The story of Road Tennis

Actions in a game in Barbados

Early in the 1930s, probably around the beginning of that decade, when much of

the world was reeling from the crippling effects of the great depression, when

the adverse conditions under which a large percentage of poor people within this

region existed became so increasingly intolerable; that even the normally

‘passive’ Barbadian was moved to riot, that was the period when Road Tennis

quietly came into being.

Without any fanfare, any promotion, any hype, not even attracting the smallest

bit of documentation that could be located with which to refer to while

researching its origin; this unique West Indian game came into existence with

hardly a whimper.

However, in this same quiet unobtrusive way it has been instrumental in shaping

the outlook, girding the confidence and enhancing the self-esteem of many a

young man and a few young women.

One of Barbados' older platers in action on the road

To underscore the effect that road tennis had on the lives of these young

people, the conditions that they were brought up in, as we look back today,

must definitely be regarded as underprivileged.

Many lessons were learnt while playing, discussing and watching this remarkable

game unfold. Players and administrators have gained an enormous amount of

self-respect and self-confidence, becoming increasingly aware of he fact that in

spite of their humble beginnings, they could now look anyone, anywhere in the

world in the eye as equals, confident in this one reassuring fact: ‘if given a fair

chance we can go from the position of love for all, to the podium of

champions.’

Unfortunately, it saddens that this game so many have grown to love over the

decades, those who were born poor, and have  seen and even played while

growing up in those early days in Barbados, has not, by any stretch of the

imagination, been given a fair chance.

These pioneers of road tennis has had to endure the indignity of being regarded

as intruders in some places, a nuisance in others, while others see road tennis

as an activity for the low-class.

It has grown from being a novelty sport in Barbados, the land in which it was

born, yet due to the foolishness of many, the respect due is liken to “in the

abundance of water the fool is thirsty.” ’

Road Tennis was played at one time, primarily by young men that dwelt on the

outskirts of the city of Bridgetown, whom no doubt having observed Lawn and

Table Tennis; which were being played by the more privileged within the society

and visitors to Barbados, copied and adapted various aspects of these two

games towards the birth of road tennis.

The average youngster back then, unable to afford the cost of expensive playing

equipment that was needed to play these tennis and table tennis in any serious

way, had to find an outlet for his or her energy.

Additionally, the restrictive club membership fees and all of the other inherent

constraints that came along with participation in these two popular but elitist

sports forced the young men of the day to improvise.

They felt compelled to invent their own alternative and so they did, introducing

road tennis, a sport that was conducive to their standard of living.

Barbados is a beautiful, small, relatively flat coral and limestone island located in

the West Indies, with an area of approximately 166 square miles or 431 square

kilometres.

It is the most easterly of this mainly English speaking chain of islands in the

Caribbean Sea, found at roughly 13° North and 59° west, of an archipelago that

stretches from Trinidad and Tobago in the south to Jamaica in the north.

Barbados population of about 279,000 is made up for the most part of the

descendants of black Africans, brought as slaves to these islands to work on the

sugar plantations by the British settlers between the seventeenth to nineteenth

centuries.

Also making up the population are descents of those same English slave

masters, descendants of persons found guilty of committing crimes in their

countries of origin, and exiled to Barbados to serve out their sentences.

A small percentage of people of East Indian origin is also found, descendents  of

the indentured servants in the early days that along with white indentured

servants from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales who came as immigrants,

later forming a very important part of the commercial infrastructure of Barbados,

due to their progressive and thrifty business practices.

The Barbados population also has a scattering of descendants of various other

races and nationalities, including Jews who would have been instrumental in

placing Barbados at the forefront of the sugarcane technology and other aspects

of agriculture, manufacturing and tourism development in those early days.

Then when one adds the Syrian, Oriental, Amerindian descendents along with a

few other minorities, all wonderfully blending in a potpourri of human kind.

These afore mentioned young men, took the scoring system, which was being

used by table tennis, together with the tennis ball, the fur covering which they

skillfully removed, which combined with the very important ingredient ‘our Bajan

creativity’ bringing Road Tennis into being. (Alfred D. Smith)