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'''Atlantic Giant''' is a label for the round phenotypes of the giant [[squash (fruit)|squash]] (popularly called a [[pumpkin]], depending upon fruit color) variety of the [[species]] ''[[Cucurbita maxima]]'' bred publicly from simple [[Cucurbita maxima|Hubbard]] material through intermittent efforts over the past centuries. The uniqueness of this variety lies in its production of fruits more massive than those produced by any other plant in the world. Fruit can exceed 16 feet in circumference. The heaviest Atlantic Giant on record weighed 766 kg (1689 lb) and was grown by Joe Jutras of [[Topsfield, Massachusetts]] in 2007.<ref>[http://www.bigpumpkins.com/viewarticle.asp?id=162&gid=50 Joe Jutras' 2007 world record pumpkin]</ref> Under normal conditions the Atlantic Giant can consistently produce fruits in excess of 250 kg (551 lb).
{{two other uses||the individual piece of sports equipment|Racket|the illegal business|Racket (crime)}}
[[Image:Aejcollins rpkeigwin lr.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[R. P. Keigwin]] (right) with [[AEJ Collins]] the College's rackets team at [[Clifton College]] circa 1902]]
'''Rackets''' ([[British English]]) or '''Racquets''' ([[American English]]) is an indoor [[racquet sport]] played in the [[United Kingdom]], [[United States]], and [[Canada]]. The sport is infrequently called "hard rackets," possibly to distinguish it from the related sport of [[squash (sport)|squash]] (formerly called "squash rackets").

==Manner of play==
Rackets is played in a 30 by 60&nbsp;foot (9.14&nbsp;×&nbsp;18.28&nbsp;m) enclosed court, with a ceiling at least 30 feet (9.14 m) high. Singles and doubles are played on the same court. The walls and floor of the court are made of smooth stone or concrete and are generally dark in color to contrast with the white ball. The players use 30½&nbsp;inch (775&nbsp;mm) wooden [[racket]]s to hit a 38mm (1.5 inch) hard white ball weighing 28 grams. A good stroke must touch the front wall above an 26 1/2-inch-high wooden (often cloth-covered) board before touching the floor. The ball may touch the side walls before reaching the front wall. The player returning a good stroke may play the ball on the volley, or after one bounce on the floor. The play is extremely fast, and potentially quite dangerous. Lets are common, as the striker must not play the ball if doing so risks hitting another player with it. Matches preferably are observed by a "marker," who has the duty to call "Play" after each good stroke to denote that the ball is "up." Games are to 15 points, unless the game is tied at 13-all or 14-all, in which case the game can be "set" to 16 or 18 (in the case of 13-all) or 17 (in the case of 14-all) at the option of the player first reaching 13 or 14; only the server can score — the receiver gains the right to serve by winning a rally. Return of service can be extremely difficult, and, in North America, only one serve is allowed. Matches are typically best of 5 games.
[[Image:ToffRackets.jpg|right|thumb|200px|A [[Toff]] playing with the rabble in prison]]
Because the game of [[squash rackets]] (now known as 'squash') began in the 19th century as an off-shoot of rackets, the sports were similar in manner of play and rules. However, the rules and scoring in squash have evolved in the last hundred years or so. Rackets has changed little; the main difference today is that players are now allowed brief rest periods between games. In the past, leaving the court could mean forfeiting the match, so players kept spare rackets, shirts, and shoes in the gutter below the telltale on the front wall.

The governing bodies are the [[Tennis and Rackets Association]] (UK) and the [[North American Rackets Association]].


==History==
==History==
As the germplasm of such a giant squash variety is commercially provocative, the name ''Atlantic Giant'' came from a U.S. legal protection that was granted for the rounder phenotypes. Numerous labels were created for this variety over the past two centuries. This phenotype graduated back into the public domain, retaining the Atlantic Giant label. After the Atlantic Giant right expired, an ensuing filing was made in September 1985 and accepted, purportedly for the oblong phenotypes of the variety, under a label ''Dill's Atlantic Giant'', named for Howard Dill of [[Windsor, Nova Scotia]], who helped create the seeds.<ref>Dill's Atlantic Giant plant variety protection proceedings USDA #8500204</ref><ref>{{cite web|title='Pumpkin King' Howard Dill passes away at 73|publisher=CTV.ca|url=http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080521/pumpkin_king_080521/20080521?hub=Canada|accessdate=2008-05-22}}</ref> This 18-year right expired in 2004, leaving all phenotypes of this originally public variety back into the public domain.
[[Image:KFRackets.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Rackets being played at a Prison - where the game developed]]
Rackets began as an 18th century pastime in London's [[King's Bench Prison|King's Bench]] and [[Fleet Prison|Fleet]] [[debtors prison]]s. The prisoners modified the game of [[fives]] by using tennis rackets to speed up the action. They played against the prison wall, sometimes at a corner to add a sidewall to the game. Rackets then became popular outside the prison, played in alleys behind pubs. It spread to schools, first using school walls, and later with proper four-wall courts being specially constructed for the game. Some historians assert that the game was codified through its popularity at the [[Harrow School]] in London, where it was played as early as the second half of the 18th century.


==Pumpkin growing competitions==
Some private clubs also built courts. Along with [[real tennis]] and [[badminton]], rackets was used as an inspiration for the game of [[tennis|lawn tennis]], invented in 1873. A vacant rackets court built into the University of Chicago's [[Stagg Field]] served as the location of the first artificial [[nuclear chain reaction]] on [[December 2]], [[1942]]. The Stagg Field court is often mistakenly identified as having been a "squash rackets" court.
Many people use the Atlantic Giant for competitions at weighoffs and [[harvest festival]]s around the world. These rounder phenotypes of the giant squash variety grow larger, thus those which fell under the Dill's Atlantic Giant division are generally not used. Competitive gardeners tend to become extraordinarily involved with their pumpkins. Because of the uncanny genetics of the material, there has been an aggressive and unimpeded increase in fruit weight per generation, and the stability of optimized genomic loci means that it is now relatively easy to grow large fruit in ordinary growing conditions.
Rackets was part of the [[1908 Summer Olympics]] program.


Seeds from pumpkins that have been proven to produce big pumpkins can be sold at online auctions for considerable sums of money. The largest contest award paid for a single pumpkin was $53,000 USD to Nathan & Paula Zehr for the first 1,000 lb pumpkin (1061 lb actual weight) at the Clarence NY World Pumpkin Confederation Weigh-Off in 1996.<ref>[http://www.pandpseed.com/wpc.htm P and P Seed] article on World Pumpkin Confederation record breakers</ref> The highest price paid for a single pumpkin seed was USD$850 for a 1068 Wallace seed in 2006.<ref>[http://www.bigpumpkins.com/msgboard/ViewThread.asp?b=26&p=179518 $850 seed] on BigPumpkins message board</ref> Numerous clubs and organizations dedicated to promoting giant pumpkin growing exist worldwide.
==Court locations==
{{Cleanup-section|date=August 2008}}
As happens with sports, interests shift. Today it is perhaps the most obscure and least approachable of racket sports. Court upkeep, handmade balls, and breakable wooden rackets make it an expensive game. It also requires lessons and practice to play safely and enjoyably. On the other hand, many who take up the sport do so enthusiastically.


==Great Pumpkin Commonwealth==
See Carlow Sports and Social Club
The Great Pumpkin Commonwealth ('''GPC''') is the major organizer and sanctioning body{{citation missing|date=June 2008}} overseeing giant pumpkin and vegetable growing in the United States of America, Canada and Europe. Now with fifty eight weigh-off locations throughout the world the GPC and its sponsored sites are attended by hundreds of thousands to the ever popular annually run festivals and weekend events held each summer and fall.


===United Kingdom===
==See also==
* [[Hants County Exhibition]]
* [[Circleville Pumpkin Show]]
* [[Pumpkin Fest]]


==References==
There are about twenty courts in some of the major [[Independent school (UK)|public school]]s and private clubs in the United Kingdom.
{{reflist}}


====Schools====
==Further reading==
* Susan Warren, ''Backyard Giants: The Passionate, Heartbreaking, and Glorious Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever'', Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007. ISBN 1596912782
*[[Charterhouse School]]
*[[Cheltenham College]]
*[[Clifton College]] - recently refurbished for the world championships
*[[Eton College]]
*[[Haileybury College]]
*[[Harrow School]]
*[[Malvern College]]
*[[Marlborough College]]
*[[Radley College]]
*[[Rugby School]]
*[[St Paul's School (London)]] [http://www.stpaulsschool.org.uk/page.aspx?id=8391]
*[[Tonbridge School]]
*[[Wellington College]]
*[[Winchester College]]

====Clubs====

*BRNCC Dartmouth
*Hayling Island
*Manchester Tennis & Racket Club
*Queens Club, London
*RMA Sandhurst

===North America===

There are eight active courts in North America, all at private clubs:
*[[Chicago]]
:Chicago has 2 courts. Opened in 1924, with a Court Tennis and two double squash courts
*[[Detroit]]
:Opened in 1902, designed by the noted architect Albert Kahn. Constructed by Joseph Bickley. Originally open to the air with natural lighting until it was glazed over with lights added in 1912
*[[New York]]
:Opened in 1918 on Park Avenue, the building designed by Mckim, Mead and White. The building originally housed two courts, although one was converted to a double squash court in 1956
*[[Tuxedo Park]]
:Opened in 1902
*[[Philadelphia]]
:Opened in 1907 with two courts, one of which now has been converted to a double squash court
*[[Boston]]
:Opened in 1902, with two courts, one of which has now been converted to a double squash court
*[[Montreal]]
:Opened in 1889, the court was constructed four feet longer and two feet wider to facilitate doubles play. It was resized to regulation 60 x 40 feet in 1909

There may be unused courts elsewhere in the former [[British Empire]] that are still in good condition. Rackets is overwhelmingly a male sport.

{| class="wikitable"
|+Disused Courts
!Country
!Name
!City
!Information
|-
|rowspan=4|USA
|The University Club
|Detroit
|The last court built in North America, constructed by Joseph Bickley. This court is unused, in a now vacant building
|-
|The Tavern Club
|Cleveland
|36th and Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, USA - Now houses a doubles squash court
|-
|The [[Pittsburgh Athletic Association]]
|Pittsburgh
|5th Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. The court now houses three squash rackets courts installed laterally, making use of the original walls of the hard rackets court. The marker's gallery is still present.
|-
|St Louis
|
|
|-
|rowspan=12|UK
|Avebury Manor
|Listed building
|Avebury, Marlborough, Wiltshire
|-
|Belmont House
|Wraxall
|This is in Bristol. Built in the 1860s by Williams Gibbs, whom made his fortune out of guano bird droppings imported from the Pacific!. A popular Victorian garden fertilizer. It passed through the family and was last owned by the second Lord Wraxall.
|-
|Copped Hall[http://www.coppedhalltrust.org.uk/]
|Loughton
|This is in Essex. The main house is under restoration, the rackets court has now been converted into a tea rooms, the gallery still remains.
|-
|Park Place Estate
|Henley-on Thames
|Built in 1900, it is at the moment in disrepair, but plans are afoot to restore it to its former glory.
|-
|Fyvie Castle
|
|Scotland. Fyvie Castle was built in 1903. Restored and used as a playhouse / exhibition space
|-
|Stoneyhurst College,
|Clitheroe, Lancashire
|Converted to squash courts in 1933
|-
|Newcastle
|Part of the University Building
|now used for ping pong
|-
|Kinloch Castle
|Rum
|Scotland
|-
|Rackets Court
|Parsonage Lane
|Market Lavington.
|-
|[[Rossall School]]
|Converted to squash courts
|-
|Royal Naval College
|Greenwich
|These two courts were built in 1874 & converted to squash courts in 1882, and now converted into an exhibition space
|-
|Stonehouse
|Millbay
|Converted to squash courts in 1930's
|-
|Worcester
|Samsome Walk
|Converted to apartments
|-
|rowspan=5|Ireland
|Leinster Lane
|Dublin
|Now used as a book archive for the National Library.
|-
|Trinity College
|Dublin
|Now used as a bookstore and possibly to be absorbed in new building development.
|-
|Dawson Street
|Dublin
|Now used as a car park, including vehicle lift.
|-
|Carlton House
|Maynooth
|Believed absorbed in current commercial development.
|-
|Curragh Army Camp
|
|Converted to squash courts.
|-
|rowspan=6|Gibraltar
|Now converted into a Squash Club
|-

==Tournaments==
The world championship for singles (and doubles) is decided in a challenge format. If the governing bodies accept the challenger's qualifications, he plays the reigning champion in a best of 14 games format (best of 7 games on each side of the Atlantic). If each player wins seven games, the total point score is used as a tie breaker. The current singles champion is [[Harry Foster (rackets player)|Harry Foster]]. The current doubles champions are Neil Smith and Mark Hubbard, who won the first doubles challenge following the retirement of [[Alister Robinson]] and Guy Barker.

== World Championship ==
Organized on a challenge basis, the first champion in 1820 was Robert Mackay ([[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Great Britain]]).

===Recent winners===
*2005– Harry Foster (Great Britain)
*2001–5 James Male (Great Britain)
*1999–2001 Neil Smith (USA)
*1988–99 James Male (Great Britain)
*1986–8 John Prenn (Great Britain)
*1984–6 William Boone (Great Britain)
*1981–4 John Prenn (Great Britain)
*1975–81 William Surtees (USA)
*1973–4 Howard Angus (Great Britain)
*1972–3 William Surtees (USA)
*1954–72 Geoffrey Atkins (Great Britain)
*1947–54 [[James Dear]] (Great Britain)
*1937–47 Donald Milford (Great Britain)
*1929–35 Charles Williams (Great Britain)
*1913–29 Jock Soutar (USA)
*1911–13 Charles Williams (Great Britain)
*1903–11 J. Jamsetji (India)
*1887–1902 Peter Latham (Great Britain)

==References==
* Squires, Dick. ''The Other Racket Sports'' New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978. ISBN 0-07-060532-7
* [[Morys George Lyndhurst Bruce, 4th Baron Aberdare|Lord Aberdare]]. ''The JT Faber Book of Tennis and Rackets'', London: Quiller Press, 2001. ISBN 1 899163 62 X


==External links==
==External links==
*[http://www.giantvegenetics.com/Giant_Vegetables/DNAtrack_Giant_Vegetable_Database.php?vegetableid=1 DNAtrack]Atlantic Giant family trees and pumpkin stats
* [http://www.tennisandrackets.com// Tennis and Rackets Association]
* [http://www.rackets.co.uk/ The Home of Rackets on the Web]
*[http://www.greatpumpkincommonwealth.com/ GPC, Great Pumpkin Commowealth]
* [http://www.northamericanrackets.com/ North American Racquets Association]
*[http://www.howarddill.com/ Howard Dill]
* [http://www.drc1902.com/ Detroit Racquet Club]
*[http://www.gvgo.ca/ Giant Vegetable Growers of Ontario]
* [http://www.tandr.org/ Tennis and Racquet Club, Boston]
*[http://www.bigpumpkins.com/ BigPumpkins.com]
* [http://www.rcop.com/ Racquet Club of Philadelphia]
*[http://www.backyardgardener.com/pumkin.html Growing Atlantic Giant pumpkins]
* [http://www.thetuxedoclub.org/ The Tuxedo Club]
* [http://www.mrcrackets.com/ Montreal Racket Club]

==Video==
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h014gIVli0s Rackets on YouTube]


[[Category:Racquet sports]]
[[Category:Squashes and pumpkins]]


[[eo:Rakedoj (sporto)]]
[[sv:Atlantic Giant]]
[[fr:Jeu de raquettes]]
[[it:Racquets]]
[[pt:Raquetes]]

Revision as of 23:26, 12 October 2008

Atlantic Giant is a label for the round phenotypes of the giant squash (popularly called a pumpkin, depending upon fruit color) variety of the species Cucurbita maxima bred publicly from simple Hubbard material through intermittent efforts over the past centuries. The uniqueness of this variety lies in its production of fruits more massive than those produced by any other plant in the world. Fruit can exceed 16 feet in circumference. The heaviest Atlantic Giant on record weighed 766 kg (1689 lb) and was grown by Joe Jutras of Topsfield, Massachusetts in 2007.[1] Under normal conditions the Atlantic Giant can consistently produce fruits in excess of 250 kg (551 lb).

History

As the germplasm of such a giant squash variety is commercially provocative, the name Atlantic Giant came from a U.S. legal protection that was granted for the rounder phenotypes. Numerous labels were created for this variety over the past two centuries. This phenotype graduated back into the public domain, retaining the Atlantic Giant label. After the Atlantic Giant right expired, an ensuing filing was made in September 1985 and accepted, purportedly for the oblong phenotypes of the variety, under a label Dill's Atlantic Giant, named for Howard Dill of Windsor, Nova Scotia, who helped create the seeds.[2][3] This 18-year right expired in 2004, leaving all phenotypes of this originally public variety back into the public domain.

Pumpkin growing competitions

Many people use the Atlantic Giant for competitions at weighoffs and harvest festivals around the world. These rounder phenotypes of the giant squash variety grow larger, thus those which fell under the Dill's Atlantic Giant division are generally not used. Competitive gardeners tend to become extraordinarily involved with their pumpkins. Because of the uncanny genetics of the material, there has been an aggressive and unimpeded increase in fruit weight per generation, and the stability of optimized genomic loci means that it is now relatively easy to grow large fruit in ordinary growing conditions.

Seeds from pumpkins that have been proven to produce big pumpkins can be sold at online auctions for considerable sums of money. The largest contest award paid for a single pumpkin was $53,000 USD to Nathan & Paula Zehr for the first 1,000 lb pumpkin (1061 lb actual weight) at the Clarence NY World Pumpkin Confederation Weigh-Off in 1996.[4] The highest price paid for a single pumpkin seed was USD$850 for a 1068 Wallace seed in 2006.[5] Numerous clubs and organizations dedicated to promoting giant pumpkin growing exist worldwide.

Great Pumpkin Commonwealth

The Great Pumpkin Commonwealth (GPC) is the major organizer and sanctioning body[citation needed] overseeing giant pumpkin and vegetable growing in the United States of America, Canada and Europe. Now with fifty eight weigh-off locations throughout the world the GPC and its sponsored sites are attended by hundreds of thousands to the ever popular annually run festivals and weekend events held each summer and fall.

See also

References

  1. ^ Joe Jutras' 2007 world record pumpkin
  2. ^ Dill's Atlantic Giant plant variety protection proceedings USDA #8500204
  3. ^ "'Pumpkin King' Howard Dill passes away at 73". CTV.ca. Retrieved 2008-05-22.
  4. ^ P and P Seed article on World Pumpkin Confederation record breakers
  5. ^ $850 seed on BigPumpkins message board

Further reading

  • Susan Warren, Backyard Giants: The Passionate, Heartbreaking, and Glorious Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007. ISBN 1596912782

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rackets_(sport)&oldid=244871333"