By Stephan Sookram

ROAD Tennis, a modified form of lawn tennis is being touted locally by the World Road Tennis Federation, whose representatives are conducting courses in Guyana. gesture
Credited with the initial idea of the sport, a Barbadian team of instructors and players are trying to get the support of their sister Caribbean islands, starting with Guyana.Sharing similarities to its table and lawn counterparts, road tennis is a smaller version that is played with two larger racquets and a compressed ball instead of the usual tennis balls while the net is

replaced by a wooden shield.
The World Road Tennis Federation, through its member McArthur Barrow, yesterday spoke to Chronicle Sport during one of the workshops at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE).
According to Barrow, who is also the manager of the team, they believe that it would make more sense to introduce the sport at the level of training institutions.
“We are here to introduce road tennis to Guyana. We feel that it’s very important to introduce it to the training college because in order for a sport to succeed, you have to have a number of trained persons and there’s no better person than the PE teacher,” Barrow said.
The sport was dubbed cost-effective by Barrow who contended, “It really is one that is tailor-made for economies such as the Caribbean,” because of the low cost to set up and the fact that it was conceptualised for the older folk (35 and older) who still have an interest in racquet sports.
“You’ll need some paint to paint the court; a piece of wood about eight inches tall and you need another piece of wood to cut into two racquets (table tennis like) and a preferred lawn tennis ball. The most important thing is a willing body and mind,” he said.
Meanwhile CPCE, Physical Education Lecturer Kurt Braithwaite contended that the introduction of a cost-effective sport at the facility can only help to grow its interest at a community level.
“Since Guyana is so vast, I think it would be easier for the teachers in training to be able to get the opportunity to learn the sport and take it back to the various communities of the country,” he said.
“I think this is one that will take well to the communities simply because there’s not a lot of money that has to be spent,” Braithwaite believes, adding that those far-flung communities will improvise with the materials.
The number of willing persons in those communities was another factor why the CPCE PE teacher believes the sport will take off.