Below is a report by Tony Ring of the Society's Real Tennis day at Hatfield House on June 7th 2008. It includes an interesting explanation of the game and even manages to describe the handicap rules. At the end of the article you will see how the Society's new Real Tennis team was born and why it is called The Nodders!

Although we do not know whether P G Wodehouse would ever have played real tennis (or ‘tennis’ as it is correctly described, having preceded its upstart modern derivative by some half a millennium or more), he was certainly familiar with the game. His step-daughter Leonora and son-in-law Peter Calazet lived at Fairlawne, in Kent, which had its own real tennis court at a time when Plum was a regular visitor. Indeed, a professional, Henry Johns, was employed at Fairlawne by the Cazalets for a number of years.

We can be quite sure, though, that he would have both approved of, and been astounded by, the Society’s latest venture – a tennis match against a delightful peripatetic team named ‘The Brigands’, played at the beautifully presented court at Hatfield House on June 7th. For in the team which bore his name, there were two sons of Dulwich students with whom he corresponded for some time. Mike Griffith (whose full Christian name really is the shortened version of Michael as he was named after Mike Jackson from the early school stories and Psmith novels) is the son of the late England wicket-keeper S C ‘Billy’ Griffith, whose virtues Wodehouse wrote about on a number of occasions, and Mike is a godson of Wodehouse himself. Mark Wilcox is a son of the late Denys Wilcox, a fine county cricketer whose achievements in the University match at Lord’s led to congratulatory telegrams from Wodehouse, who later allowed his name to appear on the prospectus of the Wilcox family’s prep school.

For good measure, the Society’s team included two committee members – Tony Ring and Paul Rush, the latter taking advantage of the offer for novices to receive some professional instruction from Hatfield House senior professional Jon Dawes, and then to participate in a friendly but competitive doubles match; two other long-standing members of the Society, Jonathan Fisher and Richard Williams (who by a Ukridgean piece of sleight-of-hand were actually the managers of the two opposing teams); and finally Simon Brett, the Old Alleynian author and radio producer who, at the splendid post-match dinner, accepted the invitation to become our newest Patron.

Real tennis is played by a sufficiently small number of aficionados that it is possible for each individual to be assigned a personal handicap (and on occasion a separate one for singles and doubles). Unlike golf, where players are handicapped against the course, the handicaps in tennis are reflected in different starting scores applied to each game in a match. While players of equal handicap start at love-all, handicap differences can be reflected in starting scores of say 15-love, or even minus 15-love. This system, honed to perfection over the years, can result in extraordinarily close encounters between individuals or pairs with immensely different abilities – the most penal handicap which is used may be a starting score in each game of minus 40-30 with additional restrictions for the better player or pair such as being permitted only a single serve for each point, and penalties if they hit the ball to certain parts of the court!

Each match was notionally assigned 45 minutes, so it was decided that we would play first-to-eight games. Our matches did not involve any of the extreme handicaps, but those which did apply duly helped to produce some excellent competitive tennis. Jonathan Fisher lost the opening match for the Society, which was full of exciting and skilful serving, volleying, ground strokes and retrieving, by 8 games to 7 after suffering a groin strain at about 6-6 which was sufficiently severe to cause his retirement during the next match, a doubles in which he partnered Mark Wilcox. Unfortunately, his restricted movement (and the fact that his replacement at 1-5 had no opportunity to knock-up before having to play his first shot in anger) led to another defeat, rather more one-sided, for our team.

Mark, a left-hander, then provided an authoritative display of serving which generated what was to prove the Society’s only win of the day, proving that he still retained his inherited eye for a ball.

In each of the remaining four doubles, against a combination of male and female Brigands (Oliver Harris, Isabelle Duncan, Malcolm Thorp and Clare Weatherill) the Society’s team flattered to deceive. As with many sports, the result of at least two of the matches turned on just a couple of important points, either lost by a mistake from one of the deserving poor, or won by a master-stroke from a Brigand. The more consistent and determined play of the opposition – possibly coupled with the relative lack of recent match practice for two of the Society’s warriors – proved decisive, and despite valiant efforts, there was no disputing the validity of the overall match result, 6-1 in favour of the Brigands.

At the post-match dinner, Simon Brett entertained us with a witty speech in which he quoted a Wodehouse passage concerning the Nodders of Hollywood. Having already decided that the experimental match was one which should be repeated in future years – not only because the Brigands provided a splendid trophy (The ‘Gentlemen of Leisure Trophy’) – your Society representatives had been wondering what could be their team name. Simon’s extract provided a timely answer, and ‘The Nodders’ promptly came into being as the Real Tennis team of The P G Wodehouse Society (UK)!

The Nodders are most grateful to Richard Williams for having conceived the notion of the match, to Jonathan and Liz Fisher for competently managing our resources and providing lunchtime grazing, Hatfield House Tennis Club for their friendly welcome, and Jon Dawes for his informative and cheerful marking of the entire match.