The real game, set and match fit for a king
We may be missing Wimbledon, but here Phil Hind, chair of Falkland Palace Royal Tennis Club, takes us to Scotland’s oldest tennis court
Playing sport, or watching it, holds us in the here and now. But sport also shows us the past, tradition and history, things that stay the same and things that change.
Playing Real Tennis (“caitch”in Scots) on the 16th-century court at Falkland Palace certainly does that.
Built on the Falkland Palace estate in Fife, the Falkland Real Tennis court is unique. Of the 48 active courts in the world, it’s the second oldest, and the oldest in the UK. It is also the only one in Scotland, and the only outdoor court.
The court was built for James V between 1539 and 1541, and played on by him, his son, James VI, and by Mary, Queen of Scots.
James V spent nine months in France and presumably played tennis there, where most palaces and chateaux had their own court. Inspired, James V transformed his favoured Fife retreat on his return.
He even brought French master masons to work alongside his Scottish craftsmen to build the extended Renaissance residence.
By 1615 there were more than 200 courts in Paris. In comparison, by around 1600, there were 14 courts in London, and perhaps ten in Scotland.
By the mid-1600s the game was no longer fashionable in Scotland. Where space was tight and land valuable, the courts began to disappear. For example, two Edinburgh courts became a fleshmarket, one became a weavers’ shed.
When James VI became James I of England in 1603, the Fife residence for royal Stuarts fell out of favour and he spent most of his time in England.
As a result, Falkland town did not develop as a major centre, so the space where the tennis court stands was not needed (though its paved floor was removed for use elsewhere).
Although it fell into disrepair after 1660, both Falkland Palace and the tennis court were restored and brought back into use by the Marquess of Bute in the 1890 and now cared for by National Trust for Scotland.
In France, a Real Tennis court is a jeu de paume (“game of palm of the hand”), a reminder of the early racquet-free origins of the sport.
Throughout early 16th-century Europe, these games became unified and codified, with the first rulebook written in Italy in 1555. By then, the shape of the court had been more or less agreed, but with two versions: jeu dedans, the form of all indoor courts in use today, and jeu carré, the form of the Falkland court (another of its unique features).
The jeu carré court is slightly smaller and has a few other differences, such as holes, called lunes, in an end wall and an upright wooden plank, the ais. The additions offer another way to win a point by hitting the ball through or against them.
It was, and is, expensive to build and maintain the courts. In the 19th century, there were several attempts to create a similar, but more affordable, game. Between 1870 and 1890 the first set of Lawn Tennis rules was printed.
As with Lawn Tennis, the players are on different sides of a net, and hit a ball over it.
Scores such as “love-15-30-40” will also be familiar.
One difference is the use of the walls, making the sport more similar to the game of squash.
Put simply, if the ball bounces twice on your side of the court, you haven’t lost the point yet. It means that a chase has been laid at the point of the second bounce. You note where it fell, using the lines on the court.
When there are two chases (or one chase if the score is at game point), servers and receivers change ends as serving is always from the same end of the court).
Then you try to get a better chase (that is, nearer the end wall) than your opponent did.
Got that? Well, then, it’s game on.