[HOW TO LAY OUT LAWN TENNIS COURTS.]
BY SHERWOOD RYSE.
In an article on lawn tennis published in Young People last summer we pointed out how the game might be indulged in with a very small outlay of money—how some of the implements, indeed, might be of home manufacture and yet be serviceable. Accordingly we were obliged to limit the court to a size which the net supplied with cheap tennis sets would admit. As the game has now become so popular that it is likely to be, if it is not already, the game of games, we will take our readers a little further, and show them how to lay out a full-sized court both for single and double games.
As the double court measures 78 feet by 36, the lawn should be not less than 100 feet by 50, and the court should be laid out as in the accompanying diagram.
First, stake out the base line, E to F, 36 feet, with your string. Then carry it along the line F to D, 78 feet, and in the same manner make the line E to C, 78 feet. Then connect C, D, and if your figure is a parallelogram, this last line should be the same length as E to F, namely, 36 feet.
The whole area of the two courts is now marked out. Next for the divisions.
The single courts are of the same length as the double, but only 27 feet wide, that is 9 feet less than the double. Mark out, therefore, the positions of G and H, which will be 4½ feet from E and F respectively; and in the same manner, and at the same distances from the side lines, mark the positions of J and K. Then extend your string from G to J, and from H to K.
Now for the net, which is shown by the broad line A to B, extended three feet on each side of the boundary of the court. From the net line measure 21 feet to N, O, P, Q respectively, and join N and O, P and Q. These last lines are 27 feet long: divide them in half, so that the distance from N to L, for instance, is 13½ feet, and mark the line L to M.
You will think, and rightly, that if you are to stake all these lines at the same time with string, you will require several hundred feet of string; but this is not necessary. Cut sixteen stakes about six inches long, sharpened at one end and broad at the other, so that they can be easily driven into the ground and yet not easily be trodden out of sight. As you measure off each point you will drive a stake to mark it; thus you will need as many stakes as there are letters in the diagram.