Those who have organised the new club at Olympia have left no stone
unturned to provide for the increasing demand for all kinds of games
during the winter months. There is something very novel in seeing
football played under cover upon the huge grass carpet, provided, we
understand, at a cost of some five thousand pounds, and covering the
entire floor of the building. There are four or five squash racquet
courts, twice as many billiard tables, a rifle range, and sufficient
space for several games at croquet. But the attraction which will
probably draw many visitors to Olympia is the game of Pelota, the
national game of Spain, now played for the first time in England by six
pelotari, drawn from the professional champions from the Basque country.
The game is played on a cement court eighty yards long, by fifty broad,
with a front wall, but no side or back walls, though in Spain we believe
that some of the best courts have back walls. It is of the same nature
as racquets, only the ball—a rubber-cored ball of the size between a
base-ball and a fives-ball—is slung by the players against the front
wall after being caught in a sickle-shaped basket-work scoop, resembling
more than anything else the semi-circular mud-guards held over the
wheels of carriages to prevent the soiling of ladies’ dresses. This
scoop or _chirista_ is about two feet long, and the dexterity with which
the players catch the ball in it, whether it comes straight to them or
they have to take it back-handed or on the half volley, is little short
of marvellous; the pace of the ball from the back-handed swing is simply
terrific, and when it is remembered that the line above which the ball
must strike the front wall is of much the same height as that in an
ordinary racquet court, it can easily be realised that the server and
the front players, who are constantly under fire from the slingers at
the back, require a skill which can only be acquired by life-long habit
not merely to take their part in the game, but to avoid being seriously
injured.