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| A glimpse of St. David's Park which was once a cemetery |
It’s late in the season but Hobart is finally getting its
Autumn act together. There is now a glorious show of colour in its parks and
gardens and the weather bureau has promised us at least one nice day,
the first one in ages, where it isn’t showing the sun as a fried egg sitting on
a cloud with rain drops under it.
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| On the other side of the road in Davey Street is a quaint Hobart institution |
Meanwhile, I have discovered Hobart’s Real Tennis Court and finally worked up the courage to peek behind its sandstone walls. This
was the original form of tennis which is believed to have evolved around 600
years ago, possibly in Basque country in the south of France or even in England.
Either way, Henry VIII brought it over from France again in 1529 and
established a real tennis court at Hampton Court.
Though its
rules – more complex than those of lawn tennis,
its strangely bent
rackets not racquets, and even its
balls -handmade and more like a
baseball, differ from conventional tennis, all other forms of the game evolved
from this in around 1870.
Read its history here. Nevertheless,
there are still 46 courts like this around the world - England has 24, the USA
has 9, France has 2 and Australia has 3, though ten of these were only built in
last twenty or thirty years (not sure where the others are, though there‘s
definitely at least one in the
Netherlands). In the USA it is known as Court Tennis. In Australia it was previously known as Royal Tennis, but the name was changed in 2002 to bring it in line with the UK definition. The Hobart court, built in 1875, remains
the oldest in Australia. The real question though is how did it come to be in
Hobart at all?
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| Insignia of the Hobart Real Tennis Club |
English merchant Samuel Smith Travers, who had been an avid
tennis player in England before
coming to the colony, thought that
what the place needed most to keep him
from getting bored was a Real Tennis Court
and consequently built it on one of the main thoroughfares between the Methodist Church and a government training school for girls. Though
the training establishment is no more, the Royal Tennis Court still stands unobtrusively
beside the church on one of Hobart‘s main arteries behind a somewhat forbidding
stone wall.
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| Another of Hobart's little secrets |
Beyond lies a modern reception area which has its own ‘professional,’
clubrooms and a view of the court. The professional is busy on the phone and doesn't seem too excited to see me, so I just have a little poke around. I learn that the club currently has about two hundred
members. A thick vine growing over
the
entrance
was
planted during the club’s centenary by
Pierre Etchebaster, a Basque, who was world champion
for 26 years, from 1928 – 1954.
Alas, the two players on the court are just
leaving as I get out my camera, so I don’t get to see them in action, but it’s a fascinating
glimpse into an arcane world hiding among the office towers. To see what the game actually looks like click
here, but to find out for
example, what a ‘chase’, a ‘poop’ or a ‘bobble’ is, or what the dedans and
tambour are all about, click
here.
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| The Club's' Professiona' is busy on the phone so I take a look around at pictures of the founder and former club members |
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| Here's an image of the rackets |
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| The now vacant court |
Looking around, I get the distinct feeling that this club would not necessarily want me as a member - there are strict rules about
behaviour, but then would I want to be a member of a club that actually wanted me as a member? (As Groucho MarX said first).
The park is probably more my style, but at least it's another mystery solved.
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