Hobart Real Tennis Club facts for kids
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| Formation | 1875 |
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| Location |
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President
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Andrew Brough (as of 2018[update]) |
The Hobart Real Tennis Club is a special sports club in Hobart, Tasmania, where people play a very old type of tennis called real tennis. The club opened way back in 1875, making it one of the oldest sports clubs in the southern hemisphere.
This type of tennis, sometimes called "royal tennis," was played long before the lawn tennis we see on TV today. The Hobart club is one of only four real tennis clubs in all of Australia and one of just 45 in the entire world.
The club has been the home court for some amazing players. This includes Robert Fahey, who was a world champion twelve times, and Judith Clarke, who was Australia's first female world champion in real tennis.
The Club's Long History
The story of the club begins with a man named Samuel Smith Travers. While studying at Oxford University in England, he loved playing real tennis at the famous Hampton Court. He was so inspired that he decided to build a court just like it back home in Hobart.
The court was finished in May 1875, but it couldn't open right away. Everyone had to wait for the special racquets to arrive from England! It is believed the club finally opened in June or July of that year.
To get things started, Travers brought a professional player named Tom Stone from England. Stone was a big deal—he was the same person who had taught King Edward VII how to play the game. Seeing how great the Hobart club was, a group of players in Melbourne were inspired to build their own court in 1882.
For a long time, only men could be members. This changed in 1968, when the club welcomed its first female members.
A Modern Makeover
The club got a major update in 2002. This was partly thanks to the success of world champion Robert Fahey, who brought a lot of attention to the sport.
Architects designed a new entrance and pavilion that mixed old buildings with a modern look. The new part has a cool see-through wall behind a wooden screen. This screen is designed like a trellis for plants to grow on. It provides shade and also supports a special grapevine that was planted in 1974 by another world champion, Pierre Etchebaster.
How to Play Real Tennis
Real tennis is a racket sport that started in Europe during the Middle Ages. It is believed to have been invented in a French monastery about 700 or 800 years ago. The court is even designed to look like an old courtyard with covered walkways.
The Hobart court is built to the same size as other real tennis courts around the world. It's an indoor court about 30 meters long and 12 meters wide, with hard stone walls and floors.
The court has a net in the middle, but that's where the similarities to modern tennis end. The game has sloped roofs along the walls called "penthouses" that you can bounce the ball off. There are also special openings in the walls, like the "grille" and "galleries," that you can aim for to score points. The scoring is quite complex, but it makes the game a fun and strategic challenge.
