Vigoro: The Edwardian attempt to merge tennis and cricket

[reverse_swing]

Cricket and tennis compete for people's attention in the summer. One Edwardian man had a dream of ending all this by merging the two sports.

Imagine Andy Murray reaching his hundred at Lord's with a backhand six, or James Anderson serving a hat-trick of aces to win the Ashes back at Wimbledon.

It might have happened. As the 20th Century began, London-based commercial traveller John George Grant felt the division between the summer ball sports of tennis and cricket was pointless and perhaps a wasted opportunity for money-making.

So he invented a quick-moving hybrid version. "Vigoro" saw teams of between eight and 11 players performing like cricketers - bowling, batting and fielding - but using racquets.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28237387

[Zeeshan]

Almost all the threads opened by Reverse bhai is a gem! (as opposed to )

There should be a thread just for listing all the cool threads RS bhai did!

[kalpurush]

Very interesting indeed. I would definitely want to see a live match...