TENNIS was a game made for three according to the first Victorian rule book. Our ancestors started playing the game outdoors for the first time thanks to a Birmingham lawyer who experimented with the sport. Instead of the Wimbledon as we know it with strict singles and doubles teams with no mixing of the sexes the early Victorians were MORE liberal. In a version called the Unicorn one player could play against two opponents. And while ladies were discouraged from playing - they were permitted to battle against the men. This means if Wimbledon was played the Victorian way we could be looking at a big female name like Serena Williams playing the likes of Murray AND Djokovic. History buffs of the sport insist the 1874 'Lawn tennis or Pelota rules of the game' by Thomas Henry Gem was the first of its kind. Former PE teachers Sue Elks, 69, and Christopher Elks, 68, from Wythall in the West Midlands explained the difference the modern game has with the tennis of yesteryear.
THE THOUGHT OF BECOMING shipwrecked on a remote destination would fill most holidaymakers with dread .
A BROWN bear wades through waters in Alaska and waits for his lunch .
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CONTRASTING settings reveal some of England’s most beautiful landscapes in all their glory .
THIS RING of fire in the sky is the annular solar eclipse that wowed our cousins down-under .
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A curious red squirrel takes a break from collecting nuts and tries her hand at photography .
SOARING through the air, a hungry white-tailed kite prepares to snatch a vole from his mother’s claws .
The beds are consumed by moss instead of customers at this abandoned hotel .
AN ANGRY giraffe gave a bush-riding cyclist a scare when he stomped his £2K bike into the dirt .
These images of vintage cars, bikes and vans, pictured all over the world, could easily have come from a globetrotting petrol-head’s photo album .
