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
CHIPS IN: MAN MAKES £4K A MONTH SENDING POTATOES IN THE POST

A man has made a SPUD-TACULAR amount of money sending potatoes in the post .

MIRACLE MAN SURVIVES 13,000ft FALL WHEN PARACHUTE FAILS

A skydiver cheated death after plunging 13,000 feet without his parachute opening but survived after landing in a bog .

ABANDONED TAVERN AND FARM SHOP

STOOD side by side next to a busy road, these buildings were once bustling with life .

WOMAN DESPERATE TO LOOK LIKE CHERYL COLE OVERCOMES ANOREXIA

A woman who starved herself to look like Cheryl Cole has told how she shrunk to just under 5st 13lbs after developing anorexia .

VETERAN BEATEN IN REMEMBRANCE WEEKEND ATTACK

A PENSIONER was left with a fractured jaw after being beaten and robbed outside his home in Birmingham last weekend .

HONEYMOON BRIDE DIED OF HEROIN OVERDOSE

A coroner stunned an inquest into a honeymooner who died abroad today by asking her husband if he was involved in her drugs death .

ROAD-KILL CUDDLY TOYS

With their guts spewing and eyes hanging out, these are the cuddly toys children might be reluctant to curl up to .

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 .

AMAZING THUNDERSTORM LIGHTS UP THE SARDINIAN COAST

POWERFUL bolts of lightning illuminate the night sky in an incredible autumn storm over the Sardinian coastline .

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 .

BABY BABOON GOES BANANAS FOR ACROBATIC MONKEY

Most people bend over backwards to keep children entertained, but this baboon show us how it’s done .