About Wood Tennis Club
Wood Tennis Club was founded in Australia in 2019 with the main purpose of financing, designing and marketing new wood tennis rackets made by the legendary English sporting goods company, Grays of Cambridge (Int’l) Ltd. We have successfully returned new wood rackets to the market for the first time since the early 1980’s. A secondary purpose is to actively promote “Wood Tennis” – wood-versus-wood tennis - in all formats. Our legal name, Wood Tennis Project, is registered as a business in Australia. (ABN: 91 320 124 934)
Founder & Director is Stephen Murphy, an Australian with long experience in tennis as a player, coach, writer, historian, official and administrator. Stephen works closely with the Grays executive and factory in England, including on the design and release of all models, and with our stringer, Paul Skipp, who is also based in England.
Grays has named its informal partnership with Wood Tennis Club, “Grays Wood Tennis”.
Wood Tennis Club is very proud to have as our Ambassador, Australian Fred Stolle, a former Grand Slam and Davis Cup champion, broadcaster and coach, who is the recipient of numerous honours including the International Tennis Federation’s pre-eminent Philippe Chatrier Award. Says Fred: “I’m proud of the progress to bring the ‘woodie’ into the mainstream. Grays have certainly continued to design and manufacture the best.”
Stephen Murphy
Fred Stolle
Wood Tennis Club’s mission is to be an effective business that can articulate the relevance and place of traditional wood rackets in tennis today and facilitate their manufacture and sale for years to come.
The broader vision is a tennis world in which traditional wood rackets again have an accepted and respected place on the court – used by a significant number of players around the world in both competitive and recreational play.
In short, we have made traditional new wood rackets part of tennis again - a journey that continues. The ultimate goal is, by doing this, to enhance and enrich the game of tennis. This is our gift to the game of tennis.
Why are enthusiasts buying our rackets when, as we all know, racket technology moved away from wood long ago? Of course it’s the history, the nostalgia and the rackets’ authenticity. As well, wooden rackets produce a different, some might say a purer, more classical style of tennis – less extreme power and topspin, more variety, touch and all-court play.
Other attractions are the famous ‘feel’ of wood, the unique sound of wood, the timeless craftsmanship and desire to support the craft, the aesthetic beauty, and not least, wood’s environmental credentials including the preference for a racket made from a natural material. Some coaches even find wood rackets very effective training and teaching tools.
In short, wood rackets were and are brilliant playing rackets that deserve to live on.
Our purchasers are also buying a unique piece of tennis history. In fact, Grays of Cambridge is the world’s oldest racket-maker. H.J. Gray, a champion in the sport known as “Rackets”, began making equipment for his own sport in 1855, before the birth of lawn tennis (in 1874), and moved into lawn tennis as soon as the new game appeared. Our launch model was named after ‘The Masterpiece’ which H.J. Gray & Sons brought out in 1908. Grays released many wooden lawn tennis models, mainly for the domestic British market, across a century before the world-wide demise of wood in the 1980’s.
Enthusiasts in 15 countries across the world have purchased our models.
Wood Tennis Club has active accounts on Facebook, Instagram and X.
We welcome contact from anyone who feels they can contribute to the project in any way.
Feedback is also welcome. Use the Contact Us form.
Our ‘chance’ beginning
It was in May 2018 in a Facebook chat on the Grays Real Tennis page that Stephen Murphy was told by Grays, “We still have the facility to produce wooden lawn tennis racquets, should there be sufficient demand.”
Stephen had seen a photo of Grays Real Tennis frames on the page and thought, if Grays can produce these rackets, they can’t be too far away from being able to produce lawn tennis rackets.
That Grays could still produce wooden lawn tennis rackets came as a pleasant surprise to Stephen. He had thought no recognized racket manufacturer in the world had retained the ability to make wooden lawn tennis rackets.
Immediately, he resolved he had to try to make it happen, as he felt new wood rackets would be a wonderful enhancement to the sport.
Like other tennis racket manufacturers, Grays of Cambridge, which had focused mainly on the British market and had a long association with the University of Cambridge, had transitioned away from wooden lawn tennis rackets in the early 1980’s. One of its last production runs was the ‘Light Blue’, a successful Grays model since the 1920’s.
After production ended, fortunately Grays did not discard the unique tools necessary for their manufacture. These tools were stored away within the Playfair Works factory, near Cambridge, in case they were ever needed again.
In 1991 they were needed, as Grays was appointed to make frames for the comeback of Swedish great Bjorn Borg.
In 2019 they were needed again to make 100 frames for our numbered, limited edition launch model, the ‘Masterpiece’.
