Racket presses came onto the scene almost as early as the new lawn tennis rackets. It must have soon become apparent that as the game moved outside onto wet grass that some device would be required to keep the wooden rackets from becoming distorted. However I remain unconvinced that these clamps were ever fully effective in preventing a piece of natural grained wood from twisting when it became wet. Early presses were made of solid pieces of timber taking up to six rackets with some club presses being quite substantial floor standing models for over twenty rackets. As with rackets there has been much innovation with design and materials from the initial use of wood through to the metals and plastics. Obviously these devices became redundant after the end of the wooden racket in the 1980s.

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