People have played tennis in Oxford since at least 1450. In that year townsmen Thomas Blake, a skinner, William Whyte, a barber, and John Waryn, a glover, were brought before the beeks (literally in one case) — namely the chancellor of the university Gilbert Kymer and Professor Beek — for the criminal offence of tennis playing.

They had been playing ‘the Game of Kings’ now known a Real (Royal) Tennis, forerunner of that sport so much on television screens this fortnight, which still thrives in the city at a court in Merton Street — where it has been played since at least 1595, though the present court dates only from 1798.

I gather this information from a truly excellent book, Tennis and Oxford, by Jeremy Potter, published in 1994 by Oxford Unicorn Press.

In paragraph one, page one, Mr Potter remarks: “Humanists in the 16th century recognised it as an ideal combination of physical and mental exercise. Philosophers have been eloquent in its praise. Parallels have been drawn with chess. It’s fitting therefore that Oxford should have played a significant role in the long history of this game.”

The game of tennis originally came from France where it had spread like wild fire. The name is derived from the French ‘tenez’, meaning hold, and even today most of the terminology comes from French, for example ‘deuce’ meaning deux or two.

But, of course, forms of tennis, with few rules, had been played in courts and quads, and even in great halls in monasteries and university colleges on both sides of the channel long before formal rules for the Jeu de Paume, as it was often called, were codified; old tennis balls have been discovered in the rafters of the halls at Merton and Wadham, and lodged in the walls of various college quads and courtyards.

By the early 16th century, Town and Gown authorities had given up the struggle against tennis — although educationalist and resident of Combe, in West Oxfordshire, Sir Thomas Elyot (1490-1546), continued to rail against that other sport now on our screens, football, which he called “the beastlie game”. By the 17th century, Christ Church don John Locke (1632-1704) was even using tennis to illustrate a metaphysical point when he wrote: “A tennis-ball, whether in motion by the stroke of a racket or lying at rest, is not by anyone taken to be free agent.”

Courts sprang up all over Oxford, in colleges and in the town. The Oriel Square Court was founded even before the Merton Street one, but fell into disuse in the 19th century. It was played upon by kings and princes including Charles I (during the Civil War the Parliamentarians issued a pass to allow a tennis outfit, tailored in London, to be taken to Oxford for him to wear!); Charles II, and even Edward VII when he was an undergraduate, as can be seen in the picture printed above.

The name of the game now being played at Wimbledon was long in doubt; so much so that the tournament is simply known as The Championships — without specifying exactly what they are championships of! In time the two versions of the game were differentiated by calling one Real Tennis and the other Lawn Tennis. Rules of the latter were codified in England in the late 19th century and internationally by the International Lawn Tennis Federation, a meeting of 12 national associations, meeting in Paris in 1913. The Federation is now known as the International Tennis Federation. It moved its headquarters to UK during the second world war.

But back to Real Tennis in Oxford. The Merton Street court is home to the Oxford University Tennis Club. Its most famous professional, who rented it from Merton College, was the father of Oxford historian and antiquarian Anthony Wood (1632-1695), who lived next door in Postmasters Hall.

His successor, Alan Oliver, who played lawn tennis for Oxfordshire before taking up Real Tennis, told me that former professionals had run the club on their own account, and even now the Tennis Club is open to Town as well as Gown.