1.
Grand Slam (tennis)
–
The Grand Slam tournaments, also called majors, are the four most important annual tennis events. They offer the most ranking points, prize money, public and media attention, the greatest strength and size of field, and greater number of best of sets for men. The Grand Slam itinerary consists of the Australian Open in mid January, the French Open in May and June, Wimbledon in June and July, each tournament is played over a period of two weeks. The Australian and United States tournaments are played on courts, the French on clay. Wimbledon is the oldest, founded in 1877, followed by the US in 1881, the French in 1891, however, of these four, only Wimbledon was a major before 1924/25, the time when all four became designated Grand Slam tournaments. In doubles, one team may accomplish a Grand Slam playing together or one player may achieve it with different partners, the term Grand Slam without qualification refers to winning the four majors in a single calendar year. Winning the gold medal at the Summer Olympic Games in addition to the four majors in a one year is known as a Golden Grand Slam or more commonly the Golden Slam. Also, winning the Year-End Championship in the period is known as a Super Slam. Together, all four Majors in all three disciplines are called a set of Grand Slam titles. No male or female player has won all events in one calendar year. The term slam for winning all of the tricks in the whist family card games is attested early in the 17th century. Grand slam for all of the tricks, in contrast to small slam or little slam for all but one and this use was inherited by contract bridge, a modern development of whist defined in 1925 that became very popular in Britain and America by 1930. Grand slam has been used in golf since 1930, when Bobby Jones won the four major championships, before that time only three events, Wimbledon, the World Hard Court Championships and the World Covered Court Championships were considered the premier international tennis events by the ILTF. Tony Wilding of New Zealand won all three of those majors in one year –1913. It has been possible to complete a Grand Slam in most years, phil Dent has pointed out that skipping Grand Slam tournaments—especially the Australian Open—was not unusual then, before counting Grand Slam titles became the norm. Nevertheless, except for the 1969 and 1971 tournaments, many of the best players missed this championship until 1982, because of the remoteness, the inconvenient dates, the tournament was won by Arthur Ashe. The first definitive Grand Slam, of the current four majors, was accomplished when Don Budge won all four mens singles Majors in 1938, to date,17 players have completed a Grand Slam, though only six in the most prestigious singles titles. The four Junior disciplines, boys and girls singles and doubles, Players are only eligible from age 13 to 18, with 18-year-olds likely to hold a physical advantage
2.
Grass court
–
A grass court is one of the four different types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as lawn tennis, is played. Grass courts are made of grasses in different compositions depending on the tournament, although grass courts are more traditional than other types of tennis courts, maintenance costs of grass courts are higher than those of hard courts and clay courts. Grass courts must be left for the day if rain appears, Grass courts are most common in Britain, although the Northeastern United States also has some private grass courts. Because grass courts tend to be slippery, the ball often skids and bounces low while retaining most of its speed, in addition, there are often bad bounces. As a result, players must reach the ball relative to other surfaces. A grass-court favours a serve and volley style of play, all have won at least five grand slam singles titles on grass, Navratilova won twelve, Court won eight, while King, Sampras, Graf, Serena Williams and Federer each won seven. Sampras is lauded by many analysts as one of the greatest grass-court players of all time. He won seven Wimbledon singles titles in eight years from 1993 through 2000, the most successful male player currently is Roger Federer, a seven-time Wimbledon singles champion. His variety in the shots, speed, footwork, and slices, are his biggest weapons, before being beaten in 2008 at Wimbledon by Rafael Nadal, Federer had a 65-match winning streak on grass, and 40 consecutive wins at Wimbledon alone. The most successful female players currently playing are Serena Williams and her sister Venus Williams, with seven, Venus has won five out of her eight Wimbledon finals appearances and achieving five titles in the ladies doubles with her sister. The professional grass court season is comparatively short, in 2015 it was extended, with an extra week between the French Open and Wimbledon. In the ATP Tour, the Stuttgart Open became a court tournament in 2015, and in 2017 a new ATP250 tournament is being hosted in Antalya. In the WTA Tour Mallorca will host a grass court tournament beginning in 2016, clay court hardcourt carpet court LTA – Grass Court Guidance
3.
Wimbledon, London
–
Wimbledon had a population of 68,187 in 2011 which includes the electoral wards of Abbey, Dundonald, Hillside, Trinity, Village, Raynes Park and Wimbledon Park. It is home to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and New Wimbledon Theatre, Wimbledon has been inhabited since at least the Iron Age when the hill fort on Wimbledon Common is thought to have been constructed. In 1087 when the Domesday Book was compiled, Wimbledon was part of the manor of Mortlake, the village developed with a stable rural population coexisting alongside nobility and wealthy merchants from the city. The location of the station shifted the focus of the subsequent growth away from the original village centre. Since 2005, the north and west of the Borough has been represented in Westminster by Stephen Hammond, the eastern and southern of the Borough are represented by Siobhain McDonagh, a Labour MP. It has established minority groups, among the most prominent are British Asians, British Ghanaians, Wimbledon has been inhabited since at least the Iron Age when the hill fort on Wimbledon Common, the second-largest in London, is thought to have been constructed. The original nucleus of Wimbledon was at the top of the close to the common – the area now known locally as the village. The village is referred to as Wimbedounyng in a signed by King Edgar the Peaceful in 967. The name Wimbledon means Wynnmans hill, with the element of the name being the Old English dun. At the time the Domesday Book was compiled, Wimbledon was part of the manor of Mortlake, the ownership of the manor of Wimbledon changed hands many times during its history. The manor was held by the church until 1398 when Thomas Arundel, the manor was confiscated and became crown property. The manor remained crown property until the reign of Henry VIII when it was granted briefly to Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, until Cromwell was executed in 1540 and the land was again confiscated. The manor was held by Henry VIIIs last wife and widow Catherine Parr until her death in 1548 when it again reverted to the monarch. In the 1550s, Henrys daughter, Mary I, granted the manor to Cardinal Reginald Pole who held it until his death in 1558 when it again become royal property. Marys sister, Elizabeth I held the property until 1574 when she gave the house to Christopher Hatton who sold it in the same year to Sir Thomas Cecil. The lands of the manor were given to the Cecil family in 1588, the Cecil family retained the manor for fifty years before it was bought by Charles I in 1638 for his Queen, Henrietta Maria. On his death in 1677 the manor was sold on again to the Lord High Treasurer, Thomas Osborne, the Osborne family sold the manor to Sir Theodore Janssen in 1712. Janssen, a director of the South Sea Company, began a new house to replace the Cecil-built manor house but, due to the collapse of the company
4.
All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
–
The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, also known as the All-England Club, based at Church Road, Wimbledon, London, England, is a private members club. It is best known as the venue for the Wimbledon Championships, initially an amateur event that occupied club members and their friends for a few days each summer, the championships have become far more prominent than the club itself. However, it operates as a members tennis club, with many courts in use all year round. To become a full or temporary member, an applicant must obtain letters of support from four existing full members, the name is then added to the Candidates List. Honorary Members are elected from time to time by the clubs Committee, membership carries with it the right to purchase two tickets for each day of the Wimbledon Championships. The patron of the club is Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and the President is The Duke of Kent. The Club was founded by six gentlemen at the offices of The Field on 23 July 1868 at the height of a croquet craze as the All England Croquet Club and its original ground was situated off Worple Road, Wimbledon. Croquet was very popular there until the then-infant sport of lawn tennis was introduced in 1875, the first tennis Gentlemens Championship in Singles was held in July 1877, when the Club changed its name to The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club. That year at Wimbledon service was underarm, the champion, Spencer Gore, opined that Lawn tennis will never rank among our great games. In 1878 the height of the net was altered to 4 feet 9 inches at the posts and 3 feet at the centre, in 1882, croquet was dropped from the name, as tennis had become the main activity of the Club. But in 1899 it was restored to the Clubs name for reasons. In 1884, the Club added Ladies Singles and Gentlemens Doubles, for the 1908 Summer Olympics, the venue hosted the Grass Courts tennis events. The early Club colours were found to be almost identical to those of the Royal Marines, so they were changed in 1909 to the present Club colours of dark green, the current Centre Court dates from that year. It has been improved and extended on several occasions, most recently a sliding roof was added in time for the 2009 Championships. In 1924 the old No.1 Court opened on the west side of Centre Court, at 5,20 p. m. on October 11,1940, five 500 pound German bombs struck the grounds, demolishing 1,200 seats in Centre Court. The old No.1 Court was replaced with the current No.1 Court in 1997, shortly afterwards, the Millennium Building, which houses facilities for players, press, officials and members, was built on the site of the old No.1 Court. The Church Road site initially extended only as far north as Centre Court, in 1967 the All England Club purchased 11 acres to the north. This was leased to the New Zealand Sports and Social Club and it is most commonly known as Henman Hill because of the popularity of former British tennis player, Tim Henman
5.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
6.
Spencer Gore (sportsman)
–
Spencer William Gore was an English tennis player who won the first Wimbledon tournament in 1877 and a cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club. Spencer William Gore was the son of the Hon. Charles Alexander Gore, grandson of the second Earl of Arran, and Lady Augusta Lavinia Priscilla and his mothers first marriage was to William Petty-FitzMaurice, Earl of Kerry, who died in 1836. His father was the Commissioner of Woods and Forests and his two brothers were the theologian Charles Gore, the first Bishop of Birmingham, and Sir Francis Charles Gore, Solicitor to the Board of Inland Revenue. Spencer was born and raised within a mile of the All England Croquet Club at West Side House, Wimbledon Common, Surrey. He was educated at Harrow school, where he excelled at all games, especially football and cricket, Gore made his first class cricket debut for Surrey against Middlesex in 1874 hitting 17 runs off the first four balls he received in his first match. He played again for Surrey against Middlesex in 1875 when Surrey won by 10 wickets and he played cricket mainly for I Zingari at club level, playing his last match for them in 1893. He played two first class matches for I Zingari which were against Yorkshire in 1878 and 1879 and one match for Gentlemen of the South in 1879, Gore won the Gentlemans Singles beating William Marshall 6–1, 6–2, 6–4 on 19 July 1877. He was the first player who used the technique of volleying. Gore was among the men who paid a guinea to enter the inaugural 1877 championship. The 21 matches were spread over five days, the championship was suspended for the weekend so as not to clash with the annual Eton v Harrow cricket match at Lords Cricket Ground. The scheduled final on Monday was postponed for four days because of rain, dropping only two sets in four rounds, the 27-year-old Gore reached the final after beating CG Heathcote in the semifinal. Against Marshall, he won in straight sets, 6–1, 6–2, 6–4, Gore collected the first prize of 12 guineas and a silver cup presented by The Field, a sporting magazine. He lost the Gentlemans Singles challenge round to Frank Hadow 7–5, 6–1, 9–7, Gore joined Pickering and Smith, the property advisory firm of his father-in-law Edmund James Smith who became President of the Surveyors Institute. Gore was promoted to partnership and the firm was renamed Smiths, on 9 January 1875 Gore married Amy Margaret Smith, with whom he had four children—Kathleen Amy, Florence Emily Frances, George Pym and Spencer Frederick. The last became well known as the artist Spencer Gore while George was a boxing champion, Gore died at the Granville Hotel, Ramsgate, Kent aged 56. He was buried in Ramsgate Cemetery on 23 April 1906
7.
The Championships, Wimbledon
–
The Championships, Wimbledon, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, and is widely considered the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the others being the Australian Open, the French Open and the US Open. Since the Australian Open shifted to hardcourt in 1988, Wimbledon is the only major still played on grass. The tournament takes place two weeks in late June and early July, culminating with the Ladies and Gentlemens Singles Final. Five major, junior, and invitational events are each year. Wimbledon traditions include a dress code for competitors and Royal patronage. The tournament is notable for the absence of sponsor advertising around the courts. In 2009, Wimbledons Centre Court was fitted with a roof to lessen the loss of playing time due to rain. The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club is a club founded on 23 July 1868. Its first ground was off Worple Road, Wimbledon, in 1876, lawn tennis, a game devised by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield a year or so earlier and originally given the name Sphairistikè, was added to the activities of the club. In spring 1877, the club was renamed The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club, a new code of laws, replacing the code administered by the Marylebone Cricket Club, was drawn up for the event. Todays rules are similar except for such as the height of the net and posts. The inaugural 1877 Wimbledon Championship started on 9 July 1877 and the Gentlemens Singles was the event held. It was won by Spencer Gore, an old Harrovian rackets player, about 200 spectators paid one shilling each to watch the final. The lawns at the ground were arranged so that the court was in the middle with the others arranged around it. The name was retained when the Club moved in 1922 to the present site in Church Road, however, in 1980 four new courts were brought into commission on the north side of the ground, which meant the Centre Court was once more correctly defined. The opening of the new No.1 Court in 1997 emphasised the description, by 1882, activity at the club was almost exclusively confined to lawn tennis and that year the word croquet was dropped from the title. However, for reasons it was restored in 1899
8.
Tennis
–
Tennis is a racket sport that can be played individually against a single opponent or between two teams of two players each. Each player uses a racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net. The object of the game is to play the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return, the player who is unable to return the ball will not gain a point, while the opposite player will. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society, the sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including wheelchair users. The modern game of tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the late 19th century as lawn tennis and it had close connections both to various field games such as croquet and bowls as well as to the older racket sport of real tennis. The rules of tennis have changed little since the 1890s, two exceptions are that from 1908 to 1961 the server had to keep one foot on the ground at all times, and the adoption of the tiebreak in the 1970s. Tennis is played by millions of players and is also a popular worldwide spectator sport. Historians believe that the ancient origin lay in 12th century northern France. Louis X of France was a player of jeu de paume, which evolved into real tennis. Louis was unhappy with playing tennis outdoors and accordingly had indoor, in due course this design spread across royal palaces all over Europe. Because of the accounts of his death, Louis X is historys first tennis player known by name. Another of the enthusiasts of the game was King Charles V of France. It wasnt until the 16th century that rackets came into use, and the game began to be called tennis, from the French term tenez, an interjection used as a call from the server to his opponent. It was popular in England and France, although the game was played indoors where the ball could be hit off the wall. Henry VIII of England was a big fan of this game, during the 18th century and early 19th century, as real tennis declined, new racket sports emerged in England. This in turn led to the codification of rules for many sports, including lawn tennis, most football codes, lawn bowls. In 1872, along with two doctors, they founded the worlds first tennis club in Leamington Spa. Evans, turfgrass agronomist, Sports historians all agree that deserves much of the credit for the development of modern tennis, according to Honor Godfrey, museum curator at Wimbledon, Wingfield popularized this game enormously
9.
Croquet
–
Croquet is a sport that involves hitting plastic or wooden balls with a mallet through hoops embedded in a grass playing court. The oldest document to bear the word croquet with a description of the game is the set of rules registered by Isaac Spratt in November 1856 with the Stationers Company in London. This record is now in the Public Record Office, in 1868, the first croquet all-comers meet was held at Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire and in the same year the All England Croquet Club was formed at Wimbledon, London. In the book Queen of Games, The History of Croquet, Nicky Smith presents two theories of the origin of the game of croquet, which took England by storm in the 1860s. This was the explanation given in the edition of Encyclopædia Britannica. It is to be observed, that there are two of these arches, that is one at end of the alley. The images caption describes the game as a curious ancient pastime, in Samuel Johnsons 1755 dictionary, his definition of pall-mall clearly describes a game with similarities to modern croquet, A play in which the ball is struck with a mallet through an iron ring. However, there is no evidence that pall-mall involved the croquet stroke which is the characteristic of the modern game. Regular contact between Ireland and France had continued since the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169. By no later than the early 15th century, the game jeu de mail was popular in France, including in the courts of Henry II in the 16th century, at least one version of it, rouët was a multi-ball lawn game. There is, however, no pre-1858 Irish document that describes the way game was played, whatever the truth of the matter, Jaques certainly played an important role in popularising the game, producing editions of the rules in 1857,1860, and 1864. Croquet became highly popular as a pastime in England during the 1860s. By 1867, Jaques had printed 65,000 copies of his Laws and it quickly spread to other Anglophone countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States. No doubt one of the attractions was that the game could be played by both sexes, this ensured a certain amount of adverse comment. There was a revival in the 1890s, but from then onwards, croquet was always a minority sport, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club still has a croquet lawn, but has not hosted any significant tournaments. The English headquarters for the game is now in Cheltenham, on the page facing the title page is a picture of Eglinton Castle with a game of croquet in full swing. The croquet lawn existed on the terrace, between Eglinton Castle and the Lugton Water. In 1865 the Rules of the Eglinton Castle and Cassiobury Croquet was published by Edmund Routledge, several incomplete sets of this form of croquet are known to exist, and one complete set is still used for demonstration games in the West of Scotland
10.
Roller (agricultural tool)
–
The roller is an agricultural tool used for flattening land or breaking up large clumps of soil, especially after ploughing. Typically, rollers are pulled by tractors or, prior to mechanisation, as well as for agricultural purposes, rollers are used on cricket pitches and residential lawn areas. Flatter land makes subsequent weed control and harvesting easier, and rolling can help to reduce moisture loss from cultivated soil, on lawns, rolling levels the land for mowing and compacts the soil surface. Rollers may be weighted in different ways, for many uses a heavy roller is used. These may consist of one or more made of thick steel. A water-filled roller has the advantage that the water may be drained out for use or for transport. In frost-prone areas a water filled roller must be drained for winter storage to avoid due to the expansion for water as it turns to ice. On tilled soil a one-piece roller has the disadvantage that when turning corners the outer end of the roller has to much faster than the inner end. A one-piece roller turned on soft ground will skid up a heap of soil at the radius, leaving heaps. The surface of rollers may be smooth, or it may be textured to help break up soil or to groove the final surface to reduce scouring from rain, each segment of a Cambridge roller has a rib around its edge for this purpose. Rollers may be ganged, or combined with equipment such as mowers. In cricket, rollers are used to make the pitch flat, heavy rollers have sometimes been criticised for making batting too easy and for reducing the rate at which pitches dry out after rain in the cool English climate. Lawn rollers are designed to even out or firm up the lawn surface, heaving may result when the ground freezes and thaws many times over winter. Where this occurs, gardeners are advised to give the lawn a light rolling with a roller in the spring. Clay or wet soils should not be rolled as they become compacted, cultipacker Harrow Media related to Agricultural rollers at Wikimedia Commons Mandako Landroller Rollers
11.
Marylebone Cricket Club
–
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London, founded in 1787. It owns, and is based at, Lords in St Johns Wood, MCC was formerly the governing body of cricket both in England and Wales as well as worldwide. In 1993 many of its functions were transferred to the International Cricket Council and its English governance passed to the Test. MCC revised the Laws of Cricket in 1788 and continues to reissue them, since its foundation, the club has raised its own teams which are essentially occasional and have never taken part in any formal competition. Depending on the quality of the opposition in any match, MCC teams have held important match status from 1787 to 1894. MCC has never played in a List A match, MCC teams play many matches against minor opposition and, on these occasions, they relinquish their first-class status. Traditionally, to mark the beginning of each English season in April, MCC plays the reigning County Champions at Lords, the exact date of MCCs foundation is lost but seems to have been sometime in the late spring or the summer of 1787. Many of its members became dissatisfied with the surroundings and complained that the site was too public. They asked Thomas Lord, a bowler at the White Conduit, to secure a more private venue within easy distance of London. When Lord opened his new ground in May 1787, the White Conduit moved there, there was a match at Lords starting on 30 July 1787 titled Marylebone Cricket Club v White Conduit Club. The England touring team wore the red and yellow stripes of the Marylebone Cricket Club as their colours for the last time on the tour to New Zealand in 1996/97. The true provenance of MCCs colours is unknown, but its players often turned out sporting Sky Blue, until well into the 19th century. Another theory, which chimes with the origins, is that MCC borrowed its colours from the livery colours of a founding patron, Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond. Although MCC remains the framer and copyright holder of the Laws of Cricket, in recent times the ICC has begun instituting changes to match regulations without much consultation with MCC. Also, in moving its location from Lords to Dubai, the ICC gave a signal of breaking with the past and from MCC, changes to the laws of cricket are still made by the MCC. Any changes to these require a resolution of the MCC committee. MCC has long had an involvement in coaching the game of cricket. As of 2013 the clubs head coach Mark Alleyne heads an operation involving the running of an indoor-cricket school
12.
Guinea (coin)
–
The guinea was a coin of approximately one quarter ounce of gold that was minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814. From 1717 to 1816, its value was fixed at twenty-one shillings. Then, Britain adopted the standard and guinea became a colloquial or specialised term. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, where much of the used to make the coins originated. The name also forms the basis for the Arabic word for the Egyptian pound الجنيه el-Genēh / el-Geni, the first guinea was produced on 6 February 1663, a proclamation of 27 March 1663 made the coins legal currency. One troy pound of 11/12 fine gold would make 44½ guineas, the denomination was originally worth one pound, or twenty shillings, but an increase in the price of gold during the reign of King Charles II led to the market trading it at a premium. The price of gold continued to increase, especially in times of trouble, and by the 1680s, indeed, in his diary entries for 13 June 1667, Samuel Pepys records that the price was 24 to 25 shillings. The diameter of the coin was 1 inch throughout Charles IIs reign, Guinea was not an official name for the coin, but much of the gold used to produce the early coins came from Guinea in Africa. The coin was produced each year between 1663 and 1684, with the elephant appearing on some coins each year from 1663 to 1665 and 1668, and the elephant and castle on some coins from 1674 onward. The elephant, with or without the castle, symbolises the Royal African Company, the obverse and reverse of this coin were designed by John Roettier. The edge was milled to deter clipping or filing, and to distinguish it from the silver half-crown which had edge lettering, until 1669 the milling was perpendicular to the edge, giving vertical grooves, while from 1670 the milling was diagonal to the edge. John Roettier continued to design the dies for this denomination in the reign of King James II. In this reign, the coins weighed 8.5 g with a diameter of 25–26 mm, Coins of each year were issued both with and without the elephant and castle mark. The edge of the coins are milled diagonally, with the removal of James II in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, his daughter Mary, and her husband Prince William of Orange ruled jointly by agreement as co-monarchs. Their heads appear conjoined on the piece in Roman style, with Williams head uppermost. By the early part of this reign the value of the guinea had increased to thirty shillings. The guineas of this reign weighed 8, following the death of Queen Mary from smallpox in 1694, William continued to reign as William III. The coins of William IIIs reign weighed 8.4 g with a gold purity of 0.9123
13.
Shilling (British coin)
–
The shilling was a coin worth one twentieth of a pound sterling, or twelve pence. It was first minted in the reign of Henry VII as the testoon, the word bob was sometimes used for a monetary value of several shillings, e. g. ten bob note. Following decimalisation in 1970 the coin had a value of five new pence and it was made from silver from its introduction in or around 1503 until 1947, and thereafter in cupronickel. Prior to Decimal Day in 1971 there were 240 pence in one pound sterling, twelve pence made a shilling, and twenty shillings made a pound. Values less than a pound were usually written in terms of shillings and pence, values of less than a shilling were simply written in terms of pence, e. g. eight pence would be 8d. Although the coin was not minted until the sixteenth century, the value of a shilling had been used for accounting purposes since the Anglo-Saxon period, originally, a shilling was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent, or a sheep elsewhere. The value of one shilling equalling 12d was set by the Normans following the conquest, prior to this various Anglo-Saxon coins equalling 3,4, the first coins of the pound sterling with the value of 12d were minted in 1503 or 1504 and were known as testoons. Between 1544 and 1551 the coinage was debased repeatedly by the governments of Henry VIII and this debasement meant that coins produced in 1551 had one-fifth of the silver content of those minted in 1544, and consequently the value of new testoons fell from 12d to 6d. The reason the testoon decreased in value is that unlike today and this debasement was recognised as a mistake, and during Elizabeths reign newly minted coins, including the testoon, had a much higher silver content and regained their pre-debasement value. Shillings were minted during the reign of every British monarch following Edward VI, the Royal Mint undertook a massive recoinage programme in 1816, with large quantities of gold and silver coin being minted. Previous issues of silver coinage had been irregular, and the last issue, minted in 1787, new silver coinage was to be of.925 standard, with silver coins to be minted at 66 shillings to the troy pound. Hence, newly minted shillings weighed 87.273 grains or 5.655 grams, the Royal Mint debased the silver coinage in 1920 from 92. 5% silver to 50% silver. Shillings of both alloys were minted that year and this debasement was done because of the rising price of silver around the world, and followed the global trend of the elimination, or the reducing in purity, of the silver in coinage. The minting of coinage of the pound sterling ceased completely in 1946 for similar reasons. New silver coinage was minted in cupronickel, an alloy of copper. Beginning with Lord Wrottesleys proposals in the 1820s there were attempts to decimalise the pound sterling over the next century. These attempts came to nothing significant until the 1960s when the need for a currency more suited to simple monetary calculations became pressing, the decision to decimalise was announced in 1966, with the pound to be redivided into 100, rather than 240, pence. Decimal Day was set for 15 February 1971, and a range of new coins were introduced
14.
The Field (magazine)
–
The Field is the worlds oldest country and field sports magazine, having been published continuously since 1853. Its current publisher is Time Inc, the famous sportsman Robert Smith Surtees, the creator of Jorrocks, was the driving force behind the initial publication. He envisaged a paper for sportsmen, landowners and farmers, as well as the haut ton and it was an instant success under the auspices of its first editor Mark Lemon. The Field was started as a magazine in 1853. On November 18,1854 The Field carried personal narratives of those involved in the Charge of the Light Brigade, J. H. Walsh initiated a series of field trials for guns from 1858 onwards, a catalyst to the production of the modern hammerless shotgun. In 1861 ‘Goalstick’ impressed through the pages of The Field the importance of encouraging the game of football into general use, the Field obtained the school rules from Rugby, Eton, Harrow, Shrewsbury and Marlborough, and helped to create the modern game. The Field was instrumental in instituting the first Field Trials and Dog Shows, in 1873 the rowers sliding seat was tested extensively for The Field. In March 1874 Gerald D. Fitzgerald wrote to The Field to inform readers about a new game called sphairstike, the Field Cup is still on permanent display at Wimbledon Museum. The Field covered the first Americas Cup in August 1879 and recommendations in The Field led to the official Lloyds classification of yachts in 1906. Francis Francis campaigned against salmon netting and was an authority on hatcheries, today The Field still champions the cause of wild salmon. During the 1920s the design of the golf ball was formalised on designs agreed after tests by The Field. The launch of the Field Distemper Fund in 1923 resulted in the inoculation of dogs against distemper, during the 1950s The Field improved racecourse safety through its campaign against dangerous racecourses. Among its contributors was Margery Fish, who went on to develop her own style of labour-saving cottage gardening, during the 1980s The Field campaigned against mismanagement of shooting leading to the widely recognised “Code of Good Shooting Practice”. Today The Field is considered the premier sports and country magazine and champions rural pursuits, people. The magazine is published by IPC Media a subsidiary of Time Inc. from 110 Southwark Street, London
15.
Rackets (sport)
–
Rackets or racquets is an indoor racket sport played in the United Kingdom, Ireland, United States, and Canada. The sport is called hard rackets, possibly to distinguish it from the related sport of squash. Historians generally assert that rackets began as an 18th-century pastime in Londons Kings Bench, the prisoners modified the game of fives by using tennis rackets to speed up the action. They played against the wall, sometimes at a corner to add a sidewall to the game. Rackets then became popular outside the prison, played in alleys behind pubs and it spread to schools, first using school walls, and later with proper four-wall courts being specially constructed for the game. The lithograph at right from the late 1700s shows school boys hitting up outside the Harrow School Old School buildings. Eglinton Castle has a Racket Hall which is first shown on the 1860 OS map, but estate records show that it was shortly after 1839. The floor is of granite slabs, now hidden by the wooden floor. It is the very first covered racket court and is now the oldest surviving court in the world and it has been restored as a racket hall, but used as an exhibition area. Some private clubs also built courts, along with real tennis and badminton, rackets was used as an inspiration for the game of lawn tennis, invented in 1873 by Walter Clopton Wingfield. A vacant rackets court built into the University of Chicagos Stagg Field served as the location of the first artificial nuclear chain reaction on December 2,1942, the Stagg Field court is often mistakenly identified as having been a squash rackets court. Rackets was part of the 1908 Summer Olympics program and was played at the Princes Club in London, after the second world war rackets saw a drop in popularity resulting in the closure of some courts and others suffering from a lack of maintenance. Dick Bridgeman, an advocate for the sport established what was then the Dick Bridgeman Tennis, the foundation sought donations to support young professionals thereby ensuring the future of the game. Now known as simply The Tennis and Racquets Foundation, it continues to raise money for young professionals raising the profile of rackets worldwide, the Book of Racquets was published by J. R. Atkins in 1872. It was reprinted to commemorate the 1981 World Rackets Challenge Match between W. J. C, surtees and J. A. N. Prenn as a limited edition of 250 copies. Rackets is played in a 30 by 60 feet enclosed court, singles and doubles are played on the same court. The walls and floor of the court are made of stone or concrete and are generally dark in colour to contrast with the white ball. A player uses 30. 5-inch wooden racket, known as a bat, a good stroke must touch the front wall above a 26.5 inches high wooden board before touching the floor
16.
Wandsworth
–
Wandsworth /ˈwɒnzwərθ/ is a district of southwest London within the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated 4.6 miles southwest of Charing Cross, the area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Wandsworth takes its name from the River Wandle, which enters the Thames at Wandsworth, Wandsworth appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Wandesorde and Wendelesorde. This means enclosure of Waendel, whose name is lent to the River Wandle. At the time of the Domesday Book, the manor of Wandsworth was held partly by William, son of Ansculfy and its Domesday assets were 12 hides, with 5½ ploughs and 22 acres of meadow. Between Wandsworth town centre and the river is the site of Young & Cos Ram Brewery, traditional draught beer was produced on the site for 425 years starting from 1581, making the Ram Brewery the oldest site in Britain at which beer had been brewed continuously. Shire horse-drawn brewery drays were used to deliver beer to local pubs. Whilst brewing by Youngs stopped in September 2006 when Young & Co merged its operations with Charles Wells of Bedford, a planning application to redevelop the site for residential and shopping/leisure mixed use was submitted in 2012. Wandsworth gas plant was built in 1834 against the River Thames near Wandsworth Bridge, the undertaking became the Wandsworth and Putney Gaslight and Coke Company in 1854 and was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1856. Coal for making coal gas was brought by sea from North East England, the firm grew by a series of mergers and takeovers so that by 1936 it served a considerable area of south-west London. The companys name evolved each time it merged with or took over neighbouring gas companies, the company was nationalised in 1949 and became part of the South Eastern Gas Board. Wandsworth, home of Minibus Hinton, has a low foreign born population for London as a whole at 28. 1%, the former wharf area of the river-front is now lined with new apartment blocks, with several bars and restaurants. Notable pubs include the Ship Inn and the Waterfront, on the western and eastern side of Wandsworth Bridge respectively, also in the area is the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building, which now contains flats, a theatre school and a restaurant. The Tonsleys/Old York Road is an area of old Wandsworth close to the river and town centre. It has a village feel with the Old York Roads cafes, the area has three notable pubs, the Royal Standard, the East Hill and the Alma. Bradys Fish Restaurant serves traditional fish and chips, the area was recently used as the location for the BBC TV series Outnumbered. East Hill is an area of large Victorian houses bordered by the west side of Wandsworth Common, Wandsworth High Street is dominated by the regenerated Southside shopping centre, cinema and restaurant complex. Behind the shopping centre, and following the River Wandle upstream towards Earlsfield, Wandsworth Museum occupies the former Victorian library in West Hill having been moved here in 2007
17.
Real tennis
–
Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called the sport of kings – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis is derived. It is also known as tennis in the United States, formerly royal tennis in England and Australia. The term real was first used by journalists in the early 20th century as a retronym to distinguish the ancient game from modern lawn tennis, Real tennis is still played on about 43 surviving courts in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and France. Despite a documented history of courts existing in the German states from the 17th century, the sport is supported and governed by various organizations around the world. The rules and scoring are similar to those of tennis, which derives from real tennis. A match is typically best of three sets, except for the open tournaments, in which matches are best of five sets for men. Unlike the latex-based technology underlying the modern lawn-tennis ball, the game uses a cork-based ball very close in design to the original balls used in the game. The balls are white, but around the end of the 20th century optic yellow was introduced for improved visibility. The balls are much less bouncy than lawn tennis balls, the 27-inch short, asymmetrical racquets are made of wood and use very tight nylon strings to cope with the heavy balls. The racquet head is shaped to make it easier to strike close to the floor or in corners. There are two companies in the world hand-crafting these racquets, Grays of Cambridge and Gold Leaf Athletics, there are two basic designs in existence today - jeu quarré which is an older design and jeu à dedans. The court at Falkland Palace is a jeu quarré design which unlike jeu à dedans court lacks a tambour, the more common real tennis court is a very substantial building. There are no dimensions for courts. Most are about 110 by 39 feet above the penthouses, and about 96 by 32 feet on the playing floor and they are doubly asymmetric, each end of the court differs in shape from the other, and the left and right sides of the court are also different. There are numerous and widely varying styles of service and these are given descriptive names to distinguish them – examples are railroad, bobble, poop, piqué, boomerang, and giraffe. The game has many other complexities, for instance, when the ball bounces twice on the floor at the service end, the serving player does not generally lose the point. A chase can also be called at the end, but only on the half of that end nearest the net. Additionally, a player can gain the advantage of serving only through skillful play and this is in stark contrast to lawn tennis, where players alternately serve and receive entire games
18.
Walter Clopton Wingfield
–
Major Walter Clopton Wingfield MVO was a Welsh inventor and a British Army officer who was one of the pioneers of lawn tennis. Wingfield was born on 16 October 1833 in Ruabon, Denbighshire, Wales, the son of Clopton Lewis Wingfield, major in the 66th Foot Regiment and he was of an English family traceable back to before the Norman conquest. His mother died in 1836 after the birth of her second child, Walter was brought up by his uncle and great uncle. He was educated at Rossall School, and in 1851 entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and he was commissioned a Cornet in the 1st Dragoon Guards and served in India. In 1858 Wingfield became a captain and in 1860 he took part in the campaign in China and was present at the capture of Peking and he returned to England in 1861 and retired from the Dragoon Guards a year later. During the decade he was based at his estate, Rhysnant, Llandrinio, in Montgomeryshire, Wales. He was a Justice of the Peace for the county and served in the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry, joining as Lieutenant in 1864, appointed adjutant of the regiment in 1868, and promoted Major in 1874. In 1870 he was appointed to the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, giving him some employment at the courts of Queen Victoria and he was made MVO in 1902, retiring from the Corps in 1909. In the late 1860s Wingfield was one of the persons experimenting with a version of tennis. The precise date that Wingfield brought it to the public is uncertain, lord Lansdowne claimed that in 1869 Major Wingfield gave a demonstration of the game to him in the garden of his Berkeley Square house, although in that year Wingfield was not a major. Another attribution was to a party held at Nantclwyd Hall in Denbighshire, Wales, nor was Wingfield the only exponent. At the same time, Harry Gem and Augurio Perera were demonstrating their game of Pelota in Leamington Spa, the sets were available from Wingfields agent, French and Co. in Pimlico and cost between five and ten guineas. In his version the game was played on an hour-glass shaped court, the service had to be made from a diamond-shaped box at one end only and the service had to bounce beyond the service line instead of in front of it. He adopted the Rackets-based system of scoring where games consisted of 15 points, in order to differentiate his game, he named it Sphairistikè Between July 1874 and June 18751,050 tennis sets were sold, mainly to the aristocracy. Lawn tennis was becoming an important adjunct to cricket at the Marylebone Cricket Club and was played at Lords Cricket Ground, in 1875 John Moyer Heathcote instigated a meeting at the MCC to establish a universal set of rules and Wingfield was invited to participate. Wingfields hourglass court and scoring method were adopted and Wingfield considered his sport was now entrusted to the MCC, during this time he suffered personal tragedies including the developing mental illness of his wife and the death of his three young sons and he lost all interest in the game. Wingfield authored two tennis works, The Book of the Game and The Majors Game of Lawn Tennis, Wingfield became vice-president of The Universal Cookery and Food Association. In around 1890 he founded a society called Le Cordon Rouge which was intended to further the development of the science of cookery
19.
History of tennis
–
The game that most people call tennis is the direct descendant of what is now known as real tennis or royal tennis. Most of the rules of the commonly known as tennis derive from real or royal tennis. It is reasonable to see both sports as variations of the same game, most historians believe that tennis originated in the monastic cloisters in northern France in the 12th century, but the ball was then struck with the palm of the hand, hence the name jeu de paume. It was not until the 16th century that rackets came into use, and it was popular in England and France and Henry VIII of England was a big fan of the game, now referred to as real tennis. Many original tennis courts remain, including courts at Oxford, Cambridge, Falkland Palace in Fife where Mary Queen of Scots regularly played, many of the French courts were decommissioned with the terror that accompanied the French Revolution. The Tennis Court Oath was an event during the first days of the French Revolution. The Oath was a signed by 576 of the 577 members from the Third Estate who were locked out of a meeting of the Estates-General on 20 June 1789. Any history of tennis that ignores its origins in the game that was known as tennis until lawn tennis became popular in the nineteenth century is inaccurate. The Davis Cup, a competition between mens national teams, dates to 1900. Pyle created the first professional tour with a group of American. The most notable of these professionals were the American Vinnie Richards. Once a player turned pro he or she could not compete in the major tournaments, the word Tennis came into use in English in the mid-13th century from Old French, via the Anglo-Norman term Tenez, which can be translated as hold. A call from the server to his opponent indicating that he is about to serve, Tennis is mentioned in literature as far back as the Middle Ages. In The Second Shepherds Play shepherds gave three gifts, including a ball, to the newborn Christ. Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthurs round table, plays tennis against a group of 17 giants in The Turke, by the 16th century, the glove had become a racquet, the game had moved to an enclosed playing area, and the rules had stabilized. Real tennis spread in popularity throughout royalty in Europe, reaching its peak in the 16th century, francis I of France was an enthusiastic player and promoter of real tennis, building courts and encouraging play among the courtiers and commoners. His successor Henry II was also an excellent player and continued the royal French tradition, in 1555 an Italian priest, Antonio Scaino da Salothe, wrote the first known book about tennis, Trattato del Giuoco della Palla. Two French kings died from tennis related episodes—Louis X of a chill after playing
20.
Jeu de paume
–
Jeu de paume is a ball-and-court game that originated in France. It was a precursor of tennis played without racquets, though these were eventually introduced. It is a former Olympic sport, and has the oldest ongoing annual world championship in sport, originally spelled jeu de paulme, it is sometimes called courte paume or real tennis. In the earliest versions of the game, the hit the ball with their hands, as in palla, volleyball. Jeu de paume, or jeu de paulme as it was formerly spelled, in time, gloves replaced bare hands. Even when paddle-like bats, and finally racquets, became standard equipment for the game by the late 17th century and it became known as tennis in English, and later real tennis after the derived game of lawn tennis became the more widely known sport. The term is used in France today to denote the game of tennis on a court in which the ancient or modern game might be played. The indoor version is sometimes called jeu de courte paume or just courte paume to distinguish it from the version, longue paume. Jeu de paume at the 1908 Summer Olympics was a medal event, since 1740, jeu de paume has been the subject of an amateur world championship, held each year in September. It is the oldest active trophy in international sport, real tennis Lawn tennis Various other racquet games may be related to one degree or another. The painter Jacques-Louis Davids famous sketch, le Serment du jeu de paume now hangs in the court of the Palace of Versailles, le Jeu de Paume is a moral ode published in 1791 by André Chénier. In the 1981 film The French Lieutenants Woman, socialite Charles Smithson is seen playing jeu de paume in London, the 2014 Whitney Biennial exhibition featured the premiere of the the stop-motion film Jeu de Paume by Joshua Mosley
21.
Racket (sports equipment)
–
A racket or racquet is a sports implement consisting of a handled frame with an open hoop across which a network of strings or catgut is stretched tightly. It is used for striking a ball or shuttlecock in games such as squash, tennis, racquetball, collectively, these games are known as racket sports. This predecessor to the game of squash, rackets, is played with 30 1⁄2-inch-long wooden rackets. While squash equipment has evolved in the century, rackets equipment has changed little. The frame of rackets for all sports was made of laminated wood. The traditional racket size was limited by the strength and weight of the frame which had to be strong enough to hold the strings. Manufacturers started adding non-wood laminates to wood rackets to improve stiffness, non-wood rackets were made first of steel, then of aluminium, and then carbon fiber composites. Wood is still used for tennis, rackets, and xare. Most rackets are now made of materials including carbon fibre or fiberglass, metals such as titanium alloys. Catgut has partially replaced by synthetic materials including nylon, polyamide. Rackets are restrung when necessary, which may be after every match for a professional, racket is the standard spelling of the word. Racquet is a spelling used more commonly in certain sports. Racket is the spelling in tennis. While some writers, especially those outside North America, prefer the French-influenced racquet, racket is the predominant spelling by a large margin, the origin of the term racket is unclear. According to a belief first published by Malcolm Whitman in 1932. Modern research however reveals this thesis in a questionable light. Instead, the term is likely to be derived from the Flemish word raketsen which is itself derived from Middle French rachasser. Badminton rackets are light, with top quality rackets weighing between about 80 and 100 grams, modern rackets are composed of carbon fibre composite, which may be augmented by a variety of materials
22.
Longue paume
–
Longue paume, or jeu de longue paume, is an outdoor version of jeu de paume, an ancestor of modern lawn tennis. Hundreds of years ago it was popular, particularly in France. It is a game of gain-ground as Balle à la main It was part of the Paris 1900 Summer Olympics, today, the sport is most played in the region of Picardy. The governing body of the sport is the Fédération Française de Longue Paume, ballon au poing Balle à la main Balle pelote Balle au tamis Llargues Handball International Championships International game Fédération Française de Longue Paume Connaissez-vous la Longue Paume
23.
Victorian era
–
The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victorias reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities. Some scholars date the beginning of the period in terms of sensibilities, the era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period. The later half of the Victorian age roughly coincided with the first part of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe, culturally there was a transition away from the rationalism of the Georgian period and toward romanticism and mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and arts. The end of the saw the Boer War. Domestically, the agenda was increasingly liberal with a number of shifts in the direction of political reform, industrial reform. Two especially important figures in period of British history are the prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone. Disraeli, favoured by the queen, was a gregarious Conservative and his rival Gladstone, a Liberal distrusted by the Queen, served more terms and oversaw much of the overall legislative development of the era. The population of England and Wales almost doubled from 16.8 million in 1851 to 30.5 million in 1901, Scotlands population also rose rapidly, from 2.8 million in 1851 to 4.4 million in 1901. However, Irelands population decreased sharply, from 8.2 million in 1841 to less than 4.5 million in 1901, mostly due to the Great Famine. Between 1837 and 1901 about 15 million emigrants departed the UK permanently, in search of a life in the United States, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia. During the early part of the era, politics in the House of Commons involved battles between the two parties, the Whigs/Liberals and the Conservatives. These parties were led by such prominent statesmen as Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Derby, Lord Palmerston, Gladstone, Disraeli, Victoria became queen in 1837 at age 18. Her long reign until 1901 was mainly a time of peace, Britain reached the zenith of its economic, political, diplomatic and cultural power. The era saw the expansion of the second British Empire, Historians have characterised the mid-Victorian era as Britains Golden Years. There was prosperity, as the income per person grew by half. There was peace abroad, and social peace at home, opposition to the new order melted away, says Porter. The Chartist movement peaked as a movement among the working class in 1848, its leaders moved to other pursuits, such as trade unions
24.
Harry Gem
–
Major Thomas Henry Gem, known as Harry Gem, was an English lawyer, soldier, writer and sportsman. Alongside his friend Augurio Perera, he is credited as the earliest inventor of the game of lawn tennis, Gem was born in Birmingham and educated at Kings College London. From 1841 he practiced as a solicitor in Birmingham, becoming a clerk in 1856. He is recorded as having won a bet by running the 21 miles from Birmingham to Warwick in under three and a half hours and this game is known to have been being played by 1865, though research has suggested that experimentation may have started as early as 1859. It thus clearly pre-dates the game of sphairistikè, whose rules were published, originally referred to as Lawn rackets or Lawn pelota, Gem and Pereras game was being referred to as Lawn tennis by 1872. The Harry Gem Project Augurio Perera Walter Clopton Wingfield History of tennis
25.
Augurio Perera
–
Perera was born in Spain in around 1822. He moved to England with his parents Augurio and Francisca at the age of four, and the family lived in London for ten years, before moving to Birmingham in 1836. In 1872 or 1873, Perera and Gem moved to Royal Leamington Spa and established a club to play their new game on the lawns of the Manor House Hotel, Perera left Leamington three years after Gems death in 1881 and his life after this date is unknown. The invention of tennis is traditionally ascribed to Major Walter Clopton Wingfield and it is Wingfields statue that stands at the headquarters of the Lawn Tennis Association. It is now known that Gem and Perera had established a tennis club prior to this date, however. In addition, much less is known about Perera than his friend and fellow tennis pioneer Harry Gem, in a letter to The Field in November 1874, however, Gem himself largely credited Perera with the development of the game. Harry Gem Walter Clopton Wingfield History of tennis Palazzo della Pilotta Valencian pilota Augurius of Tarragona
26.
Leamington Spa
–
Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa, Leamington, or simply Leam to locals /ˈlɛmɪŋtən/ is a spa town in Warwickshire, England. Following the popularisation of the qualities of its water in the eighteenth century. It is named after the River Leam which flows through the town, the town contains especially fine ensembles of Regency architecture, particularly in parts of the Parade, Clarendon Square and Lansdowne Circus. The town comprises six electoral wards, Brunswick, Milverton, Manor, Crown, Clarendon, the total population for those wards in 2011 was 49,491. Formerly known as Leamington Priors, Leamington began to develop as a town at the start of the 19th century and it was first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Lamintone. For 400 years, the settlement was under the control of Kenilworth Priory and its name came from Anglo-Saxon Leman-tūn or Lemen-tūn = farm on the River Leam. The spa waters had been known in Roman times and the rediscovery in 1784 by William Abbotts and Benjamin Satchwell, six of the seven wells were drilled for, only the original spring at the site of the Aylesford Well, adjacent to the Parish Church occurred naturally. Early development of the old centre was on the southern bank of the River Leam. Later builders began concentrating the towns expansion on the north of the river. In 1767 Parliament passed an Act, proposed by Edward Willes, following a survey of the area by John Tomlinson in 1768, the land was estimated to be 990 acres and was subsequently divided, and new public roads were laid out. After the division on the south of the river most of the land east of the village was owned by the Willes family, to the north of the river most of the land was owned by the Willes family, the Earl of Warwick, and Bertie Greatheed. The main landholders of the village and adjacent land were the Earl of Aylesford, in the following decades some of the land was sold. By 1901, the population of Leamington had grown from a few hundred to nearly 27,000, in 1814, the Royal Pump Rooms and Baths were opened close to the River Leam. This grand structure attracted many visitors, expecting cures by bathing in pools of salty spa water and it also included the worlds first gravity fed piped hot water system in modern times, which was designed and installed by the engineer William Murdoch. Leamington became a spa resort attracting the wealthy and famous, and construction began of numerous Georgian townhouses to accommodate visitors. With the spread of the popularity, and the granting of a Royal prefix in 1838 by Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria had visited the town as a Princess in 1830, a statue of Queen Victoria was almost destroyed by a German bomb during the Second World War, and was moved one inch on its plinth by the blast. The statue was not returned to its position, and the incident is recorded on a plaque on its plinth
27.
Lozenge
–
A lozenge, often referred to as a diamond, is a form of rhombus. The definition of lozenge is not strictly fixed, and it is used simply as a synonym for rhombus. Most often, though, lozenge refers to a thin rhombus—a rhombus with angles of less than 45°. The lozenge shape is used in parquetry and as decoration on ceramics, silverware. It also features in heraldry and playing cards, the lozenge motif dates as far back as the Neolithic and Paleolithic period in Eastern Europe and represents a sown field and female fertility. The ancient lozenge pattern often shows up in Diamond vault architecture, in dress patterns of Slavic peoples. The lozenge pattern also appears extensively in Celtic art, art from the Ottoman Empire, the lozenge symbolism is one of the main female symbols in Berber carpets. Common Berber jewelry from the Aurès Mountains or Kabylie in Algeria also uses this pattern as a female fertility sign and he suggested that ancient plantations were laid out in a lozenge pattern. Lozenges appear as symbols in ancient classic element systems, in amulets, in a suit of playing cards, diamonds is in the shape of a lozenge. The TeX command for the lozenge is \lozenge, in modal logic, the lozenge expresses that there is possibility. For example, the expression ◊ P expresses that it is possible that P is true, in axiomatic set theory, the lozenge refers to the principles known collectively as the diamond principle. On equipment, especially calculators, the lozenge is used to mark the subtotal key and it is standardized in ISO7000 as symbol ISO-7000-0650. Similar, the lozenge, part of the BCDIC code, was used on tabulation listings to indicate second level totals in banking installations in the 1960s. During the First World War, the Germans developed Lozenge-Tarnung and this camouflage was made up of colored polygons of four or five colors. The repeating patterns often used irregular four-, five- and six-sided polygons, because painting such a pattern was very time consuming, and the paint added considerably to the weight of the aircraft, the pattern was printed on fabric. This pre-printed fabric was used from 1916 until the end of the war, in various forms, the lozenge in heraldry is a diamond-shaped charge, usually somewhat narrower than it is tall. A mascle is a voided lozenge—that is, a lozenge with a hole in the middle—and the rarer rustre is a lozenge containing a circular hole. A field covered in a pattern of lozenges is described as lozengy, cough tablets have taken the name lozenge, based on their original shape
28.
London and South Western Railway
–
The London and South Western Railway was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. It also had many routes connecting towns in Hampshire and Berkshire, including Portsmouth, in the grouping of railways in 1923 the LSWR became part of the Southern Railway. The London and South Western Railway originated as a renaming of the London and Southampton Railway, the railway was an immediate success, and this encouraged the company to think of extensions, to Windsor, to Gosport and to Salisbury. It made a start but eventually had its own line from Basingstoke to Salisbury and Exeter, continuing by a northerly arc to Plymouth. Coming later than the Great Western to the area, it never achieved the solid prosperity there of its broad gauge neighbour. The Southampton line had extended to Weymouth via Ringwood, and the LSWR consolidated its home area building branches closer to London, and direct lines to Portsmouth. It also became joint owner, with the Midland Railway, of the Somerset and Dorset Railway, responsible for infrastructure, shipping became significant also, with passenger and freight services to the Channel Islands, to Saint-Malo in France, and to the Isle of Wight. In the twentieth century it embarked on a programme of electrifying the suburban routes, eventually this covered the entire suburban area. At the same time they revolutionised express passenger train speeds to Weymouth, electrification of the Portsmouth line was now carried out. However, in 1966 the geographical limits of the British Railways regions was rationalised, the Bournemouth line was electrified in 1967, at first with converted steam coaching stock, later replaced by purpose built stock, the electrification was extended to Weymouth. In recent years the system has remained constant, with increasing train frequency from about 1990 now forming a limitation. The services were transferred to St Pancras International in 2007 and at present the Eurostar terminal is dormant, construction probably started on 6 October 1834 under Francis Giles, but progress was slow. The Parliamentary fight had been bitter, and a combination of resentment, a more immediate opportunity was taken up, of serving Portsmouth by a branch line. Interests friendly to the L&SR promoted a Portsmouth Junction Railway, which would have run from Bishopstoke via Botley, however resentment in Portsmouth—which considered Southampton a rival port—at being given simply as branch and thereby a roundabout route to London, killed the prospects of such a line. Portsmouth people wanted their own line, but in trying to play off the L&SR against the London & Brighton Railway they were unable to secure the committed funds they needed. The L&SR now promoted a line to Gosport, shorter and simpler than the earlier proposal. To soothe feelings in Portsmouth, the L&SR included in its Bill a change of name to the London, construction of the Gosport branch was at first quick and simple under Thomas Brassey. Stations were built at Bishopstoke and Fareham, an extremely elaborate station was built at Gosport, tendered at £10,980, seven times the tender price for Bishopstoke
29.
Henry Jones (writer)
–
Henry Jones was an English writer under the name Cavendish, an authority on whist and other card games, tennis and other lawn games. Henry Jones was born in London, the eldest son of surgeon Henry Derviche Jones and he attended Kings College School, Wimbledon from 1842 to 1848, and entered St Bartholomews Hospital as a student during the 1849/50 session. His signature can be seen in the archives in the student signature book for the 1849/50 and 1850/1 sessions. Jones qualified MRCS in 1852 and practised medicine as a practitioner until 1869 when he changed tack and became a full-time writer on games. His writing career can be traced back to 1857 when he began writing about whist, joness father had been a keen devotee of this trick-taking card game, and under his tutelage, Jones had become a good player at an early age. This work was followed by treatises on the laws of the card games piquet, Jones became widely known as Cavendish and wrote extensively in The Field, the worlds original country and fieldsports magazine, which was founded in 1853. As Cavendish he also wrote on billiards, lawn tennis and croquet, Cavendish was not a law-maker, but he codified and commented upon the laws which had been made during many generations of card-playing. One of the most noteworthy points in his character was the manner in which he kept himself abreast of improvements in his favourite game, in 1869 Jones joined the All England Croquet Club, which had been founded the previous year. He was later voted onto the committee and was Secretary for a brief period in 1871. In 1875 Jones proposed that one of the croquet lawns should be set aside for playing lawn tennis. In 1877, Club Secretary John Walsh proposed that a tennis championship be held. The only tournament of the inaugural 1877 Wimbledon Championship was the Gentlemens Singles, which was won from a field of 22 competitors by Spencer Gore, the final attracted a crowd of about 200 spectators, who each paid one shilling. Today, centre court tickets for Gentlemans Finals Day cost £75, the Ladies Singles tournament was inaugurated in 1884 when Maud Watson became the champion from an entry of just 13 players. The same year, the Gentlemens Doubles was started, with a trophy donated to the club by Oxford University Lawn Tennis Club following the cessation of their own doubles championship, Henry Jones died in 1899 when the fortunes of Wimbledon were at a low ebb. Public affection for the championships had waned in the 1890s and Jones obituaries largely ignored his role in lawn tennis, Cavendish Road in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia was named after his nom de plume Cavendish by early residents who were keen whist players. The Laws and Principles of Whist Stated and Explained and its Practice Illustrated On An Original System by Means of Hands Played Completely Through, the Laws and Principles of Whist Stated and Explained and its Practice Illustrated On An Original System by Means of Hands Played Completely Through. John Wurtle Lovell, From the Twelfth English Edition Revised and Greatly Enlarged,1881,257 pages, Whist Developments, American Leads and the Plain-Suit Echo, De La Rue & Co. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
30.
Lord's
–
Lords, also known as Lords Cricket Ground, is a cricket venue in St Johns Wood, London. Lords is widely referred to as the Home of Cricket and is home to the worlds oldest sporting museum, Lords today is not on its original site, being the third of three grounds that Lord established between 1787 and 1814. His first ground, now referred to as Lords Old Ground, was where Dorset Square now stands and his second ground, Lords Middle Ground, was used from 1811 to 1813 before being abandoned to make way for the construction through its outfield of the Regents Canal. The present Lords ground is about 250 yards north-west of the site of the Middle Ground, the ground can hold 28,000 spectators. Proposals are being developed to increase capacity and amenity, as of December 2013, it was proposed to redevelop the ground at a cost of around £200 million over a 14-year period. The current ground celebrated its two hundredth anniversary in 2014, to mark the occasion, on 5 July an MCC XI captained by Sachin Tendulkar played a Rest of the World XI led by Shane Warne in a 50 overs match. The White Conduit moved there from Islington soon afterwards and reconstituted themselves as Marylebone Cricket Club, in 1811, feeling obliged to relocate because of a rise in rent, Lord removed his turf and relaid it at his second ground. This was short-lived because it lay on the route decided by Parliament for the Regents Canal, the Middle Ground was on the estate of the Eyre family, who offered Lord another plot nearby, and he again relocated his turf. The new ground, on the present site, was opened in the 1814 season, the earliest known match was MCC v Hertfordshire on 22 June 1814. This is not rated a first-class match, MCC won by an innings and 27 runs. The annual Eton v Harrow match was first played on the Old Ground in 1805, there is no record of the fixture being played again until 29 July 1818, when it was held at the present Lords ground for the first time, Harrow won by 13 runs. From 1822, the fixture has been almost an annual event at Lords, in 1987 the new Mound Stand, designed by Michael Hopkins and Partners, was opened, followed by the Grandstand in 1996. Most notably, the Media Centre was added in 1998-9, it won The Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize for 1999, the ground can currently hold up to 28,000 spectators. The two ends of the pitch are the Pavilion End, where the members pavilion is located. The main survivor from the Victorian era is the Pavilion, with its famous Long Room and this historic landmark— a Grade II*-listed building— underwent an £8 million refurbishment programme in 2004–05. The pavilion is primarily for members of MCC, who may use its amenities, which include seats for viewing the cricket, the Long Room and its Bar, the Bowlers Bar, at Middlesex matches the Pavilion is open to members of the Middlesex County Club. The Pavilion also contains the rooms where players change, each of which has a small balcony for players to watch the play. The only cricketer to hit a ball over the pavilion was Albert Trott, another highly visible feature of the ground is Old Father Time, a weather vane in the shape of Father Time, currently adorning a stand on the south-east side of the field
31.
Prince's Club
–
The Princes Club was a socially exclusive gentlemens multisports club in London, England. The original Old Princes Club was founded in 1853 in Chelsea by George and James Prince and its main sports were rackets, Cricket, croquet and lawn tennis were also played. After most of its ground was lost to building developments it closed in 1887 and its successor, the New Princes Club, located in Knightsbridge, opened in 1888 and kept its focus on rackets and real tennis, but no longer had any outdoor sports. In 1896 the Princes Skating Club was opened, the Princes Club was in operation until the 1940s. The Old Princes Club was founded in 1853 by George and James Prince, owners of a wine and cigar shop in Regent Street, Gentlemen wishing to join the club had to be proposed and seconded by two of its members. The members were allowed to introduce two friends, who were charged double the rate if they played, another club rule stated that no hazard, dice, or game of chance be allowed in this Club. In 1864 the club was incorporated as Princes Racquets & Tennis Club Company Ltd, the clubs main rackets court, which became known as the Prince’s Match Court, set the standard dimensions and was the location of the most important matches of the time. Another six rackets courts were added around the main court with varying sizes. In 1871 the Princes Cricket Ground was added as well as a lawn, followed by lawn tennis. The cricket ground was used by the Middlesex County Cricket Club for their first-class cricket matches between 1872 and 1876 before moving to Lords, the cricket ground was also used by South of England and Gentlemen of the South. Several Gentlemen v Players fixtures were played there, the first taking place in 1873, in 1878 the touring Australians played two matches on the ground. The clubs heyday was in the early 1870s, it had over 1,000 members in 1873, the Princes Club was one of the earliest lawn tennis locations when the sport was introduced in the mid-1870s. The club had two tennis courts and organised open and handicap events. It held a tournament in 1881 which leading players Ernest Renshaw, William Renshaw. William Renshaw won the tournament while his brother Ernest won the handicap event, the following year,1882, Ernest Renshaw won the open tournament. From 1881 through 1883 the club was the location of the varsity tennis matches. Since the second half of the 1870s areas of the ground were repurposed for building activities, made possible by the The Cadogan. A road was built on the part of the ground in the winter of 1876–1877
32.
Sterling silver
–
Sterling silver is an alloy of silver containing 92.5 by weight of silver and 7.5 by weight of other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925 and these replacement metals include germanium, zinc and platinum, as well as a variety of other additives, including silicon and boron. Alloys such as argentium silver have red in recent decades, one of the earliest attestations of the term is in Old French form esterlin, in a charter of the abbey of Les Préaux, dating to either 1085 or 1104. The English chronicler Orderic Vitalis uses the Latin forms libræ sterilensium, the word in origin refers to the newly introduced Norman silver penny. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the most plausible etymology is derivation from a late Old English steorling, there are a number of obsolete hypotheses. One suggests a connection with starling, because four birds were depicted on a penny of Edward I, in 1260, Henry III granted them a charter of protection. Because the Leagues money was not frequently debased like that of England, English traders stipulated to be paid in pounds of the Easterlings, and land for their Kontor, the Steelyard of London, which by the 1340s was also called Easterlings Hall, or Esterlingeshalle. The Hanseatic League was officially active in the London trade from 1266 to 1597 and this etymology may have been first suggested by Walter de Pinchebek with the explanation that the coin was originally made by moneyers from that region. The claim has also made in Henry Spelmans glossary as referenced in Commentaries on the Laws of England. Yet another claim on this hypothesis is from Camden, as quoted in Chambers Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts. By 1854, the tie between Easterling and Sterling was well-established, as Ronald Zupko quotes in his dictionary of weights, the British numismatist Philip Grierson disagrees with the star etymology, as the stars appeared on Norman pennies only for the single three-year issue from 1077–1080. In support of this he cites the fact one of the first acts of the Normans was to restore the coinage to the consistent weight and purity it had in the days of Offa. This would have perceived as a contrast to the progressive debasement of the intervening 200 years. The sterling alloy originated in continental Europe and was being used for commerce as early as the 12th century in the area that is now northern Germany. A piece of sterling silver dating from Henry IIs reign was used as a standard in the Trial of the Pyx until it was deposited at the Royal Mint in 1843 and it bears the royal stamp ENRI. REX but this was added later, in the reign of Henry III and this is equivalent to a millesimal fineness of 926. In Colonial America, sterling silver was used for currency and general goods as well, between 1634 and 1776, some 500 silversmiths created items in the “New World” ranging from simple buckles to ornate Rococo coffee pots. Although silversmiths of this era were typically familiar with all precious metals, stamping each of their pieces with their personal makers mark, colonial silversmiths relied upon their own status to guarantee the quality and composition of their products
33.
The Times
–
The Times is a British daily national newspaper based in London, England. It began in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register, the Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, itself wholly owned by News Corp. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1967 and its news and its editorial comment have in general been carefully coordinated, and have at most times been handled with an earnest sense of responsibility. While the paper has admitted some trivia to its columns, its emphasis has been on important public affairs treated with an eye to the best interests of Britain. To guide this treatment, the editors have for long periods been in touch with 10 Downing Street. In these countries, the newspaper is often referred to as The London Times or The Times of London, although the newspaper is of national scope, in November 2006 The Times began printing headlines in a new font, Times Modern. The Times was printed in broadsheet format for 219 years, the Sunday Times remains a broadsheet. The Times had a daily circulation of 446,164 in December 2016, in the same period. An American edition of The Times has been published since 6 June 2006 and it has been heavily used by scholars and researchers because of its widespread availability in libraries and its detailed index. A complete historical file of the paper, up to 2010, is online from Gale Cengage Learning. The Times was founded by publisher John Walter on 1 January 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, Walter had lost his job by the end of 1784 after the insurance company where he was working went bankrupt because of the complaints of a Jamaican hurricane. Being unemployed, Walter decided to set a new business up and it was in that time when Henry Johnson invented the logography, a new typography that was faster and more precise. Walter bought the patent and to use it, he decided to open a printing house. The first publication of the newspaper The Daily Universal Register in Great Britain was 1 January 1785, unhappy because people always omitted the word Universal, Ellias changed the title after 940 editions on 1 January 1788 to The Times. In 1803, Walter handed ownership and editorship to his son of the same name, the Times used contributions from significant figures in the fields of politics, science, literature, and the arts to build its reputation. For much of its life, the profits of The Times were very large. Beginning in 1814, the paper was printed on the new steam-driven cylinder press developed by Friedrich Koenig, in 1815, The Times had a circulation of 5,000. Thomas Barnes was appointed editor in 1817
34.
Tennis court
–
A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the center. The same surface can be used to play doubles and singles matches. A variety of surfaces can be used to create a tennis court, Tennis is played on a rectangular flat surface, usually of grass, clay or hard material. The dimensions of a court are defined and regulated by the International Tennis Federation governing body and are written down in the annual Rules of Tennis document. The court is 78 feet long and its width is 27 feet for singles matches and 36 feet for doubles matches. The service line is 21 feet from the net, additional clear space around the court is needed in order for players to reach overrun balls for a total of 60 feet wide and 120 feet long. A net is stretched across the width of the court, parallel with the baselines. The net is 3 feet 6 inches high at the posts, the net posts are 3 feet outside the doubles court on each side or, for a singles net,3 feet outside the singles court on each side. Tennis is played on a variety of surfaces and each surface has its own characteristics which affect the style of the game. There are four types of courts depending on the materials used for the court surface, clay courts, hard courts, grass courts. The Australian Open switched to hard courts in 1988 and in its years the French championship alternated between clay and sand/rubble courts. ITF uses the classification for tennis court surface types, Clay courts are made of crushed shale, stone. The French Open is the only Grand Slam tournament to use clay courts, Clay courts slow down the ball and produce a high bounce in comparison to grass courts or hard courts. For this reason, the court takes away many of the advantages of big serves. Clay courts are cheaper to construct than other types of tennis courts, Clay courts need to be rolled to preserve flatness. The clays water content must be balanced, green courts generally require the courts to be sloped to allow water run-off, Clay courts are more common in Europe and Latin America than in North America and tend to heavily favour baseline players. Grass courts are the fastest type of courts in common use and they consist of grass grown on very hard-packed soil, which adds additional variables, bounces depend on how healthy the grass is, how recently it has been mown, and the wear and tear of recent play
35.
Tennis ball
–
A tennis ball is a ball designed for the sport of tennis. Tennis balls are fluorescent yellow at major sporting events, but in recreational play can be any color. Tennis balls are covered in a fibrous felt which modifies their aerodynamic properties, modern tennis balls must conform to certain criteria for size, weight, deformation, and bounce criteria to be approved for regulation play. The International Tennis Federation defines the diameter as 6. 54–6.86 cm. Balls must have masses in the range 56. 0–59.4 g, Tennis balls are filled with air and are surfaced by a uniform felt-covered rubber compound. The felt delays flow separation in the layer which reduces aerodynamic drag. Often the balls will have a number on them in addition to the brand name and this helps distinguish one set of balls from another of the same brand on an adjacent court. Tennis balls begin to lose their bounce as soon as the ball can is opened. They can be tested to determine their bounce, the ITFs Play and Stay campaign aims to increase tennis participation worldwide, by improving the way starter players are introduced to the game. The ITF recommends a progression that focuses on a range of slower balls, the slowest balls, marked with red, or using half red felt, are oversized and unpressurized, or made from foam rubber. The next, in orange, are unpressurized normal sized balls, the last, with green, are half pressured normal sized. Before the development of tennis in the early 1870s, the sport was played as the courtly game of real tennis. England banned the importation of tennis balls, playing cards, dice, in 1480, Louis XI of France forbade the filling of tennis balls with chalk, sand, sawdust, or earth, and stated that they were to be made of good leather, well-stuffed with wool. Other early tennis balls were made by Scottish craftsmen from a wool-wrapped stomach of a sheep or goat and tied with rope. Other versions, using such as animal fur, rope made from animal intestines and muscles. In the 18th century,1.9 cm strips of wool were wound tightly around a nucleus made by rolling a number of strips into a little ball, string was then tied in many directions around the ball and a white cloth covering sewn around the ball. In the early 1870s lawn tennis arose in Britain through the efforts of Walter Clopton Wingfield and Harry Gem. Wingfield marketed tennis sets, which included rubber balls imported from Germany, after Charles Goodyear invented vulcanised rubber, the Germans had been most successful in developing vulcanised air-filled rubber balls
36.
Tennis scoring system
–
The tennis scoring system is the standard system by which tennis matches and tournaments are generally operated and scored. A tennis tournament is organized into matches between players or teams of two players, the matches of a tournament are grouped into rounds. In round 1, all players are paired and play against each other in matches, the losers are said to leave, or be out. They no longer compete in the tournament, the winners are again paired to play in the matches of the next round. The tournament continues until the round, then the semifinal round. The winner of the round is declared the winner of the entire tournament. A tennis match is composed of points, games, and sets, a match is won when a player or a doubles team wins the majority of prescribed sets. Traditionally, matches are either a best of three sets or best of five sets format, the best of five set format is typically only played in the mens singles or doubles matches at Majors and Davis Cup matches. A set consists of a number of games, which in turn consist of points, likewise, it is not possible to win a tiebreak without winning at least one point during an opponents turn at serve. A game consists of a sequence of points played with the player serving. In scoring an individual game of tennis, the servers score is always called first. Score calling is unique to the sport of tennis in that point has a corresponding call that is different from its point value. In tennis, scoring in tie situations in both players have won the same number of points also varies. When players are tied by one or two points, the score is described as 15-all and 30-all, or 15-up and 30-up, however, if each player has won three points, the score is described as deuce rather than 40–all. From this point on, whenever the score is tied, it is described as deuce regardless of how many points have been played. In standard play, scoring beyond a score, in which both players have scored three points each, requires that one player must get two points ahead in order to win the game. This type of scoring is known as advantage scoring. In this type of scoring, the player who wins the point after deuce is said to have the advantage
37.
Woolwich
–
Woolwich is a town in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, south east London, England. Originally in Kent, it has been part of the London metropolitan area since the 19th century, in 1965, most of the former Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich became part of Greenwich Borough, of which it remains the administrative centre. Throughout the 17th, 18th, 19th and most of the 20th century, Woolwich was an important military and it is a river crossing point, with the Woolwich Ferry and the Woolwich foot tunnel crossing to North Woolwich. Woolwich is identified in the London Plan as an opportunity area as well as a centre in Greater London. Woolwich has been inhabited since at least the Iron Age, a path connected the riverside settlement with Watling Street, perhaps also of Iron Age origin. Sandy Hill Road may be a remnant of this early path and it is generally believed that the name Woolwich derives from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning trading place for wool. It is not clear whether Woolwich was a proper -wich town, however, in 2015 Oxford Archaeology discovered a Saxon burial site near the riverside with 76 skeletons from the late 7th or early 8th century. The absence of grave deposits indicates that this was an early Christian settlement, the first church, which stood to the north of the present parish church, was almost certainly pre-Norman and dedicated to Saint Lawrence. It was probably rebuilt in stone around 1100, from the 10th till the mid-12th century Woolwich was controlled by the abbots of St. Peters Abbey in Ghent. As a result of this tenure Woolwich is not mentioned in the Domesday Book, it is thought that the 63 acres listed as Hulviz refer to North Woolwich, medieval Woolwich was susceptible to flooding. In 1236 many were killed by a flood, Woolwich Ferry was first mentioned in 1308 but may be much older. Around Bell Water Gate some private shipbuilding or repair may have existed in the 15th century, a windmill was mentioned around 1450. Woolwich remained a relatively small Kentish settlement until the beginning of the 16th century, in 1512 it became home to Woolwich Dockyard, originally known as The Kings Yard, founded by Henry VIII to built his flagship Henry Grace à Dieu. Many great ships were built here, such as the Prince Royal, the Sovereign of the Seas, the Royal Charles, the Dolphin, the dockyard went through many ups and downs but survived for three and a half centuries, closing down in 1869. His mansion was Tower Place, which was closed in by a ropeyard and warehouses with open-air storage known initially as Gun Wharf or Gun Yard, then The Warren. The arsenal developed from a place of storage into a collection of factories, playing a central role in Britains imperial phase and its military. At wartime, tens of thousands of workers found employment here, other military establishments that were rooted in the arsenal were the Royal Artillery and the Royal Military Academy. They both moved to Woolwich Common in the late 18th century, in the 19th and 20th century several large barracks were built, as well as military schools and hospitals
38.
Sixpence (British coin)
–
The sixpence, sometimes known as a tanner or sixpenny bit, was a coin worth one-fortieth of a pound sterling, or six pence. It was first minted in the reign of Edward VI and circulated until 1980, following decimalisation in 1971 it had a value of 2 1⁄2 new pence. The coin was made from silver from its introduction in 1551 to 1947, prior to Decimal Day in 1971 there were 240 pence in one pound sterling. Twelve pence made a shilling, and twenty shillings made a pound, values less than a pound were usually written in shillings and pence, e. g.42 old pence would be three shillings and sixpence, often pronounced three and six. Values of less than a shilling were simply written in terms of pence, the first sixpences were minted in 1551, during the reign of Edward VI. They came about as a result of the debasement of coinage in the 1540s, in particular the silver testoon. The debased testoon was likely useful in everyday transactions, and it was decided that new coinage should be introduced with the denomination of six pence. Sixpences were minted during the reign of every British monarch after Edward VI, an alternative explanation for the nickname is that it comes from Romany Gypsy word tawno meaning small thing. The Royal Mint undertook a massive programme in 1816, with large quantities of gold. Previous issues of silver coinage had been irregular, and the issue, minted in 1787. New silver coinage was to be of.925 standard, with coins to be minted at 66 shillings to the pound weight. Hence, newly minted sixpences weighed 43.636 grains or 2.828 grams, the Royal Mint debased the silver coinage in 1920 from 92. 5% silver to 50% silver. Sixpences of both alloys were minted that year and this debasement was done because of the rising price of silver around the world, and followed the global trend of elimination, or reduction in purity, of the silver in coinage. The minting of coinage of the pound sterling ceased completely in 1946 for similar reasons. New silver coinage was minted in cupronickel, an alloy of copper. Beginning with Lord Wrottesleys proposals in the 1820s, there were attempts to decimalise the pound sterling over the next century. These attempts came to nothing significant until the 1960s when the need for a currency more suited to simple monetary calculations became pressing, the decision to decimalise was announced in 1966, with the pound to be divided into 100, rather than 240, pence. Decimal Day was set for 15 February 1971, and a range of new coins were introduced
39.
Blue (university sport)
–
A blue is an award earned by athletes at a university and some schools for competition at the highest level. The awarding of blues began at Oxford and Cambridge universities in England and it is awarded at British, Australian and New Zealand universities. There is no record of any university colours being worn during the game, at the first Boat Race in 1829, the Oxford crew was dominated by students of Christ Church, whose college colours were dark blue. They wore white shirts with blue stripes, while Cambridge wore white with a pink or scarlet sash. At the second race, in 1836, a blue ribbon was attached to the front of the Cambridge boat. A Full Blue is the highest honour that may be bestowed on a Cambridge athlete, in the 1860s the three senior sports — rowing, cricket and athletics — were awarding Blues, and the presidents of each formed an informal Blues Committee to oversee such awards. By 1880 a number of clubs involved in Varsity matches had successfully requested the right to award Half Blues. The criteria for awarding blues are different for men and women, Awards are made at the discretion of the mens and womens Blues Committees. The Mens Blues Committee is formed from one representative of each of the Full Blue sports, each committee meets to discuss issues relating to Cambridge sport. In some sports with Full Blue status, the varsity match second team is awarded Second Team Colours, the awarding of a Full Blue often requires a person to fulfill a number of requirements in the same academic year, particularly in sports with Discretionary Full Blue status. The individuals case must be presented to the Blues Committee in person and must be backed up by substantial evidence, the award is unlikely to be made unless the person is of world-class or at least international standard. Each sport has specific criteria for award, the general categorisation of mens and womens sports is laid out below. The winner of a Blue or Half Blue is entitled to wear a blues blazer, Full Blue blazers are completely coloured Cambridge Blue. Half Blue blazers have a number of different designs, depending on the wearers sport, there is a variety of other Blue and Half Blue paraphernalia, including scarves, ties, pullovers, bow ties, caps and squares. Such items are worn with pride, as of May 2011, the colour recognised officially by the University as Cambridge Blue actually has a slight green tint. In 2008 in Cambridge an alumna launched Oxbridge Blues Jewellery specifically for womens Blues and these are the only blues item to have been licensed by the University of Cambridge. Men holding Blues, Half Blues or Second Team Colours in a Full Blue sport are eligible to join the Hawks Club, women holding any of these awards are eligible to join The Ospreys, which was founded in 1985. At the University of Oxford, the committees for awarding Blues and Half-Blues work on much the same principles as the Cambridge committees
40.
Eton College
–
Eton College /iːtən/ is an English independent boarding school for boys in Eton, Berkshire, near Windsor. It educates more than 1,300 pupils, aged 13 to 18 years and it was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as The Kings College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor, making it the 18th oldest Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference school. Eton is one of the seven public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868. Eton has educated 19 British prime ministers and generations of the aristocracy and has referred to as the chief nurse of Englands statesmen. The school is headed by a Provost and Fellows, who appoint the Head Master and it contains 25 boys houses, each headed by a housemaster, selected from the more senior members of the teaching staff, which numbers some 155. Almost all of the pupils go on to universities, about a third of them to Oxford or Cambridge. The Head Master is a member of the Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference, Eton has a long list of distinguished former pupils. David Cameron was the 19th British prime minister to have attended the school, about 20% of pupils at Eton receive financial support, through a range of bursaries and scholarships. In early 2014, this figure had risen to 263 pupils receiving the equivalent of around 60% of school fee assistance, Eton has been described as the most famous public school in the world, and been referred to as the chief nurse of Englands statesmen. The Good Schools Guide called the school the number one public school, adding that The teaching. The school is a member of the G20 Schools Group, Eton today is a larger school than it has been for much of its history. In 1678, there were 207 boys, in the late 18th century, there were about 300, while today, the total has risen to over 1,300. Eton College was founded by King Henry VI as a charity school to free education to 70 poor boys who would then go on to Kings College, Cambridge. Henry took Winchester College as his model, visiting on many occasions, borrowing its Statutes and removing its Headmaster, when Henry VI founded the school, he granted it a large number of endowments, including much valuable land. He persuaded the then Pope, Eugene IV, to grant him a privilege unparalleled anywhere in England, the school also came into possession of one of Englands Apocalypse manuscripts. Legend has it that Edwards mistress, Jane Shore, intervened on the schools behalf and she was able to save a good part of the school, although the royal bequest and the number of staff were much reduced. Construction of the chapel, originally intended to be slightly over twice as long, only the Quire of the intended building was completed. Etons first Headmaster, William Waynflete, founder of Magdalen College, Oxford and previously Head Master of Winchester College, as the school suffered reduced income while still under construction, the completion and further development of the school has since depended to some extent on wealthy benefactors
Spencer Gore
