Wimbledon was first played to pay for a broken pony roller

On June 2, 1877, the committee of the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club, in Wimbledon, agreed to hold a lawn tennis championship. The idea came from the club's secretary, John Walsh. The committee hoped it would raise enough money to repair the club's broken pony roller, which it needed to look after the lawns.

Money had been tight for a while. The club had been founded in 1868 for croquet, on four acres beside the railway at Worple Road. The rent went up every year, from £50 to £100, and interest in croquet was fading. In 1875 a member named Henry Jones, who wrote about games under the name Cavendish, proposed turning one croquet lawn into a tennis court. A dozen new members joined soon after. By April 1877 the club had put tennis in its name.

The committee agreed to the tournament only if it put none of the club's money at risk. Jones talked 20 members and friends into guaranteeing part of the cost and covered the rest himself. He and two other members also wrote the rules. They chose a rectangular court and scoring by 15, 30 and 40, and their rules were later adopted by the whole sport.

Twenty-two men paid a guinea each to enter. They were told to bring their own rackets and to wear shoes without heels. Play began on July 9. After the semifinal it stopped for the weekend so as not to clash with the Eton v Harrow cricket match at Lord's, and then rain put off the final until Thursday, July 19.

About 200 people paid a shilling each to watch it. Spencer Gore, a 27-year-old rackets player, beat William Marshall in three sets in 48 minutes. Gore came forward to the net and volleyed, which some people at the time thought unsporting.

Gore did not think much of his new sport. In 1890 he wrote that lawn tennis lacked the variety to rank among the great games, and that anyone who had played cricket or rackets well would be put off by its monotony before he got good at it. He came back once to defend his title, lost, and never played at Wimbledon again.

After the tournament Jones went through the score cards. Of 601 games, the server had won 376. For 1878 the service box was made shorter and the net was lowered.

The tournament made a profit of £10, and the pony roller stayed in use.