I recently purchased a printed copy of “THE CODE” off eBay. This particular version from January 1995 confirmed my belief that the “unwritten rules of tennis” originally penned by Colonel Neil Powell have evolved significantly over the years. However, the changes between 1995 and what is currently on the books for 2024 are much more dramatic than I had previously imagined.
The 1995 version is much more verbose than the one that appears in the 2024 USTA Friend at Court. Consequently, I am now wondering if some recent instances where the CODE didn’t exactly say what I thought it did can be attributed to differences between the version used during my junior tennis days and the one currently in effect. I have a couple of recent examples where the actual wording was much pithier than I remembered.
As a specific example, the 1995 version starts with a “memo to all tennis players,” which is apparently not a part of Powell’s original rules. That introduction states that the foundational rules of tennis don’t cover all scenarios and that common sense can only take things so far. Authorship is credited to the USTA Officials Department.
Additionally, while the current version of THE CODE clearly states that it applies to all matches, the introductory paragraph of the 1995 edition indicates that it applies only to USTA-sanctioned tournaments that don’t use officials. Presumably, the officials were expected to enforce the spirit and intent of THE CODE in its absence.
At some point in the near future, I will be breaking down THE CODE as informed by this earlier version. I am now officially looking for other early print editions of this seminal document describing how tennis should be played, at least in the United States. It occurs to me that people who read this blog might have other editions of THE CODE in their possession. I will cheerfully trade Fiend at Court embroidered hats or T-shirts for copies of any versions that I don’t already have in my collection.
Based on the limited data points I have so far, the evolution of THE CODE may turn out to be a fascinating journey of discovery.
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I’m pretty sure that The Code used to say something like, “An offer to play a let is not always as generous as it sounds.” That wording isn’t there any more, as I found a few years ago when I claimed that it was. Anybody know of that version, and exactly what it said?