Our Journey

World rackets champion Harry Gray was one an illustrious Victorian sporting family of 5 brothers who were all rackets professionals (the predecessor to squash). 3 went on to become world champions. Harry began making and selling rackets balls and stringing racquets and established Grays in Cambridge, England in 1858. The factory continues to hand-craft wooden racquets for Real Tennis, Rackets and Lawn Tennis in Cambridge.

The company grew rapidly and became well known at the University for the manufacture of top quality frames for all racquets sports. In those days, squash racquets were made from 1 piece English ash with a suede leather grip and natural gut, costing 12 shillings and sixpence.

By the turn of the century, Harry’s son, Horace Gray took over the business. The Grays brand grew nationally as famous players such as Max Woosnam, England’s Davis Cup Captain using Grays racquets and the future King George V and VI both Grays customers whilst at Cambridge University. Charles Williams was the World Champion playing in America at the time and lost his Grays racquets on the Titanic. Grays moved to larger premises in Benson Street, Cambridge to accommodate the increasing production and developed the first ever laminated racquet – the Masterpiece – which allowed a better shape and was more durable.

Douglas Gray took over from Horace and the 1930’s witnessed a period of strong growth for Grays. 
The company opened a second racquets factory in Ireland (Gray-Russell) to meet the growing demand. In 1935, the famous Light Blue racquet was launched which was to become one of the most highly regarded and commercially successful racquets of all time.

Douglas’s wife, Alison saved the business during the war. Under her leadership, Grays acquired Hazells who were also known for their distinctive Streamline racquets use by Bunny Austin as well as their hockey sticks. Chas Read, the first ever British squash Champion used Grays as did Jim Dear and Mahmoud Karim who won the British Squash Open from 1939-49 with Grays racquets. In Tennis, Tony Mottram used Grays in the 1948 Davis Cup and in Badminton Ken Davidson used Grays.

Under William and John Gray the Grays brand became internationally renowned in squash and Badminton. The great Pakistan player Hashim Khan used Grays squash racquets to win 7 British Open titles from 1950 to 1957 and Grays became market leaders in squash. In Badminton, Grays developed the steel shafted Silver Gray which was used to great effect by Won Peng Sun and became one of the most successful racquets of its day.

Grays made the most of the massive squash boom in the 1970’s and expanded rapidly. Top squash players such as Gogi Alauddin, Quamar Zaman, Gamal Awad and Ahmed Safwat used Grays racquets.

The arrival of graphite technology in the 1980’s led to a period of re-structuring and consolidation for Grays. The Cambridge racquets factory was forced to close in face of the move to graphite racquets, the name was unsuccessfully licensed to a third party for a period and production was moved to the Far East. With the demise of Bancrofts in the USA, Grays became the sole manufacturer of Real Tennis and Rackets racquets for many years. Now relocated to the former saw mill in Coton near Cambridge. Grays worked extensively with the then World Champion Howard Angus to completely re-design the Real tennis frame for the first time in years in 1980. The firm manufactured wooden lawn tennis racquets for Bjorn Borgs unsuccessful come back in 1991.

In the 1990’s the company regained full control of the brand and squash stars Chris Dittmar ranked 2 in the world and Mark Chaloner ranked 7th in the world, endorsed the brand’s new range of graphite racquets. 2000 saw the launch of the new Millennium racquet used by Mark Chaloner to play Australian Paul Price in the first ever live televised British Open match – an all Grays Semi Final.

Now in the control of the sixth generation, Grays focussed on wooden rackets as squash declined in popularity. New technology was introduced such as the Extratec which have become the gold standard in Real Tennis.

More recently Grays have recommenced production of wooden lawn tennis racquets for the Wood Tennis club.