Lawn Tennis

Lawn Tennis (1953) – J. G. Smyth
BT Batsford Ltd • ISBN: none (from a nobler, pre-barcode era) • Condition: Good
Now with bonus vintage Wimbledon Museum flyer (pre-internet, gloriously glossy)
Respectably aged, gently squashed, from Crappy Old Books

Step back to a time when:

• Racquets were wooden,

• Shorts were too short,

• And “sports science” meant a brisk rub-down and half an orange.

Lawn Tennis (1953) by J. G. Smyth is a beautifully serious guide to a game that now involves polyester, grunt analysis, and hawk-eye, but here is presented as a rational, civilised activity for people in neatly pressed whites trying not to sweat in public.

This is the era when you learned to serve, volley, and behave yourself on court, all at once. Smyth’s tone is firmly “patient but disappointed games master,” and frankly, it’s delightful.

Condition: Good (slightly squashed, absolutely game-ready)

Let’s talk physical form.

When Crappy Old Books says Good, and then adds details, we mean:

• The spine is slightly squashed – think “mildly compressed by a lifetime between heavier books,” not “flattened in a tragic bookshelf calamity.” A little cosmetic squeeze, but nothing structural.

• The binding is strong – pages are secure, not flapping about like a badly strung racquet. You can open it, read it, and not feel you’re reenacting a slow-motion book collapse.

• The book wears protective plastic wrapping – the respectable kind, not sticky-tape chaos. It feels like someone once thought, “This is a proper sports book and must be preserved.”

• Inside, pages are complete, legible, and nicely aged: a gentle patina of 1950s respectability rather than “found in a puddle behind a pavilion.”

In short: it looks lightly squashed, carefully wrapped, and quietly proud of its survival. Like a retired club champion in a cardigan.

Free Bonus: Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum Flyer (80s/90s, pre-internet and proud)

As a bonus, your copy comes with a vintage Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum flyer, complete with:

• A glorious pre-internet design – glossy, earnest, and utterly convinced a small printed map is all you will ever need.

• A fold-out map of where to go, what to see, and how to feel appropriately reverent in the presence of display cases filled with old racquets and slightly terrifying mannequins in period tennis wear.

• A vibe of: “This is a day out. You will learn things. You may even buy a bookmark.”

It’s like opening the book and finding a tiny time portal to the late 1980s or early 1990s, when family outings were planned by leaflets picked up from racks, not TripAdvisor.

What’s in the book itself?

Inside Lawn Tennis, expect:

• Diagrams of grips, stances, and strokes, presented with total seriousness, as if your entire moral character rests on your backhand.

• Advice on court etiquette, because tennis is not just about hitting a ball—it’s about not behaving like a hooligan while doing it.

• Tactical guidance from a world where the racquets are heavy, the balls are slower, and nobody says “unforced errors” every five seconds on commentary.

• That particularly British tone of “Of course you could play badly, but one prefers not to.”

It’s a handbook for:

• The aspiring club player of 1953,

• The modern nostalgist of 2025,

• And anyone who thinks tennis peaked when the dress code was “all white and absolutely no nonsense.”

Why this copy is especially charming

You’re not just getting a random old sports manual. You’re getting:

• A 1953 coaching book, gently squashed but structurally sound, wrapped like a museum exhibit.

• A free Wimbledon Museum flyer that has survived the onslaught of digital everything and still cheerfully insists that laminated maps and opening times are all the information any sane person could want.

• A bundled package of Tennis Then (1953 coaching) and Tennis Slightly Later (1980s/90s Wimbledon heritage tourism) in one tidy, plastic-wrapped time capsule.

It’s like owning both a coaching manual and a tiny shrine to grass-court nostalgia.

Ideal for readers who:

• Love tennis, but secretly believe it was better when racquets were made of trees.

• Hoard Wimbledon ephemera and think glossy pre-internet leaflets are basically art.

• Enjoy the very British combination of sport, manners, and mild passive-aggression in prose.

• Are writing, researching, or just vibing with mid-20th-century sport and culture.

Also perfect as:

• A quirky gift for the tennis tragic who already owns too many branded towels.

• A prop for photos, theatre, or film set any time between the 50s and the 90s.

• A conversation piece on a coffee table, guaranteed to lure in anyone who’s ever shouted “OUT!” too loudly.

In summary

• Title: Lawn Tennis

• Author: J. G. Smyth

• Publisher: BT Batsford Ltd (1953)

• ISBN: None – this book predates the era of numbers tattooed on everything.

• Condition: Good – slightly squashed spine, strong binding, protective plastic wrapping.

• Bonus Extra: Original 1980s/90s glossy Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum flyer with map, proudly pre-internet.

Lawn Tennis: for when you want to be coached by 1953, accompanied by a 1980s/90s museum leaflet, and delivered by Crappy Old Books, specialists in second-hand treasures that serve both as reading material and portable time machines.

Keep browsing: See more Sports books Other books by JG Smyth