uld 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
found there, as the conditions could not be worse, and might be better,
and you would always be in the happy frame of mind of not expecting too
much and never being disappointed. Your game would not be put off by
depressing conditions--you were so used to them! But that is poor logic.
After all, we play the game for pleasure, and there can be no enjoyment
in playing on wretched courts. Many unfortunate players, if they wish to
play the game at all, are forced to play on what Mr. Mahony used to
call "cabbage patches"--("Sorry, partner, it hopped on a cabbage," was
his favourite expression after missing a ball in a double); but I cannot
understand any one voluntarily choosing such a surface.

A wood floor has such an absolutely true bound that it must provide very
good practice, and one winter's play on the indoor courts at Queen's
Club is to my mind a quicker way of improving your game than two or
three seasons on grass courts which are not of the best. These covered
wood courts are very scarce, and it is a thousand pities there are so
few of them. Would that this winter game were in the reach of everybody!
On the other hand, you can overdo the game by playing continuously; and
if you have been playing all through the summer with scarcely a break,
it is a good plan to rest during the winter months, taking up some other
game to keep your eye in and your condition fit.

Since true grass courts are so scarce in this country, I sometimes wish
we could dispense with turf altogether, and have at our tournaments the