Royal Navy players came close to breaking the Army’s customary dominance of the three-day Combined Services Real Tennis and Rackets competition, played at Queen’s Club, London.

Real Tennis is the original version of lawn tennis, as played by Tudor royalty, and is thought to have originated in France in the 13th century as a hand-and-ball game, the strung racquet not appearing until the early 16th century.

In its modern form, although very much a minority sport, it has elements of lawn tennis, being played across a central net, but it also allows bounces off side walls as in squash.

There are few courts in the world – 26 in the UK, three in France, ten in the USA and six in Australia.

Rackets is similar to squash but played on a much larger court with a ball that resembles a solid table-tennis ball. It is considered the fastest racquet-and-ball game in the world.

In the Rackets semi-final, S/Lt Oliver Craven, an anthrolpology student at University College, London, defeated the Combined Services champion, Capt Paul Tennant (Army Air Corps), 15-10, 15-13, 12-15, 15-10.

An hour later, in an epic five-game final, Oliver lost to Lt Christian Barker (Royal Signals) 15-6, 15-2, 10-15, 11-15, 12-15.

In the Real Tennis singles which, like the Rackets singles, is only open to serving members of the Armed Forces, Oliver made smooth progress to the semi-finals before losing 8-3 to the 2001 champion Major Andrew James (Grenadier Guards).

Oliver then teamed up with Cdr (rtd) Simon de Halpert for the tennis doubles, the main event of the championships, and defeated the former champions in the quarter-finals by 16-8 before being edged out 10-8 in the semi-finals.

Prizes were presented by Prince Edward, an enthusiastic Real Tennis player and occasional competitor in the Combined Services Real Tennis doubles.