Grass Roots: The Development of Tennis in Britain, 1918–1978

Abstract

Most research on British tennis has focused on social exclusion at the tennis club, on its middle-class image, and on the ‘shamateurism’ of the pre-1968 era. This paper will chart the development of the sport at grass-roots level. It will demonstrate that tennis in the workplace and public parks allowed lower income families to play and that significant numbers did so in less formal settings than those overseen by regional Lawn Tennis Associations. It will suggest that a concentration on the wealthy south-east of England has distorted our impression of the sport itself and the ‘average’ club. Evidence from club histories, official handbooks, company archives and detailed local studies presents a very different picture from that of the suburban ‘garden party’.

Keywords:

• tennis
• workplace sport
• municipal sport
• grass roots
• clubs

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland for financial help towards research costs and Cadburys Bournville, the John Lewis Partnership and Lever Bros Port Sunlight for archival access and assistance.

Notes

^1. Smyth, Lawn Tennis, 233–4.

^2. Baker, ‘State of British Sport History’, 64, 67.

^3. See, for example Lake, ‘Gender and Etiquette’ and ‘Social Exclusion’; Jefferys, ‘Fred Perry’, ‘Heyday of Amateurism’ and ‘Triumph of Professionalism’; Brasher, ‘Traditional Versus Commercial’.

^4. Non-academic books range from Macauley and Smyth, Behind the Scenes and Tingay, History of Lawn Tennis to the more recent Henderson, The Last Champion and the All-England Lawn Tennis Club, Barrett and Hewitt, Centre Court.

^5. Earlier general sport texts include Hargreaves, Sporting Females; Polley, Moving the Goalposts; and Hill, Sport, Leisure and Culture. Helen Walker, in one of the few detailed accounts of tennis in Britain, gives a number of examples of where the game was played, yet manages to leave the impression that tennis for the ‘toffs’ at the prestigious Queen's Club in London was typical. Walker, ‘Lawn Tennis’, 249–56. For theories on the attitudes of the LTA and sports clubs, see Lake, ‘Social Exclusion in British Tennis’.

^6. MacLean, ‘Evolving Modern Sport’, 49.

^7. Sheffield and District LTA, 17.

^8. Both phrases are used by historian Andy Lusis; Lusis, Tennis in Robin Hood's County, 29, 66. Jeff Hill also quotes the saying ‘anyone for tennis?’ and its connotation with social privilege and the leisured life-style. Hill, Sport, Leisure & Culture, 36.

^9. Cronin, ‘What Went Wrong with Counting?’, 400.

^10. For an outline and discussion of social capital theory, see Coalter, ‘Sports Clubs, Social Capital’, 539–44.

^11. Huggins and Williams, Sport and the English, 9.

^12. Bale, Sport and Place, 94–5.

^13. LTA, LTA Official Handbook, Rule 39, 1956.

^14. In the period 1945–1955, Clarkston Tennis Club in Glasgow had 232 members, the Jesmond club in Newcastle 295, priory in Birmingham c.700, Leicestershire Lawn Tennis Club 420 and Felixstowe 256.

^15. Rivers, Sports Book, Vol. 2, 227.

^16. Lusis, Tennis in Robin Hood's County, 66–7, and correspondence with the author, July 21, 2011.

^17. Robertson, Tennis in Scotland, 66.

^18. Hargreaves, Aughton LTC, n.p.

^19. Nelson, History of Hale, 27; Cook, Birkenhead LTC, 5; Gare, Bramhall Lane LTC, n.p.

^20. Bearsden LTC, 2; Borthwick, Braid Tennis Club, 16; Clark, Radyr LTC, 6.

^21. Lynch, Centenary History of Bromley, 15–17; Chesham Bois Lawn Tennis, n.p.; Mussell, Winchester Tennis, 10.

^22. Walker, ‘Lawn Tennis’, 250; Holt, Sport and the British, 127; Jefferys, ‘Heyday of Amateurism’, 2245; Holt and Mason, Sport in Britain, 54.

^23. Lawn Tennis and Badminton, May 1967, 128.

^24. Lawn Tennis and Badminton, May 1967; Bale, Sport and Place, 6, 94.

^25. Bearsden LTC, 17; Angus, Cullercoats LTC, 39; Blundellsands LTC, n.p.

^26. Lusis, Tennis in Robin Hood's County, 42; Lake, ‘Social Exclusion in British Tennis’, 136–7.

^27. Bearsden LTC, 5–6.

^28. Finchley Manor Lawn Tennis Club, Centennial History of Finchley, n.p.; Blundellsands LTC, n.p.

^29. Nelson, History of Hale, 21.

^30. Hargreaves, Aughton LTC, n.p.; Cook, Birkenhead LTC, 27.

^31. Chapel Allerton Lawn Tennis, n.p.; Hunter, 100 Years of Tennis, 79.

^32. Chapel Allerton Lawn Tennis, n.p.; Hunter, 100 Years of Tennis, 147, 184.

^33. Figures calculated from Lusis, Tennis in Robin Hood's County, 70–119.

^34. Figures calculated from Hunter, 100 Years of Tennis, 63–178 and from Warwickshire County Lawn Tennis Association, Warwickshire LTA Handbook.

^35. Jones, Tennis in North Wales, 10.

^36. Paish, Surrey County LTA, 4–5; Durham & Cleveland LTA, History of Durham, 1–2.

^37. Edgbaston Priory Club, n.p.; Surbiton Lawn Tennis, n.p.; Hazelwood Lawn Tennis, n.p.; Mussell, Winchester Tennis, 8.

^38. Lusis, Tennis in Robin Hood's County, 52.

^39. Clark, Radyr LTC, 9; Cheshire LTA, Cheshire County LTA, 37; Jones, Tennis in North Wales, 19; Clarkston Bowling and Tennis Club, 21; Putney LTC Centenary, 9.

^40. Mussell, Winchester Tennis, 9.

^41. Durham & Cleveland LTA, History of Durham, 2; Paish, Surrey County LTA, 13.

^42. Essex LTA, Tennis in Essex, 6; Henshaw, Passing Shots, 43.

^43. Alexander, History of Honor Oak, 116; Chapel Allerton Lawn Tennis, n.p.

^44. Angus, Cullercoats LTC, 21.

^45. Costelloe, History of Catford Wanderers, 7; Reigate LTC, 10.

^46. Jones, Tennis in North Wales, 28.

^47. Sheffield & District Lawn Tennis Association, Sheffield and District LTA, 26.

^48. Rockett, East Gloucestershire Tennis; Mussell, Winchester Tennis, 13.

^49. www.giffnock-ltc.co.uk

^50. Hunter, 100 Years of Tennis, 184, 187; Edinburgh Press Cuttings , 1973.

^51. Chambers, quoted in Walker, Lawn Tennis, 251; ibid.

^52. Anderson & Swinglehurst, Victorian and Edwardian Seaside, 16; Durie, Scotland for the Holidays, 194.

^53. Lowe, Lowe's Lawn Tennis Annual, iii.

^54. Davenport, ‘Tennis’, 1169; Stell, Half the Race, 74.

^55. Sheffield & District Lawn Tennis Association, Sheffield and District LTA, 17.

^56. Robertson, Tennis in Scotland, 173; Edinburgh Press Cuttings.

^57. Jones, Workers at Play, 14.

^58. Hunter, 100 Years of Tennis, 190.

^59. Hunter, 100 Years of Tennis, 191–2.

^60. The Scotsman, November 23, 1960.

^61. Edinburgh Evening News, July 20, 1972.

^62. Chapel Allerton Lawn Tennis and Squash Club, n.p.

^63. Holt and Mason, Sport in Britain, 54.

^64. Lusis, Tennis in Robin Hood's County, 31–2, 99.

^65. Bale, Sport and Place, 99, 106.

^66. Holt, ‘Heroes of the North’, 160.

^67. The Star (Sheffield), June 9, 2011. I am grateful to Wray Vamplew for this information.

^68. Figures calculated from LTA, LTA Official Handbooks.

^69. Munting, ‘The Games Ethic and Industrial Capitalism’; Lever Bros. archive, Progress, 1900, 382–3; Cadbury Archive: Bournville Athletic Club. 1896 and All That: 50 Years of the Bournville Athletic Club, 1896—1946, 7.

^70. Munting, ‘The Games Ethic and Industrial Capitalism’; Lever Bros. archive, Progress, 1900

^71. Cadbury Archive: Bournville: Work and Play, 1926.

^72. Cadbury Archive: Bournville Works and Its Institutions, 1946.

^73. Hunter, 100 Years of Tennis, 63.

^74. The Gazette, John Lewis Partnership, July 1, 2000.

^75. Jones, Workers at Play, 70.

^76. Jones, Workers at Play, 73.

^77. Figures calculated from Lusis, Tennis in Robin Hood's County.

^79. Cadbury Archive: 1896 and All That, 20.

^78. See, for example, Munting, ‘The Games Ethic and Industrial Capitalism’; Jones, Workers at Play (quote, 180); Long, The Rise and Fall.

^80. Jones, Workers at Play, 70.

^81. G.H. Lee Chronicle 105, John Lewis Partnership, February 23, 1962.

^82. Mussell, Winchester Tennis, 17; Hunter, 100 Years of Tennis, 168.

^83. Cox, Spedan's Partnership, 278.

^84. Hill, Sport, Leisure & Culture, 144.

^85. Hazelwood Lawn Tennis, n.p.; Lynch, Centenary History of Bromley, 50.

^86. Finchley Manor Lawn Tennis Club, Centennial History of Finchley, n.p.; Gare, Bramhall Lane LTC, 16.

^87. Borthwick, Braid Tennis Club, 23; Clark, Radyr LTC, 6.

^88. Coles, Felixstowe LTC, n.p.

^89. Reigate LTC, 9; Blundellsands LTC, n.p.

^90. Lusis, Tennis in Robin Hood's County, 32; Hunter, 100 Years of Tennis, 157, 152.

^91. Figures from Lusis, Tennis in Robin Hood's County.

^92. Williams, ‘Churches, sport and identities’, 114.

^93. Cheshire LTA, Cheshire County LTA, 24.

^94. LTA, LTA Official Handbook, 1976.

^95. Vamplew, ‘Sharing Space.’ For discussion of prosopography see Erard and Bancel, ‘Prosopographical analysis’.

^96. Brasher, ‘Traditional Versus Commercial’, 202.

^97. Robertson, Tennis in Scotland, 116, 122.

^98. Henshaw, Passing Shots; Angus, Cullercoats LTC, 50.