Stické History
Stické Court
Hartham Park
Corsham
Wiltshire
SN13 0RP
Build in 1904
The game orientated in the 19th century and over 30 Stické courts were built over the next 60 years around the UK and Commonwealth.
The military invented the game and many of the first courts were built on army ground.
The county house adopted Stické in the Victorian era and considerable wealth was associated with the sport.
Stické is still played today there are still 2 surviving courts in the UK.
Hartham Park was built in 1904 and Knights Hayes court Tiverton Devon was built in 1907.
My research reveals that Stické Tennis definitely originates from the military world. At the end of the 19th Century, there was an enthusiasm for inventing, transforming and developing new games – reflecting the wider style and culture of the late Victorian era. As a result many new games, often played on a local basis, were ‘invented’ – some became unfashionable and died.
Two sports that did not ‘die’ were Stické and Sphairistické. Stické is often and not surprisingly confused with Sphairistické, the lawn tennis game made popular by Major Wingfield in 1874. The true birth of lawn tennis can be traced back to 1858 when Major Henry Gem marked out the first court on a lawn in Edgbaston. Sphairistické is a game played in the open air on an open court and is clearly a predecessor of today’s Lawn tennis. The books of the time say, ‘to avoid confusion the walled court game was christened Stické – a halfway game between Rackets and lawn tennis’!!
The origins of Stické can definitely be traced to the Scientific School of Gunnery at Shoeburyness, Essex in the early 1870s, i.e. contemporaneous with what is generally regarded as the invention of lawn tennis. The School of Gunnery had been founded in 1859. At that time the number of rackets courts far exceeded the number of playable real tennis courts. It appears that the initial Stické courts were built in Army areas where it was not possible to erect a full size rackets courts (too expensive, too close to firing ranges and so on). Courts were not only built in the South of England and Southern Ireland but also in more exotic climates such as India (Rawul Pindi, Cooch Bihar and Simla – built by Lord Dufferin when he was Viceroy of India), Bermuda, and Halifax, Nova Scotia. All the initial Stické courts were open to the elements. This game, with a slight play on pronunciation, was to be known as ‘Shoeburyness-Stické ‘!! Scoring was in units, rather than in fifteens, reflecting the sport of rackets.
Stické provided recreation, rather than competitive sport, for military personnel during their long postings between active service. The game can be played by people of average ball skills, unlike rackets. The rules were simple and easy to learn, unlike the complex scoring system of real tennis. It was not deemed a selfish game, perhaps unlike croquet, and left no after effects other than ‘a level of pleasant tiredness’ !! (Ward and Ruck, 1903). In fact, it is a game that combines all the advantages of real tennis, lawn tennis and rackets!
One of the main advantages of Stické was the lack of capital required for building a court – about £100 for a basic court or £400 for a court with masonry walls. The playing equipment, rackets and balls, were inexpensive. Working expenses were limited to the re-painting of lines and court emblems. Occasionally the walls had to be re-painted with distemper. Courts were easily erected in areas which were unsuitable for more expensive rackets courts, both in military areas as well as on private estates.
Further expansion of the game took place when Stické moved from the Army into the specially built covered courts on the country house estates. The covered courts were directly or indirectly modelled on the covered court built at Taplow Court in 1893 by William Grenfell later known as Lord Desborough – one of the greatest athletes of the 20th Century. The Desborough Patent tennis court, as it was known, was the model for a further twenty Courts across the South of England including one at Buckingham Palace. At this time, the scoring moved away from the unit point scoring of rackets to scoring by fifteens as in today’s lawn tennis.
If we examine where the courts were built we find that there is a logical connection between some of the owners. Many of the courts were built on estates belonging to a social and academic group called The Souls, who came to prominence in the 1890s and early 1900s. The Souls was a group of individuals, from nobility and commoners, who were educated at top private schools in the United Kingdom and who went to either Oxford or Cambridge Universities. Apart from their academic prowess, many of them were gifted sportsmen representing their countries or being nationally ranked in their various sports. Many of these individuals also went on to hold leadership positions of national importance in Government, the Diplomatic Service, or in the professions. It is worth examining the characteristics of The Souls. They enjoyed socialising in mixed company. Their social talk was more cerebral than some of the peer social groups. Indoors and in the evenings they played complex charades and even early forms of scrabble in French. Outdoors, they were keen on hunting, shooting, fishing, cricket, and tennis. . Against this background, Stické tennis, which was played by both sexes, was a very suitable and desirable leisure pursuit. Stické Courts were built to provide recreational facilities for The Souls’ social gatherings. I have identified the establishment of several courts at the home of members of this social group.
Many of The Souls were casualties of the First World War and the weak economic state of the country between the wars brought the country house parties, which had been very popular around the turn of the century, to an end. The Second World War almost saw the demise of Stické and in fact very little Stické tennis was played immediately after the war.
At today’s prices and purely for comparison, it would cost about £90,000 to build and equip a new indoor Stické tennis Court (excluding changing facilities), using a similar style to when the courts were originally built.