Paddle so popular at FMTC that there now is a waiting list

By 1940, more than a dozen people were on the waiting list for membership. World War II, however, put most Club activities on hold. Because gas rationing made tournaments all but impossible, most were suspended for the duration of the war. By the dozens, members and their offspring left for the war. Dues for those on active duty were cut to $25. Source: Diana Reische, Fox Meadow Tennis Club - The First Hundred Years, 1983

Fessenden Blanchard Scrapbook (1928-1940)

Blanchard kept two valuable scrapbooks covering the development of the game in the early years. This one covered the years through 1940. The second one covered 1928 - 1963 (the year of his death). There is some considerable overlap in material between the two and this one has a number of historical photographs that have been "borrowed" by others in writing about the sport and have been lost. Nevertheless, there is a fascinating tale being told in both books for those interested in the very early days of the game.

The appeal of the game

The number of men who seem to enjoy playing with their children, as well as their wives, is evidence of the great appeal of paddle tennis as a family game. Children start batting the ball around at about seven years of age, and begin acquiring the rudiments of tennis.

Paddle Benefits Wimbledon

The United States was not yet at war, but for months waves of German bombers had pounded England almost daily, causing terror and destruction in towns and cities. Among those hardest hit was the world's tennis Mecca, Wimbledon, whose citizens issued a plea for help from America's tennis players. The Fox Meadow Tournament Committee responded promptly: “In response to an appeal on behalf of the heavily bombed citizens of Wimbledon, England, we are having a Wimbledon Paddle Tennis Tournament . . . a scrambled mixed doubles event with Tea and Crumpets afterward. The entry fee is $1.00.” The 1941 benefit was typically Fox Meadow: well bred, in the precise spirit of the times, intergenerational, and centered on platform tennis. The Wimbledon tournament drew ninety-five players, many of them young people home from prep schools or colleges for Easter. Oz Moore handled the complicated [...]

National Championships

Cliff Sutter (Greenwich CC) and his partner Joseph Maguire (Greenwich Field Club) won the Men’s over another Connecticut team from the Hartford GC , Holbrook Hyde and Leland Wiley. Sutter doubled by winning the Mixed with the wife of his Men’s partner. FMTC teams dominated the Women’s, with Madge Beck and Marie Walker winning their fourth consecutive title. Source: Fessenden S. Blanchard, Paddle Tennis, 1944

APTA starts to grow regionally; Blanchard promotes the game

In 1941, the Hartford Golf Club joined the Association. In the same year, the Hartford team of Holbrook H. Hyde and Leland Wiley reached the finals of the National Doubles championships. Source: Fessenden S. Blanchard, Platform Paddle Tennis, 1959 Blanchard, ever the promoter of the game, wrote the article "Up from the City Streets" in the Spring of 1941 explaining the game's origins of the game, its attraction as a game for different skill levels. The article mentions the recently publish list of courts by the APTA. Source: Fessenden S. Blanchard, Unknown Publication, 1941

Lob becomes new weapon in the sport

In 1941, a powerful new type of play carried a new star to three championships. Clifford S. Sutter, former third ranking tennis player of the United States and twice intercollegiate champion, supported by his partner, J. B. Maguire, developed the exciting possibilities of the lobbing game. With almost unbelievable accuracy in their deep lobs and exceptional skill in taking the ball off the back and side wiring, Sutter and Maguire were able to keep the ball in play, even though their opponents were constantly smashing for the corners. For a time, at least, it seemed they had found the answer to the net game. Source: Fessenden S. Blanchard, Paddle Tennis, 1944

Fox Meadow adds more courts

The Club built additional courts on land it leased from the Crane heirs in 1938 for $150 a year. The site was a 40' x 250' strip of land running along the Club's southern boundary. Although the Cranes had begun to sell parts of the estate, efforts to buy the property outright stalled. (Note: In 1943, Hazel Barton McClintock bought a twenty-five acre parcel from the Crane heirs, and she agreed to sell the Club nearly all the land on which it already had paddle courts, approximately three-fourths of an acre, for $4,200. One paddle court still lapped over onto McClintock's property, but she permitted the Club to leave it in place.) Source: Diana Reische, Fox Meadow Tennis Club - The First Hundred Years, 1983

Felix McCrea become FMTC caretaker

A few years after Felix joined the Club in 1941, Charlie O'Hearn said in his president's message that he honestly didn't know what Fox Meadow would do without Felix. “He is wonderful with the kids, he is wonderful with the grownups, he is wonderful with a hammer and saw, and more than once he has fixed our coal burner single-handed. And the tennis and paddle courts speak for themselves. He is an institution around this Club.” “Fox Meadow is a kind of institution,” said Brook Kindred, “and in the old days the institution was Felix McCrea, who was probably the most renowned court builder in the metropolitan area.” Felix served full-time until 1960 when he started to work on a part-time basis overseeing the courts. He died in 1972 and a bronze plaque was placed outside the clubhouse to honor “a thorough gentleman and dedicated custodian of the Fox Meadow Tennis Club for [...]

Pearl Harbor and US enters WWII – Dec. 1941