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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 Their first racquet, was the all metal “BIRMAL” which I think you will agree would not look out of date lined up against many of the 1970’s metal derivatives.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.

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.

While not thoroughly researched, many players over the course of their careers have had involvement with a host of tennis racquet manufacturers all vying for player endorsements designed to create credibility and sales. (Just another project to get stuck into)!!

As the Australian Professional players, particularly in the late 1960’s – 1970’s, were proving themselves on the World stage the racquet endorsements proved very lucrative. While often contracted to use Slazenger, Spalding or Dunlop in Australia, contracts often allowed players the opportunity to accept contracts within certain overseas markets and you will discover many racquets in the USA endorsed
by Aussies that were never sold here or were available only as a boutique line if their Australian contracts had expired.

By far most Australian players were with either Rawlings or Chemold, but occasionally there were some other interesting liaisons. Rod Laver, Margaret Court and Roy Emerson were in this former category, however Ken Rosewall became an advisor/ consultant to the
The Seamless Sporting Goods Company and a quite unusual racquet was created. The racquet right is a Rod Laver version.

Seamless started business in the rubber industry in 1877 and had been making rubber tennis balls since the early 1920’s, however in the early 1970’s, decided to move into racquets. Attracting Ken was
a real coup and the signature SEAMLESS Ken Rosewall aluminium racquet was launched in c 1971. The actual racquet, according to Siegfried Kuebler’s book, was made by Acro USA and marketed under the SEAMLESS name which the changed from 1973 onwards to SEAMCO. Where the word Seamless appears in the throat, below, on the later model the words Ken Rosewall are printed on a red sticker with white reversed text.

These racquets were sold in Australia by agents and stringing experts Reynold Racquets in Victoria.

As a design , they are really very sleek. Their external part of the frame has no stringing holes like a normal racquet and the string supports were slotted into the inside channel. Consequently, the external frame is very smooth and elegant.

Please see more racquets and other tennis memorabilia at www.tennishistory.com.au

Thanks to the efforts of Andrew Tasiopoulos in South Australia and his permission to use the information on our site, we are pleased to present a comprehensive documentation of SINGLES tennis finals results for many national, state and regional tournaments for men and women from the 1880’s onwards.

It is remarkable to see the names of past champions in easter tournaments such as that held by the Geelong (vic) Lawn Tennis Club. The times were different in the early/mid 1900’s and players travelled the countryside often playing in tournaments and exhibition matches as part of their employment with various sporting manufacturers.

You will be able to search by player, event and year. In each section you can type in a name and search the database with greater precision.

It is a fabulous way to track individual player performances, upsets against top seeds, rivalries that may span a decade etc. This is a massive contribution to our website objective.

Thanks Andrew from the team at www.tennishistory.com.au By clicking this link you will be directed to the results page.