Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Letters

Real tennis has been served badly by this unfair slur

Real tennis court at the Manchester Tennis and Racquet Club.
A real tennis court at the Manchester Tennis and Racquet club. Photograph: Don McPhee/The Guardian

Like many Guardian readers, I have thoroughly enjoyed and always look forward to reading Marina Hyde’s witty and caustic commentaries on the world about us. However, I was dismayed to read a somewhat uncalled for slur about the game of real tennis in the closing paragraph of her article on Twitter’s new owner (What better owner for Twitter than Elon Musk, master of the ill-advised tweet?, 26 April).

What has real tennis ever done to Marina to cause such an unprovoked attack? Perhaps we should be told. It is certainly not my experience of 30 years’ involvement with real tennis at Cambridge, where the university club is (unusually) open to young and old from all sorts of backgrounds, including both members and non-members of the university.

It has brought together town and gown and offered fun, pleasure, physical exercise and friendship to many.

I would welcome a visit to the club from Ms Hyde so that, as a journalist, she might be better acquainted with the facts.
Jeremy Fairbrother
Trinity College, University of Cambridge

Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.