A real royal racket is coming to Radley

The game of Real Tennis dating back to the times of Henry VIII and Shakespeare and from which lawn tennis evolved, has been gaining a bit of a revival in recent years. Beard has just completed construction of a brand new Real Tennis court at Radley College, near Abingdon in Oxfordshire.

The sport has been played by Radley College students for over 30 years and during this time the school has produced some outstanding players.  With a brand new purpose built court the school expects to build on this success with real tennis professional and ex-world champion Chris Ronaldson leading the charge.

The new court gives Oxfordshire its second Real Tennis venue, alongside the University of Oxford Real Tennis Club, situated next to Merton College. Mark Beard, Managing Director, Beard Construction is also a keen real tennis player and has won several singles championships. It will come as no surprise then that he is passionate about this project.

Originally played against the walls of buildings and within monastic cloisters, the court is reminiscent of a courtyard or medieval street. It has many interesting features including sloping roofs (penthouses), openings (galleries) and a buttress (tambour) off which shots can be played. Each new court is designed to the same basic principles, but has its own nuances and dimensions. Therefore close attention to detail was required by the construction team in setting out and creating high quality finishes.