England’s Last Tennis Ball Maker

For the Geo Quiz, we’re looking for a city in the county of Somerset, in South West England. This city sits at the bottom of the Avon Valley, surrounded by hot springs. The town was built by the Romans shortly after they invaded Britain in AD 43. They turned the place into the spa it is still today.

And the city we’re looking for is Bath. Not terribly far from Bath, British tennis player Andy Murray won his quarterfinals match at Wimbledon. The British haven’t crowned one of their own as Wimbledon champ since 1936. That’s when Fred Perry won the title. It’s also when a small factory near Bath began making tennis balls. It’s now the last tennis ball maker in Britain. The World’s Laura Lynch reports.

British men’s tennis star Andy Murray won another match at Wimbledon on Wednesday. The British have been waiting to crown a new men’s Wimbledon champion since 1936.

That’s when Fred Perry won the title, but it is also the year that a small factory near Bath, England began making tennis balls. 75 years later, Derek Price carries on the family business as the last tennis ball maker in the Britain. He is doing it despite overwhelming odds, because at the age of 80, he still wants to win.

For fans it is mesmerizing. Every year, tennis masters duel it out on Centre Court at Wimbledon, powering a small yellow ball over the net. In years past, those balls were made in England. Now, the factories have shut down or transferred operations to Asia; except for one plant run by one very stubborn man.

Just outside the village of Box in the English countryside, on the grounds of a former Victorian candle factory, Derek Price is making a racket, though not a tennis racket. Price is making tennis balls the old-fashioned way. And after all these years, Price still loves to describe how it is done.

“All rubber is plastic to start with and then by the time you’ve subjected it to the heat and pressure it ends up cooked like a cake really.,” Price said as he stood beside a ball press. “The rubber formulation is a bit like cake mixes, you know. Raw rubber and umpteen ingredients and it is the same for rubber.”

Rubber pellets are cooked into half ball shapes which are glued and covered with felt. Price took over running his father’s business in 1959.but the boom times came when he started shipping orders to the United States leading up to the 1980’s.

Derek Price (Photo: Laura Lynch)

The process is labor intensive because so much is done by hand. The time consuming crafting of a ball meant Price and other British ball makers were vulnerable when mega plants started operating in Asia in the mid-80’s, using cheaper labor. This factory used to spit out 80,000 balls a week. Not anymore.

“We do five percent of what we used to do. That’s like four thousand balls a week.,” Price said.

Still, Price has not given up. Instead, he’s selling direct to corporations and companies who are looking for something different.

“They may want yellow balls or they may want white balls, or pink balls or blue balls but so we we survive,” he said. Although we wouldn’t survive on tennis balls alone”

Price makes tennis ball key chains, squash balls and racquet balls. He has just started marketing balls for dogs – or their owners – printed with the pooch’s name or photo.

No matter what door Price walks through in his aging factory, there are tennis balls on display, in storage, or spilling out into hallways. Price has reinvented the tennis ball several times, refining aspects of it for younger players or to meet market demand. He admits he even dreams about tennis balls.
At 80, after fighting and losing so many battles to the much bigger competition, he is determined to keep going.

“I don’t like to be beaten. I refuse to be beaten and so older and grumpy perhaps. No, I’m not grumpy, I’m just old. Why be beaten? Why give in? “

Price claims his plant made balls that were used by stars like Arthur Ashe, Rod Laver and Evonne Goolagong. Those days are gone and so are almost all of the 150 people who used to work here; now there are only eight.

Price never did build that new factory but the old one rumbles on relentlessly, kind of like the man himself. Price may not be winning, but maybe he’s a champion just for surviving.