Lawn Tennis

First Championship Meeting.

The service line was still fixed 26 ft. from the net and the server still had his feet a cheval the base-line, but the height of the net was lowered to 3 ft. 3 in. at the centre and the balls were to be of not less than two and a half inches and not more than two and five-eighths inches in diameter, their weight ranging from one and a quarter to one and a half ounces. The first balls of india-rubber, used in the earliest days, were uncovered. The first mention of a white flannel cover appeared in the Field of Dec. 5, 1874. The balls used at the first championship meeting, made especially for the occasion, had white cloth covers sewn with unbleached carpet thread; the dyed thread used by certain makers was barred. The rackets of wooden frames strung with gut were pear-shaped, like tennis rackets ; they did not become oval-shaped until 188o, and even later leading players remained loyal to a slight curve.

Fifty Years of Wimbledon.

Such were the conditions under which the first championship meeting was held—a meeting at tracting 22 competitors of whom the majority were tennis or rackets players. The Wimbledon of 1877, with its standless courts, and its general air of calm, bore little resemblance to the Wimble don of 1928, with its crowds of spectators of all races and its giant concrete stadium, the largest match arena in the world. The All England club had a decisive influence on the history of the game. For the first critical decade, when rules had to be amended, traditions founded and a new cult consolidated, the committee of the All England club was the sole legislative authority. The Lawn Tennis Association was not founded until 1886; the International Lawn Tennis Federation, with headquarters in Paris, not until 1912. It was at the All England club's instigation that, in 1878, the height of the net was reduced to 4 f t. 9 in. at the posts and to 3 ft. at the centre ; simultaneously the service line was brought 4 ft. nearer the net and the balls increased in weight to two ounces. In 188o the net was lowered at the posts to 4 ft., the service line brought in to a distance of 21 ft. from the net ; the limits of variation in the size and weight of the balls were fixed; the server, though still required to have one foot behind the base line, was allowed the option of placing the other foot either within or upon it; a service not delivered in accordance with the laws was declared a fault, and a service touching the net, but otherwise good, was declared a "let"; a player was forbidden under penalty of losing the stroke to touch the net or to volley the ball before it had passed the net ; and on application by either party before tossing for choice the umpire might direct the players to change sides after every game. In three respects—in the lowering of the net at the posts to 3 ft. 6 in., in bringing both feet of the server

behind the base-line, and in ordaining that players shall change sides after every odd game—these laws have been changed since, but in principle the code of 188o is the code of 1929—not only in England but throughout the world.

The Renshaw's Influence.

The first champion was Spencer W. Gore, an old Harrovian and a rackets player. Like his rivals, he used a service delivered from a point level with his shoulder, but "kept up his sleeve" an underhand cut service. He was also the first to realize, as the fundamental principle of lawn tennis, the necessity of forcing his opponent to the base-line; he would then approach the net and, by using his long reach and flexible wrist, volley the ball for a winning point. Thus the volley was vindi cated at the first Wimbledon, but its success was mainly due to the loop-shaped net and to the inability of the opponent to drive down the side lines. The lowering of the net at the posts and the introduction of the lob (P. F. Hadow, the second champion, beat Gore with its aid in 1878) temporarily ousted the volley and it was not revived until, with spectacular effect, the Renshaw broth ers, William and Ernest, appeared on the scene in I880. Their advent enabled the game to shake itself free from the shackles of tennis and rackets. They were young and agile enough to invent new and devastating strokes; the real parents of the modern game, they revealed its potentialities of speed and courtcraft. William was champion for seven years, Ernest for only one, but both in singles and doubles the twins dominated the game for a decade.

But in killing safety play and long rests (i.e., rallies)—in a match at Prince's club in 188o between Lawford and E. Lubbock a rest of no less than 81 strokes was witnessed—the Renshaws introduced a "reign of terror." Older players, lacking the spright liness of the brothers, were inclined to revolt. They could not achieve three or four sharp repartees from the service line, fol lowed by a smash from the vicinity of the net—the Renshaw pre rogative. The lowering of the net six inches at the posts in 1882 a decree which cost the brothers their Irish titles at Dublin and their English at Oxford—allowed back-court players to find open ings down the side lines, but the brothers were adventurous enough to move their volleying base forward ; they were doubles champions in all for seven years. In 1885 Bagnall Wild's system of drawing, with tl-' bye in the later round eliminated, was intro duced at Wimbledon ; it is now in universal vogue for champion ship and tournament play. In the same year the server was permitted to lift the foot from the ground behind the base-line without a penalty, and a ball hit round the net post and falling into court was declared to be valid.