The climate we cannot control, but I often wonder why there should be
such a dearth of true grass courts at open meetings. Of course
maintenance involves a certain amount of expense, but surely many clubs
are quite well enough off to command at least one or two really good
courts. Can it be ignorance, or is it a want of necessary energy and
constant attention? Lawn tennis seems to suffer in this respect more
than most games. There are hundreds of splendid golf greens and cricket
pitches all over the country, but for some inexplicable reason a good
grass lawn tennis court is, as Mr. G.W. Hillyard has remarked, "almost
as rare a sight as a dead donkey." Happily we get this rare spectacle at
Wimbledon under Mr. Hillyard's able care and management.

[Illustration: GROUP OF PLAYERS AT THE NEWCASTLE TOURNAMENT, 1902]

What a difference a general improvement in surface would mean! I am
convinced that if courts were better the standard of play would advance
more rapidly. It is marvellous what beneficial effect a good court has
on play. I have seen an average player, who had always played on bad
courts, with cramped surroundings and poor background, put up a really
good game the very first time he played on a first-class court--I refer
to a well-known private court at Thorpe Satchville, perhaps the best in
the country. That player surprised himself and every one else present.
He performed about half-thirty better than his usual game. The moral is
that if other players had the opportunity of playing regularly on a true
and fast court they must essentially improve. On bad courts you can
never be sure what the ball will do; it is a toss-up whether you get a
false bound or not. A player once told me that he thought it a good
thing to have these bad courts at your house or club to practise upon.
When you went to tournaments, he argued, you would not mind what you