The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship; Or, the Art of Winning Games Without Actually Cheating by Stephen Potter

Author:Stephen Potter [Potter, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Humour, Industrial & Organizational Psychology, Mental Health, Non-Fiction, Personality, Psychology, Self-Help
ISBN: 9781786256782
Google: R9BvCwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2015-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

Hampettes

‘Hampettes’, or minor hampers, exist in plenty. Many of them are of occasional use to the losing gamesman. Many of them come under the heading ‘Of course, this isn’t really my game’ (see ‘Ruggership’). While playing squash, let it be known that rackets is your Game, and that squash is that very different thing, a game which you find it occasionally amusing to play at, for the fun of the thing. R. Simpson first drew my attention to this gambit when I was playing lawn tennis with him on a damp grass court on the borders of Lyme Regis. I happened to be seeing the ball and for once in my life really was driving it on to that precious square foot in the back-hand corner of the base line. After one of these shots, Simpson was ‘carried away’ enough to tap his racket twice on the ground and cry ‘chase better than half a yard’. I only dimly realized that this was an expression from tennis itself, which had slipped out by accident; that he was familiar with the great original archetype of lawn tennis, compared with which lawn tennis itself (he wished to make and succeeded in making me understand) was a kind of French cricket on the sands at Southend.

I lost that game. But I learnt my lesson. I walked about the real tennis-court at Blackfriars (Manchester) two or three times ‘in order to be taught the game’. I took lessons from the pro (I showed no aptitude). I put by a few shillings in order to buy that most gamesmanly shaped, ungainlily twisted racket. I keep it in the office. And although it has never hit a ball since those Manchester days, I make admirable use of that racket almost every week of my life.

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