual families buying sets for their own entertainment, particularly if they were heading to unknown lands may end up being the eventual source of tennis arriving in Australia.

Please check the full article on www.tennishistory.com.au

Anyone with more knowledge and articles on tennis arriving here please email us your contact details.

Cheers Rod

Metal tennis racquets were first developed in the early 1920’s which is often not known. The most famous UK racquet was the Birmal Aluminium racquet which was extremely well forged and certain models had cord wound handles whilst others had the more standard leather grips. Whilst this was the first all metal version, combination metal head-wood handle versions were developed not only by Birmal but with huge success in the USA by a company called Dayton. These racquets were strung with piano wire strings and were reputedly highly regarded by schools for their sheer ability to survive. As a collectable, the difficulty is finding good examples with minimal paint loss.

Spalding by the way, had an aluminium head-wood handle racquet in the 1930’s shaped much like a wood racquet with relatively flat edges. Dayton’s early racquets were quite thin steel frames, however they also started a similar design with a brand called the ‘Aviator’.

Jumping up to the 1960’s, there was little development of successful metal racquets until the launch of the Wilson T-2000 was in fact designed by Frenchman, Renee Lacoste’s firm, Lacoste and versions of the racquet are available under both brands. I am no steel expert, but I believe these were made from carbon steel.

In Australia, as the reign of the local wooden racquet manufacturers was ending due to worldwide shortages in Ash plus the interest in lightweight stronger metals, a few locals began to experiment in metal racquet production. While the likes of Spalding, Slazenger, Yonex and others lauched racquets in Aluminium one innovator in South Australia was an expert in Stainless Steel, which is a much more complex metal to adapt. Nevertherless, from a backyard workshop in the early 1970’s, came the ARCO Stainless steel racquet in a standard size (at first) then oversize version. We gather people loved them. They were super strong and quite flexible and with 19lb/16lb stringing provided strength and power. See www.tennishistory.com.au for more details. If you had one let us know how they played. There were some thousands made so maybe you will be lucky enough to find one for your vintage tennis racquet collection. The green covers are the really early standard size racquets. The later models had blue covers, some were powdercoated and if you find bright silver model called a “Starmaker” that was an ARCO first attempt at a carbon steel racquet before the big switch to Stainless Steel………….. Rod

Only this week, someone sent me an ad for the Chesterfield racquets and in the fine print was a company I hadn’t even noticed before, owned by Best & Gee York St. Sydney. As half the battle is being a diligent P I, I jumped on the phone to a company which today is still owned by B&G. Today the owner rang me and filled me in on some quick history about the company which startedin 1923 using Canadian Ash. It wound down in the mid 1970’s so the brand has enjoyed a great following in Australia. Learn more on the website www.tennishistory.com.au

Since the brand was Sydney based you will probably find more examples up there than in Melbourne. If you own a couple, please send down some pics. Product catalogues would be fantastic to help identify a models list.

Having grown up with wooden racquets I can still remember the day that I saw my first T2000. With looks not dissimilar to the a Terminator robot sent from the future here was a racquet which just looked so cool. No string holes like conventional woodies. Flashing glints in the sunshine all made any player wielding such a weapon feel a little taller, a little faster and the shots a lot more accurate. Metal had arrived…and it could not be stopped. They were soon everywhere and being virtually indestructible, many are still available today. To be a little different my move into the new age came in the form of Yonex Gold 7500. Not many people had seen these and afterall they looked more valuable being gold and had a great shape. My racquet always looked new because indeed it was. A big serve and power game was no match for the welding on the shoulders and the poor distributor honouring the 12 month warranty ruefully handed over racquet after racquet. Whilst build quality was an issue I confess that my first YY8500 looked a true piece of beauty in that shiny green livery that finally matched the wonderful lawn courts Kooyong delivered. Just last month after 4 years looking, I finally found a really nice condition example which now hangs on the wall…..Anyone else enjoyed the love affair? …… Rod

It could take a long time sitting in a library searching for articles about tennis in newspapers from the mid 1870’s. Well thanks to a National Library initiative, there is now an online search engine with a key word search that isolates articles, headings, text and ads. Consequently, we have found some wonderful reference material in the form of ads to include on the site. A huge benefit of this material is that we can identify makes and models being sold by retailers prior to the development of the local industry and those produced locally. We have loaded some on the www.tennishistory.com.au website to provide a visual time warp back to earlier times. Check out racquet retailing in particular for informative display ads. http://tennishistory.com.au/equipment/racquets/racquet-retailing.html

See the national Library site at http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home and explore Australian Tennis History or any other subject as it was written at the time.

Cheers Rod

Interesting Shaped Racquets Rackets

Hi Everyone, I am interested if anyone remembers playing with any of these racquets. Personally I remember hitting with the Snauwert Ergonom.

Did anyone play with that double hander?? That looks really interesting. What about that bent handled one.

How did they play? What worked and didn’t work? Was it hard to serve with but great on ground strokes? Tell us leave a comment.

You can see the full article of all Interesting Shaped Racquets on the site at this link. There are some great close up photos !

Actually there is one on the site called Maynard Air Racquet. It looks like you use a bike pump to lock the strings into the frame of the racquet.

Also there is one “Blackburne Double String” which has 2 sets of strings on each side of the frame. Imaging stringing it. The first side would be ok but what about the second side!

Did anyone ever use play or string that racquet?

Enjoy Michael

Tennis History Australia tennishistory.com.au

Well after many months of hard work http://tennishistory.com.au has finally gone live !!

Backing it up we have created this blog. We aim to use this blog to talk about interesting items, maybe if you remember using any racquets, watching any matches, meeting tennis heros etc.

Please feel free to contact us with any suggestions on topics and enjoy the site.

Rod and I worked hard to gather content and create a dynamic web site that we can extend daily.

Subscribe to the RSS feed to never miss an article on this blog. RSS is not too scary. It basically looks at our site, and automatically emails you any new articles it finds.

Simple !

Michael