[BADMINTON.]
BY SHERWOOD RYSE.
It is first cousin to lawn tennis, and it is so like lawn tennis that any one would guess that the two games were closely related. Perhaps most boys and girls would say that Badminton is a slow game, and very childish; and, compared with lawn tennis, perhaps it is. But although it is by no means so robust a game, and requires not nearly so much skill as its cousin, it has many advantages. Lawn tennis is an out-door game, and demands a great deal of space and the best possible light; otherwise it gets sulky. Badminton, on the other hand, can put up with a small space and a moderately good light. Being, as we have said, less robust than the other game, wind does not agree with it. Nevertheless, in still weather it can be played out-of-doors, and in-doors in all weathers.
The small space required is a great advantage that Badminton enjoys. A large part of the population of this great country lives in city houses, whose back yards are perhaps fifty feet long and only half as wide. Not much in the way of games can be done in a city back yard; yet one can play Badminton there. What if it be planted with posts on which the laundress stretches her clothes-line? So much the better. We shall want those posts, if they are conveniently placed, for we have a net to spread. This should be fastened to the posts so that the top of it is five feet from the ground, and a net (or a strip of calico) two feet wide, and as long as the distance between the posts, will be quite large enough.
The court may be marked out with whitening or chalk, and should measure about twenty feet by fifteen on each side of the net. At a distance of five feet from the net, on each side, the service lines are drawn, and then the court is complete.
The implements of the game are merely battledores and shuttlecocks. Very babyish, you will say. But if you can once overcome your pride, and condescend to use such playthings, you will find that the game is not nearly so babyish as you may think it. The battledores should be good ones, strong and heavy, and strung either with catgut, like a tennis racket, or with string. The shuttlecock is greatly improved by being made heavy. Those sold in stores especially for Badminton are already made heavy enough, but the ordinary toy shuttlecocks require a little, a very little, melted lead poured into a hole in the cork. As the lead cools and hardens, the cork closes around it, and holds it tight.
The rules of Badminton are very much like those of lawn tennis, except that every stroke must be "volleyed"—that is, the shuttlecock must be struck before it touches the ground, for of course it will not bound. The "server" must send his first ball so that if it were to fall to the ground it would fall beyond the service line of his opponent's court, and not within it, as in lawn tennis. After the service it may be returned to any part of the opponent's court, and kept up until one of the players fails to return it over the net, or hits it so far that it falls outside of the opponent's court.
The game is counted in the same manner as in lawn tennis—fifteen, thirty, forty, game; with deuce and vantage, when the score is forty all—and the one who first wins six games wins the set. Two, three, or four persons can play at the same time.
With good players, it will frequently happen that the shuttlecock will be kept in the air for several minutes without falling to the ground, and it is interesting to keep count of the number of times that it is thus returned over the net. At the same time it must be remembered that the object of the game is to send the shuttlecock so that the opponent can not return it; hence it will be contrary to the spirit of the game to encourage long rallies by purposely sending easy returns.