VICTORIAN TENNIS RULE BOOK REVEALS GAME PLAYED BY THREE

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.

Other great stories
ADORABLE STOAT HUNTS IN THE SNOW

DASHING through the snow, this little stoat is on the lookout for a Christmas feast .

IN FLIGHT MEAL

This is the amazing moment two white-tailed kites take an in-flight meal - exchanging prey at 100 foot high in mid air .

CLIMBERS TACKLE 200FT TOTEM POLE

TOWERING 65 metres into the sky, this terrifying accent is a dream for climbers .

MOODY GORILLA

SAT with his arms folded and a cross look on his face, this Gorilla looks like he's had enough of the Christmas holidays already .

ABANDONED TEXTILE MILL

HUNDREDS of colour coordinated yarns lie abandoned in this once thriving textile mill .

SNOWY SQUIRRELS PLAY A GAME OF BALL

Throwing their arms up in the air, these energetic squirrels play a game of ball with a walnut .

SHOCKING CCTV OF WOMEN AND CHILD HIT AND RUN

THIS astonishing film shows the moment a hit-and-run driver ploughed into a woman and a toddler on a Coventry street .

TUNNEL FOR VICTORY

What lies beneath this building site? Britain's great hope of winning the pre-WW2 arms race against Nazi Germany .

PLAYFUL OWL PLAYS HIDE AND SEEK

A cheeky owl fancies a game of hide and seek as it peeps out from behind a tree .

VIBRANT WOODPECKER FEEDS HER YOUNG

A middle spotted woodpecker swoops into her nest and feeds her young in a forest in Trentino, Italy .

MYSTERY STALKER WHO THREATENED TO KILL ME AND TOLD THE POLICE I’D MURDERED MY KIDS TURNED OUT TO BE MY CHEATING EX

Megan Brailsford, 32, from Cambridgeshire, met Daniel Dugdale, 29, in September 2020 .

CHEEKY BABY GORILLA

THIS cheeky gorilla tries his best to wriggle free from his mum .