All Wimbledon and No Tennis
This week on NRK2 (the state public channel in Norway) Wimbledon has been on every night. This might seem normal to any tennis playing country but in Norway there aren’t any tennis courts! No short grass fields with painted lines, no red clay to colour the landscape. Why are there no tennis courts in Norway? Ah-ha – I guess ice and snow isn’t good for bouncing balls and short sprints. Imagine lobbing the ball over the net to only have it drop two feet beneath the white snowy floor!
It seems like Norway’s only claim to fame in tennis was Molla Mallory in 1923 (a Norwegian born American tennis player). Back then tennis was called ‘jeu de paume’ (the game of the palm) – a little wilder than the modern tea-sport with balls bouncing against walls and roofs apart from hitting in over the net. Molly was ranked 2nd in the world in 1921 and 1922. Unfortunately she was defeated in the 1923 U.S. Women’s singles championship by the 18 year old Helen Wills.
Even though tennis isn’t Norway’s most popular playing sport (it is said that ten pin bowling has more popularity!) Norway still has a fairly decent tennis organisation: Norges tennisforbund. Maybe if they introduce downhill ski-tennis the game might pick up? Two skiers pelting down the track on either side of a net hitting the ball in front of each other – it could work… it’s got the pace, the agility and the stackability all in one!
However, there must be some indoor tennis courts around somewhere due to the obvious popularity of Wimbledon on TV (but I have yet to find one). Actually, now that I think about it, in all the places I have visited and lived, I have only seen one outdoor court in Oslo at Frognerparken near the statue park (but I’ve never seen anyone playing on it!)
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Hello!
We lived next to 2 outdoor tennis courts right in Tromsø city centre and I have often seen people playing there
http://kart.finn.no/?lng=18.94705&lat=69.64973&tab=search&zoom=19&mapType=finnraster&activetab=search (it’s very close to Kongsbakken school)
But I guess the season for playing outdoors is very short here!
Hanneke
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from L-Jay:
In all my travels and in all the places I’ve lived, I’ve only seen the one…lol. Maybe I should go to your neck of the woods so I can say I’ve seen two!
Det finnes mange tennisbaner i Norge, både utendørs og innendørs, men sporten er nok ikke populær nok til at det satses mot internasjonalt nivå. Banene er likevel relativt godt brukt.
(after norwegian lesson 132 you should be able to understand that
)
-H
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from L-Jay:
Yeah, but I think it might be the tight little white shorts that are scaring the Norwegians away. Maybe if it was hotter in Norway Norwegians would have more game ;D
(Og moose sier etter tolv år på skole må du fortstå den!)
hi im rex retumban,im a tennis instructor here in the philipines since 2002 up to present.i love teaching tennis,i have 2 norwenian student here in the philipines,im so sad bcoz tennis is not so popular sports in your country.i want to work ther in norway as a tennis instcuctor.thanks
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from L-Jay:
It would be unlikely for you to get a full-time job as a tennis coach.