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Show COURT FOR "STICKE" OPENED I LONDON Game Was Invented Years Ago, and Yet Few Have Ever Heard of It. Special Cable to Tho Tribune. LONDON, June 18. British army lifo has served to foster more kinds of sports than perhaps any other condition. It la doubtful If many American sportsmen over heard of a game called stlckc. yet ?. co"rl fr this game has been opened at tho Queen's club. The game was invented years ago by Major General Desmond O'Callaghan, who tells its origin as follows: fol-lows: "In the early sixties my half-brother, the late Mr. Julian Marshall (tho author of The Annals of Tennis, and a fino player himself). Improvised a tennis court in a paved backyard in our homo in Yorkshire. York-shire. The roof of a line of low sheds served for d penthouse, tho paving-stones, paving-stones, aa in monastic times, marked our chases, the upper portion of a door was our grills, three pigsties the dedans, there was a superfluity of tambours, and 'chase the poultry-yard door.' 'worse than the socond plgBty' (the winning gallery was the last pigsty on the hazard side), gave local .color to the marking. It made a good game and taught me to cut tho ball. "When lawn tennis waa first Introduced Into England It was under the name of Sphaerlstlcke, and was played In a court which diminished In breadth from the base line, hour-glass rashion. to a waist at the neL Soon after its introduction about 1872, with fresh memories of the old paved yard, and strongly reminiscent of the added valuo to such a game of back and side walls, I took counsel with some of my brother officers at Shoe- Iburynoss, and, with the aid of some damaged dam-aged nine-foot by nine-foot artillery tar- gets, we built and floored our court, and dubbed the game 'Shocburynesstlcke.' which, obviously clumsy, was soon shortened short-ened to 'Stlcke.' Hence the name. Dimensions of Court. "The dimensions of tho targets dictated dic-tated those of the court, and nine foet was a convenient and sufficient height for the walls, a wide out-of-play part being added to keep the ball In court. A tape service line was soon found to be-necessary, be-necessary, and its height was only settled set-tled aftor much discussion and trial. At first w;o had intended to have chases, but we found that the difficulty of marking mark-ing was prohibitive, and with the abandonment aban-donment of the chases came that of tennis ten-nis scoring, which, meaningless without the chases, gave way to the simpler form of scoring used In the name of rackets. I am (old that tho courts at Shoeburyncss have recently been lengthened, length-ened, and this has, no doubt, necessitated an alteration In the height of the service, line. "There are stlcke courts now In many garrisons In England and abroad, and one or, two private courts. It Is, In my opinion, a better game than squash rockets, rock-ets, In that four people can play and that a single Is not too exhausting In a hot climate," |