The Tennis Ball
A real tennis ball is made by hand. As yet no synthetic version has been invented that performs acceptably on a court. The methods have changed little over the years. At the centre of the ball there is a hard kernel- originally a compacted sphere of ball cloth and nowadays a round cork which is then covered layer on layer with about ten metres of tape. This is hammered into shape in a special metal or wooden cup, then tied with thin strong string, criss-crossed and knotted once or twice. The tying is the difficult part of the operation and was originally carried out with a special instrument called a bilboquet. The tied ball is covered with two sections of yellow cloth, each cut in the shape of an eight and tightly stitched round it.
The earliest balls, known as eteufs, were made from dog-skin and stuffed with bran. A full set of balls was traditionally 108 but at Moreton Morrell a half set of 54 balls is re-covered every week. If the string holding the ball together has slackened, the ball will have to be re-tied. All kinds of things were used to produce the inner portion of a tennis ball- a quotation from Much Ado about Nothing implies that in Shakespeare's day, tennis balls were stuffed with human hair, for Claudio says of Benedick, "The old ornament of his cheek hath already stuffed tennis balls". An injunction was introduced by Louis XI of France in 1461 to prevent unscrupulous paumiers from using dangerous but for them economic materials for stuffing, such as chalk, sand, ash and sawdust.
I freely admit to being biased but maintain after every tournament held at Moreton Morrell that the balls made by the professionals here are as good as any in the world. May they long continue to justify such an accolade?
The process of making a ball was recorded in a booklet "How to make a Real Tennis Ball", written by Richard Hamilton and illustrated by Anthony Hobson in 1977.
A real tennis ball is made by hand. As yet no synthetic version has been invented that performs acceptably on a court. The methods have changed little over the years. At the centre of the ball there is a hard kernel- originally a compacted sphere of ball cloth and nowadays a round cork which is then covered layer on layer with about ten metres of tape. This is hammered into shape in a special metal or wooden cup, then tied with thin strong string, criss-crossed and knotted once or twice. The tying is the difficult part of the operation and was originally carried out with a special instrument called a bilboquet. The tied ball is covered with two sections of yellow cloth, each cut in the shape of an eight and tightly stitched round it.
The earliest balls, known as eteufs, were made from dog-skin and stuffed with bran. A full set of balls was traditionally 108 but at Moreton Morrell a half set of 54 balls is re-covered every week. If the string holding the ball together has slackened, the ball will have to be re-tied. All kinds of things were used to produce the inner portion of a tennis ball- a quotation from Much Ado about Nothing implies that in Shakespeare's day, tennis balls were stuffed with human hair, for Claudio says of Benedick, "The old ornament of his cheek hath already stuffed tennis balls". An injunction was introduced by Louis XI of France in 1461 to prevent unscrupulous paumiers from using dangerous but for them economic materials for stuffing, such as chalk, sand, ash and sawdust.
I freely admit to being biased but maintain after every tournament held at Moreton Morrell that the balls made by the professionals here are as good as any in the world. May they long continue to justify such an accolade?
The process of making a ball was recorded in a booklet "How to make a Real Tennis Ball", written by Richard Hamilton and illustrated by Anthony Hobson in 1977.
The Tennis Racket
M. de Garsault, an early authority on the game, gives a detailed description in 1767 of how a racket was made. Specially selected ash rods were boiled to make them flexible and then bent in half, so that the resulting loop became the embryo racket-head and the long ends, bound together became the handle. A seventeen-inch-long centre piece of soft wood was inserted between these ends and strengthened with the fibre of tendons taken from between the hock and hind hoof of an ox, and glued over with parchment. A tilt was then imparted to the head of the racket making it "pear shaped" with the aid of a special clamp, and it is this weighting of the head of the racket that helps a player apply the cut stroke more effectively.
The effect of a cut shot is to make the ball "die" when it bounces off the back wall. A lawn tennis player's top spin shot is not ideal in real tennis as the ball sits up after hitting the back wall and gives the opponent more time to get into position and play a decisive shot.
The racket frame was pierced with holes and strung with sheep gut, vertically and horizontally. Nowadays, the racket strings are made of synthetic material and handles and frames are reinforced with a plastic coating. Attempts were made in the 1990's to introduce metal rackets but these were banned, mainly for fear of the damage they might cause to court floors and walls.
Rackets have been made for many years by Grays of Cambridge. There are four types:- junior, standard and the reinforced semi-tec and extra-tec.
M. de Garsault, an early authority on the game, gives a detailed description in 1767 of how a racket was made. Specially selected ash rods were boiled to make them flexible and then bent in half, so that the resulting loop became the embryo racket-head and the long ends, bound together became the handle. A seventeen-inch-long centre piece of soft wood was inserted between these ends and strengthened with the fibre of tendons taken from between the hock and hind hoof of an ox, and glued over with parchment. A tilt was then imparted to the head of the racket making it "pear shaped" with the aid of a special clamp, and it is this weighting of the head of the racket that helps a player apply the cut stroke more effectively.
The effect of a cut shot is to make the ball "die" when it bounces off the back wall. A lawn tennis player's top spin shot is not ideal in real tennis as the ball sits up after hitting the back wall and gives the opponent more time to get into position and play a decisive shot.
The racket frame was pierced with holes and strung with sheep gut, vertically and horizontally. Nowadays, the racket strings are made of synthetic material and handles and frames are reinforced with a plastic coating. Attempts were made in the 1990's to introduce metal rackets but these were banned, mainly for fear of the damage they might cause to court floors and walls.
Rackets have been made for many years by Grays of Cambridge. There are four types:- junior, standard and the reinforced semi-tec and extra-tec.