to the public is uncertain. Lord Lansdowne claimed that in 1869 Major Wingfield gave a demonstration of the game to him in the garden of his Berkeley Square house, although in that year Wingfield was not a major. Another attribution was to a party held at Nantclwyd Hall in Denbighshire, Wales, although that party actually took place in December. Nor was Wingfield the only exponent. At the same time, Harry Gem and Augurio Perera were demonstrating their game of Pelota in Leamington Spa. Wingfield patented a New and Improved Court for Playing the Ancient Game of Tennis and began marketing his game in the spring of 1874 selling boxed sets that included rubber balls imported from Germany as well as a net, poles, court markers, rackets and an instruction manual. The sets were available from Wingfield's agent, French and Co. in Pimlico in London, and cost between five and ten guineas. In his version the game was played on an hour-glass shaped court and the net was higher (4 feet 8 inches). The service had to be made from a diamond-shaped box at one end only and the service had to bounce beyond the service line instead of in front of it. He adopted the Rackets-based system of scoring where games consisted of 15 points (called 'aces'). In order to differentiate his game, he named it Sphairistikè (which was poor Greek using a feminine adjective meaning "pertaining to a ball game" without an appropriate noun.) Between July 1874 and June 1875 1,050 tennis sets were sold, mainly to the aristocracy. Tennis was becoming an important adjunct to cricket at the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC); Real tennis was (and still is) played at Lord's Cricket Ground; lawn tennis was also briefly established at Lord's in the mid 1870s. In 1875 John Moyer Heathcote instigated a meeting at the MCC to establish a universal set of rules and Wingfield was invited to participate. Wingfield's hourglass court and scoring method were adopted and Wingfield considered his sport was now entrusted to the MCC. During this time he suffered personal tragedies including the developing mental illness of his wife and the death of his three young sons and he lost all interest in the game. In 1877 the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) launched the Wimbledon Championship and prior to this, in cooperation with the MCC representatives, developed a new set