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
ROMANIAN CELEBRATES NEW JOB AS KNIFE THROWER'S ASSISTANT
A Romanian woman is celebrating her new job as a knife-thrower’s assistant after leaving her family behind to move to the UK .
WOMAN LOSES 8ST AFTER DITCHING CURRY ADDICTION
A woman who was addicted to eating curries has shed an impressive 8st after giving up her favourite food .
DIGIT-AL ART: HANDY COLLECTION UNVEILED
Here's a collection of art for the DIGIT-AL age as these fascinating illusions of landmarks, places and even a banana are made using just a pair of hands .
HUNGRY WHITE-TAILED KITE
SOARING through the air, a hungry white-tailed kite prepares to snatch a vole from his mother’s claws .
RAPED TWICE BY MY SISTER'S FRIEND, AND HE TOOK PICTURES
Brave Amy, 18, has waived her anonymity to tell how she jailed rapist Philip Sims-Neighbour, 37, of Hylton Road, Worcester .
TEEN GIRL TRUCKER YOUNGEST IN UK
Blonde teen Jess Stubbs has certainly got girl power - as Britain’s youngest TRUCKER .
HUMAN CCTV COP BUSTS 130 CRIMINALS
Meet the human CCTV: a PCSO with a memory for faces so sharp he has apprehended more than 130 suspects in the last year alone with his eagle eyed talents .
WOMAN OVERCOMES THIGH GAP OBSESSION AND BEATS ANOREXIA
A university graduate who was obsessed with achieving a thigh gap has told how she shrunk to just 6st after developing anorexia athletica .
GIRL GROWS BACK FACE AFTER ONE IN MILLION ALLERGIC REACTION
A teenage girl has grown back her entire face after being struck down by a rare skin disease .
MESMERISING FIELD PATTERNS
FULL OF STUNNING colours and swirling shapes, the furrows on these fields create a mix of mesmerising patterns .
FISH AND BIRD TANGO
A trout manages to escape the jaws of a hungry cormorant - only to find itself back inside the bird's long beak .
FREEZING MANATEES STRUGGLE TO STAY WARM
Swimming side by side with divers, these manatees will do anything they can to stay warm .