Robert J Lake

Anyone for tennis? It’s that time of year again when our favourite racket sport suddenly re-emerges as a fashionable and engaging spectacle. While other sports, notably the popular North American team-games of football, basketball, hockey, and baseball, alongside their equivalents in Britain, notably soccer, rugby union, rugby league, and county cricket, have entire seasons that typically reach their climax in exciting post-season playoffs, championships and cups, tennis rather oddly seems to peak mid-way through its season and, again rather oddly, at a tournament played on an out-dated surface, and in a nation with very little elite-level success to speak of over the last eighty or so years. Naturally, of course, I am speaking about Wimbledon and about England, not Britain. “British” fans happily cling to whatever successes they can muster. Before the First World War, the British used to claim Australia’s or indeed any of our extended (crucially, white) colonial “partners’” victories as their own, while now they can more conveniently include Andy Murray’s recent successes. However, the fact remains that Wimbledon is very English and Andy Murray is very Scottish, and in the light of the recent referendum on British membership of the European Union and the subsequent likelihood of a second, but this time successful, referendum on Scottish independence, Murray’s British identity will come under intense scrutiny, and not for the first time. As of right now, however, very few people in the British tennis scene, at Wimbledon or inside the headquarters of the Lawn Tennis Association in leafy west-London will mention his Scottish identity, particularly when he is winning. Consider also the fact that this very English tournament gives its entire annual profits – typically between £25 and 30 million – to the LTA for the development of tennis across Britain, and therein lays an interesting dichotomy. This English-British distinction is just one of the key confusions, or indeed contradictions, that makes Wimbledon so fascinating for sports fans and historians alike. There are others.

This paper examines recent developments in etiquette in contemporary mixed-doubles tennis (MDT), to position different behavioural expectations for men/women in the broader context of shifting gender relations. Content analysis of coaching guides published from the 1960s-80s revealed that historically-rooted gender distinctions in terms of court positioning, tactics, and playing roles/expectations were reaffirmed, continuing to undermine and marginalize females yet privilege males based on assumed innate differences in physical attributes. Etiquette norms in this era were compared to those found in the early 21 st century (2000-10s), through content analysis of online forums/blogs for recreational and elite-level MDT. It was found that while gendered tactics related to court positioning and playing roles were sustained, an important shift in etiquette norms related to chivalry occurred, but was not comprehensively accepted among all players. This development was attributed to third-wave feminist challenges to male chivalry, alongside the burgeoning " crisis of masculinity " that increasingly pushed men toward adopting a " hybridized masculinity " to assuage public critiques of hegemonic/orthodox masculinity in sport.

This paper critically examines the life and career of Daniel “Dan” Maskell OBE CBE (1908-92), the much-loved British professional coach and BBC commentator for Wimbledon, and position his social ascendancy during the inter-war and post-war periods within the contexts of shifting class relations in British society, and the professionalisation of tennis and growing performance orientation of amateur tennis authorities in Britain. Given his working-class origins, Maskell’s gradual acceptance into the British lawn tennis fraternity and rise to become “the voice of Wimbledon” and, for some, the personification of traditional British sporting amateur values, was something of an enigma, and reflected key contradictions in what amateurism constituted in the twentieth century. Despite enduring systematic discrimination in clubs and exclusion from amateur competitions, as a consequence of him being a “professional”, he remained a chief proponent of the amateur ideology throughout his lifetime and exhibited numerous personal qualities that endeared him to the upper-middle-class establishment: modesty, loyalty, integrity, conservative views on player behaviour, deference to authority, strong work-ethic, and good-humoured nature. Once tennis went “open” in 1968, and throughout a period when professionalism and commercialism threatened to undermine the sports’ core ideals, Maskell continued to represent and promote amateur ideals through his broadcasting ethics and values.

The Olympic Movement underwent a period of profound change in the interwar years. A generational shift occurred as Pierre de Coubertin’s reign came to an end, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) under the presidency of Comte Henri de Baillet-Latour, embarked on a renewed mission to create a more standardized amateur definition. The IOC also took a tougher stance on the involvement of, and the authority it afforded to, its affiliated international sports federations (ISFs) for Olympic event preparations. Relations between the IOC and the ISFs inevitably grew strained. The case of Olympic lawn tennis presents an interesting lens through which to view shifting organizational relations. Frustrated by the dogmatic approach of Baillet-Latour and the IOC, the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) sought to reassert its authority over Olympic tennis. In the years leading up to the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, the ILTF demanded representation on the IOC, and also imposed a definition of an amateur that directly contravened the more stringent amateur standards imposed by Olympic officials in Lausanne. Both sides refused to concede ground, culminating in the eventual removal of lawn tennis from the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic program and thereafter for over sixty years.

This study focuses on the issue of social exclusion in British tennis. It commences with a critique of current LTA policy, presenting exclusion as static, ahistorical and underpinned by false dichotomies of age and social class. Aspects of Norbert Elias’s theoretical approach are employed throughout as an analytical framework. Initially, the roots of exclusion in British tennis are sought through historical analysis. Aspects of the Civilising Process help direct attention towards wider social processes to explain the prevalence of exclusion, particularly in tennis clubs. Cost was a crucial factor in determining early access, but as tennis became more accessible to lower classes, codes of behavioural etiquette helped demarcate members along status lines. Into the mid-20th century, the globalisation, professionalisation and commercialisation of tennis pushed the LTA to adopt a more performance-oriented outlook, but this has come to oppose the more relaxed culture of tennis clubs. Thus, a power struggle emerged between these two institutions, and, underpinned by thirty interviews with leading figures in British tennis as well as extensive documentary analysis, the third section documents these developments from the 1980s. Crucially, tennis clubs remain largely amateur and voluntary-run organisations, yet are important locations for the implementation of the LTA’s demanding talent development objectives. These recent developments are understood with the help of Elias’s Game Models theory. The fourth section presents findings from a ten-month ethnographic study of social exclusion in a tennis club; a micro-analysis of club member relations underpinned by Elias’s Established-Outsider Relations theory. Overall findings suggest that social exclusion in British tennis is far more complex, multi-faceted and historically-rooted than what current LTA discourse presents. Differences in age and class are less central, and instead preconceived notions of social status based on longevity of membership, adherence to behavioural norms and playing standard are powerful determinants of inclusion.

Contemporary broader government policy surrounding social exclusion has tended to characterise it in largely negative terms. Contemporary sport policy in British tennis is no different" Every player excluded from grass-roots participation represents a wasted opportunity to develop talent" Thus, "inclusion" and "accessibility" feature today, and have for some time, at the core of contemporary policy from the Lawn Tennis Association, which as an organisation has come to judge itself based on broad participation figures and elite level success, which are often considered incompatible. Such measurements of an association's  performance reflect broader political concerns and objectives, and also ignore the sport's elitist past, which actually celebrated the exclusion of particular societal groups as a major  positive factor in its rapidly growing popularity among the socially-aspirational British middle-classes. This paper takes a historical perspective with regard to discourses of social exclusion in British tennis, and considers the ways in which exclusive features of the sport have been both celebrated as a means of enhancing its prestige and criticised for contributing to declining British performances. Such discourses are positioned within broader historical contexts of shifting class relations, Empire decline, burgeoning commercialism in sport and the increasing accountability among sport governing bodies.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the Lawn Tennis Association introduced numerous policies to remove barriers associated with social exclusion in tennis clubs. Ethnographic research was conducted within one club to analyse the incidence of social exclusion, and consider the success of LTA policies in these regards. Results suggested the club made structural changes to receive LTA funding, such as removing exclusive membership and clothing restrictions, hiring coaches and establishing school-club links, yet its culture remained entirely exclusive and inaccessible to new members. For analysis, Elias and Scotson’s “Established-Outsider Relations” theoretical framework is applied: to discover who was excluded, how and why, and, to set the outcomes of power struggles between members in the wider social and historical contexts of changing LTA policies.

“Mixed doubles” was regarded as the most popular type of lawn tennis game for those preferring the ‘social’ aspects to competition. An analysis of behavioural etiquette in mixed doubles from 1870 to 1939 reveals a considerable amount about shifting gender relations in wider British society. Findings are presented from over fifty text books and instructional guides on mixed doubles play published throughout this period in order to answer the following questions: What differences are evident in the ways that men and women were instructed to play mixed doubles? How was the often uneasy balance between male competitiveness and chivalry dealt with in the context of play? What can an analysis of changing fashions of female tennis players and associated behavioural etiquette in mixed doubles tell us about shifting gender relations in wider British society, and what role did these developments play within broader feminist movements?

From the 1960s, British sport came to be regarded as serving particular societal functions, particularly along lines of social integration and national prestige. This is not unsurprising given the imbedded nature of Functionalist sociological thinking at this time, but while the inadequacies of this theoretical model were brought to light in critical sociological analyses during the 1960s and 70s, it has continued to pervade sports governance and political discourse until the present day. The sport of tennis in Britain is examined, with remit to analyse Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) discourse from 1990 until 2006. Results suggest an overwhelming ‘functionalist’ rhetoric, particularly with regard to how the concepts of inclusion/exclusion, talent development and tennis club culture are understood. A critique of LTA discourse drawn from documentary analysis of published materials and interviews with several key LTA personnel reveals a ‘contemporary bias’ and ‘consensus bias’ in conceptions of society, social class and social change, and how various tennis-related organisations should operate. LTA sports government discourse is critiqued with a view to adopting the arguably more adequate ‘Figurational’ sociological perspective, which recognises the dynamic and processual nature of society, seeks to illuminate long-term social processes and is underpinned by historical analyses.

From the 1870s, lawn tennis developed a code of behavioural etiquette demanding on-court self-restraint, which notably influenced the development of particular playing strokes and styles. This paper explores the sport’s historical development in Britain from 1870-1939, with its main aims: to document the changes in behavioural etiquette and playing style; to consider these interdependent developments in the context of shifting class relations in wider British society; and, to examine the social and practical functions etiquette served for players. Evidence suggests that prohibitions against certain playing strokes up until World War I were indicative of class anxiety among the socially-aspirational upper-middle classes that controlled lawn tennis, as certain playing styles conveyed seemingly an abhorrent ‘working-class’ competitiveness. Greater inclusion for lower-middle-class players during the inter-war years signalled a trend toward adopting a more ‘professional’ mentality, helping to relax behavioural controls in playing style around the world.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) initiated several policies aimed at developing talent in British tennis, chief of which was the transformation of traditional tennis club cultures to make them more open, accessible and performance-oriented. The 1990s also witnessed other changes that influenced the LTA’s overall position: a shift in emphasis from mass to elite-level provision within wider British sport policy, the introduction of new investment opportunities through the National Lottery, the rise of New Labour, a change in LTA leadership and a swell in LTA investment drawn from Wimbledon profits. This article draws upon Norbert Elias’s Game Models theoretical framework to: i) examine some of the talent development policies introduced by the LTA from the early 1990s onwards; ii) analyse the gradual shifting power relations throughout the late 20th century between the LTA and its affiliated tennis clubs, which came to influence the former’s ability to implement policy; iii) uncover problems that the LTA encountered in delivering policy objectives in tennis clubs; and, iv) analyse the overall unintended and undesired outcomes of these policies for the LTA itself, and for British tennis clubs, coaches and players.

This paper examines the numerous changes to the role, influence, professional standards and general social status of coaches and the vocation of coaching in lawn tennis, focusing predominantly on the inter-war years. It was during this time, generally, when lawn tennis clubs became more open and democratic in their memberships, and when elite-level tennis came to embrace more profoundly the ethos of professionalism. As such, the recognized value and esteem of coaches at both levels increased, which led to advances in the vocation of coaching practices across the sport. These developments are analysed in the light of wider social processes, most notably the widespread and influential class struggles of the twentieth century, which characterized taken-for-granted assumptions about how sport should be played and who should play it. The debate between amateurs and professionals is at the heart of developments in coaching, and forms the central issue in this paper. This article commences with an investigation of lawn tennis from the 1870s until the First World War, and then goes on to consider areas of progress with regard to coaching and areas of continuing inequality. The period after the Second World War is discussed briefly, when attitudes toward professionalism softened further in all areas, despite the considerable delay in not initiating ‘open tennis’ until 1968. Testimony from players throughout these eras reveals the fundamental importance of coaching to achieving success amid the continued hypocrisy of adopting professional standards under the veil of being an amateur, or in some
cases ‘shamateur’.

This article examines the social significance of Real Tennis among the Western European nobility during its heyday of the sixteenth century. Underpinned theoretically by Norbert Elias’s seminal empirical work The Civilising Process, this article seeks to identify the societal preconditions for the emergence of Real Tennis, and provide explanations for its diffusion across Western Europe and subsequent boom in popularity among the nobility. A critique is offered of the current body of literature written on Real Tennis, with an aim to address a general lack of focus on the game’s ‘social’ elements and how their development is linked with structural changes to the game over the centuries. The article then goes on to examine the ways in which Real Tennis became a symbol of prestige and a tool for social mobility among the increasingly status-competitive royal court nobility. Played during royal festivals, the game provided opportunities for nobles to engage in conspicuous consumption through architectural, clothing and gambling displays; having an entourage in accompaniment to the noble players; and, through the style of play and behavioural control, exhibiting self-restraint and foresight. Overall, an attempt is made to apply Elias’s theoretical framework to aid our understanding of the development of Real Tennis, a game that has never been characterised by overt ‘violence’ of the kind examined previously by other sociologists employing an Eliasian framework.

Wimbledon and the AELTC have long occupied an important social position as a quintessentially English sporting institution of cultural importance, but underscored with unashamed English nationalism. The club markets The Championships as “tennis in an English garden party”, and the historical connections to Victorian south-east (London-based) English upper-middle-class elitism are transparent in the opulent ivy-clad surroundings of Centre Court, the exclusive blazer-and-tie membership, the players in all-whites, and the strawberries-and-cream type refreshments on sale. Somewhat in contradiction, however, Wimbledon’s fans almost always sport the union flag over the St. Georges cross, and support British players with equal and consummate gusto. Moreover, unlike other sports, tennis is managed by one British (rather than separate English, Scottish or Welsh) association, the LTA, the activities of which are funded almost entirely by Wimbledon’s profits. It is argued that Wimbledon, as expressed in the “banal nationalism” shown by tennis fans and its media and the clubs’ efforts to create an “imagined community” of British fans loyal to the club and home-grown players, represents nostalgia for a now outdated English-dominated form of “Britishness”. This chapter aims to analyse the often contradictory picture of English/British nationalism in tennis, particularly focused on Wimbledon and the AELTC.

The history of sports coaching is a field of study that has arguably not had its fair share of attention, particularly in Britain, despite broader social structures such as class, amateurism, gender, nationalism and imperialism having influenced its development in profound and lasting ways.

Despite being almost wiped out after the French Revolution, the ancient sport of real tennis is enjoying something of a revival of late in France, Great Britain, Australia and the United States, played by perhaps as many as 10,000 enthusiasts worldwide. In what must surely be the most detailed and comprehensive account of the sport's complete history, John Shneerson explains the sport's perpetually shifting popularity over the centuries, which has seen it fall out of favour, and then recover multiple times.

Given the major-league stranglehold on baseball-related media, the substantial and in places increasing popularity of minor-league baseball remains something of a mystery to some. Despite the seemingly ubiquitous threat of franchise sales, relocations and shifting major-league affiliations, spectators in their tens of thousands continue to flock to see often obscure budding or journeyman players compete night after night in small towns and cities across North America. Some play in dusty old stadiums with limited facilities while others have recently moved into plush, modern, purpose-built arenas, yet all clubs with an eye on long-term financial success and survival have come to recognize the importance of creating value-for-money entertainment beyond the actual baseball action as a way of sustaining audience numbers. In Vaudeville on the Diamond, author David M. Sutera documents the interesting means by which minor-league baseball clubs have continued to attempt to attract and retain fans, through unique drinks or food promotions; competitions and prize-giveaways for fans; circus-like performances and entertainment between innings, some of which actually involves fans; and, costume theme nights.

Sport and Social Exclusion in Global Society offers a fresh look at recent developments in policy and academic discourse around sport and social exclusion. By expanding the notion of social exclusion beyond Global North perspectives, the authors offer an important contribution, through articulating key points of differentiation between Global North and South definitions of the concept and how it is manifested in different societies and cultural contexts, and in helping to critique and develop the broader subject area to better serve academics and policy-makers.

Nation at Play is a well-researched, balanced and interesting account of the history of sport in India. The author's aims are to address two key questions: why cricket has become so deeply rooted within Indian culture, and why India, despite its huge population, does so poorly in international sporting competitions like the Olympic Games.

Women, Sport and Modernity in Interwar Britain is the second instalment of an exciting new series of sport history monographs published by Peter Lang, under the direction of series editors Richard Holt and Matthew Taylor. The book is written to a high academic standard and includes an impressive amount of original primary source material and thorough analyses.