The History of Wandsworth Common
Added
IN PROGRESS — NOT FOR PUBLICATION
LCC Tennis regulations 1903
In January 1904 the London County Council published its first Guide to Battersea Park, including regulations for all games for which special facilities are provided. The same regulations are said to apply throughout LCC parks and commons.
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Regulations for Lawn Tennis.
Courts have been provided at the following places:
Battersea-park (25).; Blackheath (6); Brockwell-park (36); Clapham-common (60); Clissold-park (16); Deptford-park (6); Dulwich-park (16); Finsbury-park (60); Hackney-downs (3); Hackney-marsh (6); Highbury-fields (11); Hilly-fields (12); Ladywell-recreation-ground (22); Little Wormwood Scrubs (2); London-fields (4); Manor House-gardens (4); Maryon-park (13); Myatt's-fields (10); Northbrook-park (2); Parliament-hill (31); Peckham-rye-park (17); Plumstead-common (6); Ranger's House, Greenwich (4); Ravens-court-park (8); Royal Victoria-gardens (4); Southwark-park (13); Streatham-common (7); Sydenham Wells-park (4); Telegraph-hill (3); Tooting-common (30); Victoria-Park (29); Wandsworth-common (21); Wandsworth-park (5); Waterlow-park (6).
1. — The season commences on the 1st May and ends on the 31st October. No play is allowed when, in the opinion of the official in charge of the ground, it is not in a fit condition.
2. — Persons are not permitted to play lawn tennis within the Council's parks nor at its open spaces on Sundays.
3. — No net may be erected until the players are ready to commence the game, and all nets must be taken down by the players owning the same immediately play ceases. Nets not so removed are liable to be removed by the Council's official in charge of the ground.
4. — Play must cease each evening in parks and other enclosed spaces at a quarter of an hour before the time fixed for closing such parks or enclosed places, and on open spaces at three-quarters of an hour after sunset.
5. — All nets must be down every evening by the time specified for closing the gates of parks or other places closed at night, viz., approximately an hour after sunset, and the Council will not in any way be responsible with regard to loss of, or injury to, any such nets or other things belonging to nlavers.
6. — Persons are not necessarily permitted to occupy the same ground every time they play, but must change their position when-ever required to do so by the official in charge.
7. — No club or party will be permitted to set up more than one net at a time.
8. — One member of each party, before commencing to play, must sign his name and insert the time of day in a book to be kept by the Council's official in charge of the ground; and every party, after having played for two hours, is liable, in order of rotation of signatures in the book referred to, to be required to remove its net from the ground, should space be required for intending players; and no member of a party actually playing shall be allowed to sign his name with a view to securing another court for that or another party, until the expiration of the two hours for which the court the party is then using has been secured.
9. — A person coming on the ground and desiring to play may sign the book at once, but the time entered opposite any signature must be exactly two hours later than that opposite the previous signa-ture for the use of the same court. If there be no previous signature on the page at the time of signing, the actual hour of day must be entered, and the right to use the court signed for will extend only for two hours from the time of such signature.
10. — In the event of any party ceasing to play before the expira-tion of its two hours, the court so vacated may then be allotted by the official in charge of the ground to any party present, but only on the understanding that the party next in turn, according to the book, has prior claim, and that whoever takes the court under the circumstances named must surrender it to such party on arrival.
11. — Persons not ready to commence play at the time they have entered in the book, will forfeit their right to the court signed for in the event of its being required by other players.
12. — In the event of a dispute occurring reference may be at once made to the official in charge, whose decision must be accepted for the time, with, however, power of appeal to the Chief Officer.
13. — Persons using tennis-courts under the control of the Council are required to wear india-rubber soled boots or shoes.
G. L. GOMME, Clerk of the Council.
County Hall, Spring Gardens, S.W., 28th January, 1903.