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
LIFE-LIKE PENCIL DRAWINGS
AT first glance these images could easily be mistaken for photographs, but they are in-fact real life drawings created using nothing but coloured pencils .
WOMAN’S 12YO SON BECAME HUMAN FIREBALL AFTER ‘TIKTOK FIREBALL CHALLENGE’ WENT WRONG – NOW HE’S SCARRED FOR LIFE
A mother-of-two has revealed how her son became a human fireball after a dangerous 'TikTok challenge' went wrong .
ADORABLE OWLS CUDDLE UP FOR THE CAMERA
HUDDLED together on a branch, a pair of adorable Javan scops owls soak up the sun .
19ST WOMAN LOSES 9ST AFTER GIVING UP GREGGS ADDICTION
A woman who was addicted to GREGGS has lost 9st after giving up her favourite food .
TRANS WOMAN'S £100K TRANSFORMATION FUNDED BY ONLINE FANS
A transgender woman has revealed how she was able to fund her transformation using £100K gifted to her by online admirers .
DAREDEVIL DINING: THE 160FT HIGH RESTAURANT
Suspended FIFTY metres in the air, this is the last place that you would expect to find a fine dining experience .
DOCTORS THOUGHT MY 30CM OVARIAN CYST WAS A BABY DUE TO GROWING BELLY – BUT CANCER WAS RAVISHING MY ORGANS
A woman was diagnosed with cancer after a cyst left her so bloated medics were convinced she was pregnant .
CCTV CAPTURES NEWSREADER WALKING INTO A CANAL WHILE TEXTING
THIS is the shocking moment a clumsy radio newsreader plunged into a freezing canal while texting her boyfriend instead of looking where she was going .
MILLION DOLLAR MARILYN - WOMAN MAKES FORTUNE AS LOOKALIKE
A former cosmetic rep who swapped make-up for a career as a Marilyn Monroe lookalike has pocketed a staggering $4million (£2,630,000) as a full-time doppelgänger .
HUNGRY HIPPO MISSES OUT ON LUNCH
A hungry hippo is seconds away from catching a bird in its gigantic jaws .
BABY BEARS COPY FIGHTING ADULTS
SITTING quietly at the edge of the lake, these two baby bears watch and learn as the adults hunt for fish .
‘WORLD’S SMALLEST CINEMA’ IN OAP’S HOUSE
Pic By HotSpot Media - ‘WORLD’S SMALLEST CINEMA’ IN OAP’S HOUSE -IN PIC- AN OAP film buff has brought the big screen to his home and built the world's smallest cinema in his BEDROOM .