Melbourne will host the Australian Open this month but it seems the birthplace of lawn tennis in the fledgling colonies was most likely Sydney.
The Naval Historical Society of Australia suggests in the paper Australia’s First Tennis Match, released today, that the military base of Garden Island was the site of the first grass court, the game having been introduced by a British Royal Navy officer .
An 1880 plan of Garden Island shows a ‘‘ lawn tennis ground’ ’ on the levelled site of the original First Fleet ships’ garden. There is mention of the game in The Sydney Mail of September 26, 1874 on how to produce the perfect lawn tennis court, which, the research says, means ‘‘ it is likely that tennis was then being played in Sydney’’ .
The study states that both Melbourne and Sydney have credible claims to being first , but concludes: ‘‘ Although Melbourne was by far the largest city at that time [legacy of the gold rush], Sydney was significant for its British/military personnel’’ .
Historian Colin Randall, who carried out the research, said: ‘‘ There is a convincing case that it was Commodore James Graham Goodenough, Royal Navy (or somebody closely associated with him) who brought tennis to Australia, and that he played the game on Garden Island in late 1873 or early 1874.’’
His research proposes lawn tennis, originally known as sphairistike, really took off in Britain when a Major Walter Wingfield was granted a patent for a ‘‘ New and Improved Court for Playing the Ancient Game of Tennis’ ’ as well as copyright for rules for playing the game. He also started selling boxed sets of equipment needed to play the game. The Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) and his family are said to have been early adopters of sphairistike and to have been skilled players.
Wingfield and Goodenough were acquaintances. The thinking is that Wingfield used his military and navy contacts to spread the game, and his tennis sets, internationally.
The research explains: ‘‘ In May 1873, James Goodenough was appointed captain of HMS Pearl and commander-in-chief of the Australia Station, arriving in Sydney in September 1873. His duties there would have encompassed social connections with the city’s leading figures , among whom would have been the editor of The Sydney Mail. It is possible that they witnessed, if not played, the first game of tennis played in Australia.’’
The research says Victorians may have been first to hear about tennis, with an article in the Mount Alexander Mail of June 25, 1874 (three months before The Sydney Mail’s ), but it says, ‘‘ no public grounds, no barrack square should be without it’’ .
The Age of June 5, 1875, reporting on trends in Britain, states: ‘‘ Last summer lawn tennis was the rage, during the summer people ‘went in’ for skating on wheels and now everybody is mad about . . . poker.’’
The tennishistory.com.au website states: ‘‘ Thanks to tennis historian Clive Oliver, we have learned much about the arrival of tennis in Melbourne which has been published in the book Amazing Grace: The Story of the Grace Park Lawn Tennis Club. From this book . . . we know that a visiting UK player to Melbourne found a set of tennis equipment in the confines of the MCC storeroom which in 1877 had remained unused.’’
David Michael, president of the Naval Historical Society of Australia, said the intention of the research was to create debate to see if there was any conclusive evidence.
Source: SMH 1Jan24
