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
ABANDONED WILD WEST THEME PARK
The gunslingers are long gone and tumbleweeds have taken over at this abandoned American Wild West Theme Park in Cornwall .
FRILLED LIZARD SINGS FOR THE CAMERA
A frilled lizard appears to be belting out a tune as it sits in a tree with its mouth open wide .
MIRACLE BABY SAVED BY SUPERGLUE
A miracle baby has overcome a one-in-five-million brain condition – after a blob of glue saved his life .
BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS BROUGHT TO LIFE
BREATHING life back into old photographs, these black and white images are transformed by colour .
MY 4YO BEAUTY PAGEANT DAUGHTER WEARS FAKE TAN AND LIPSTICK - AND STRANGERS THINK I'M TARTING HER UP
Growing up, Jasmine Price, now four, loved watching her older sister, Mia Price, now 10, compete in beauty pageants .
ENTER THE LOST WORLD
Some will get up close and personal with Mother Nature’s deadliest animals to get the perfect shot, posing the question, what lengths will a photographer go to for that all important picture? But in this case, the question should be what depths .
SLEEPING IN THE WILDERNESS
SLEEPING within touching distance of wild African animals might not be everyone's idea of a relaxing break .
AUSTRALIAN TOWN LOCATED UNDERGROUND
A mining town in Australia’s outback appears to be completely deserted, but its residents have escaped the scorching heat by living in underground caves .
LETTERS TO A SERIAL KILLER: PALS WITH DENNIS NILSEN AND I EVEN HAVE HIS ASHES AND GLASSES
Andrea Kubinova, 30, from London, became great friends with serial killer and necrophiliac, Dennis Nilsen .
PEE-TRIFIED: WOMAN HAS IRRATIONAL FEAR OF TOILETS
A woman with an irrational fear of toilets goes POTTY on the loo and runs away when she flushes, terrified it will swallow her up .
TWO FIRES ON MY WEDDING DAYS, EXACTLY ONE YEAR APART BUT WE MARRIED ANYWAY
On June 23, 2017, Coral Denakis, now 27, woke up on the morning of her wedding day to find a car on fire outside her hotel .