01
Stop one
Ewi's Palace (Afin Ewi)
Diadem Super 23 Junior Tennis Racquet: Let me ask you something. How far are you willing to travel for the thing you are building? Because according to oral history the Ewi's ancestors migrated westward out of the Benin forests, and the first Ewi, Oba Awamaro, established the dynasty right here at Ado-Ekiti around 1310 — and it is still standing. Still. This is the traditional seat of the Ewi, the paramount ruler of Ado-Ekiti and of the Ekiti people. And here is the part I want you to sit with: in earlier centuries this palace was built of mud. Mud! And successive Ewis rebuilt it, in stages, one generation handing the work to the next, right down to the major restoration carried out under the current Ewi, Oba Rufus Adeyemo Adejugbe, Aladesanmi III, who has occupied this throne for more than three decades. Three decades of showing up. It stands adjacent to Erekesan Market, Oja Oba, in the centre of the city — the throne and the people, one wall apart. You can build something that outlives you. Somebody standing here already did.
02
Stop two
Fajuyi Memorial Park
Diadem Super 23 Junior Tennis Racquet: I am going to speak plainly at this one. Lieutenant Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi was a native of this city, born on 26 June 1926, and he served as military governor of Nigeria's Western Region following the January 1966 coup. During the countercoup of 29 July 1966, the Head of State, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, was his houseguest at the Government House in Ibadan. Fajuyi refused to abandon him, and he was killed alongside him. That is the whole of it, and it does not need anything added by me. The park his city raised in his memory holds a monument to his life, together with a fountain, a children's playground, a mini-museum and archival centre, and recreational facilities, and it serves today as a public green space in Ado Ekiti. Children play here now. Let us stand quietly for a moment before we go on.
<p>A 23-inch frame is a specific tool for a specific stage, and getting the stage right matters more than getting the brand right. The Diadem Super 23 is 23 inches long with a 96 square inch head, weighs 7.5 ounces or 215 grams, and balances 2 points head light at 290mm. It is strung 16 x 19 and comes pre-strung with synthetic gut, so it plays out of the box.
The frame is aluminium — which is exactly what it should be at this size, because aluminium survives being dropped, dragged along a fence and left in the back of a car, and a graphite layup at this price does not.
Grip size is G0, four inches around, sized for a child's hand rather than shrunk down from an adult's.</p>
<p>Who it is for: roughly ages six to eight, the years when a player learns that a ball can be struck rather than swiped at.
The 96 square inch head gives a beginner a sweet spot they can actually find, the 215 grams lets them swing the frame rather than be swung by it, and the head-light balance keeps the tip from dropping through contact. If your child is swinging late, is dragging the tip, or is holding the throat to get through a rally, the frame is too long.
That is the test, not their birthday.</p>
<p>Ado Ekiti is a good place to argue for starting early.
Ekiti State calls itself the Land of Honour and Integrity and has built a genuine reputation on schooling — Ekiti State University, a federal polytechnic and Afe Babalola University are all here — and a city that takes education this seriously does not need convincing that the first racquet in a pair of hands is not a toy.
This one will do the school court, the compound, the churchyard and the tarmac outside the market. And by the way, at 455 metres up, Ado Ekiti runs from about 17°C to about 32°C across the year, so a light frame and a shady hour after four o'clock is the honest way to keep a six-year-old playing rather than complaining.</p>
<p>Diadem Super 23 Junior Tennis Racquet</p>
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