01
Stop one
Fort St. David
Wilson NXT Duramax 15g Tennis String Set: Laterite and brick on the south bank of the Gadilam, just short of the sea — and that siting is the whole story: river on one flank, sea approach on the other, which is precisely why everybody wanted it. The Dutch sought permission for a fort at Devanampatnam in 1608; the site was acquired in 1653 and bought by the British in 1690, who named it for the patron saint of Wales because Elihu Yale, then Governor of Madras, was Welsh. It became the British headquarters on the Coromandel Coast in 1746 after the French took Madras. French in 1758, lost in 1760, changed hands again in 1782, British finally in 1785. Kings bore me. Bastions don't.
02
Stop two
Pataleeswarar Temple, Cuddalore
Wilson NXT Duramax 15g Tennis String Set: Look at the load path before you look at the paint. Granite-pillared hall, stone tank, and a tiered gopuram of painted stucco over the street gateway — stucco on the tower, stone doing the work underneath, which is exactly the right division of labour. The earliest form dates to the seventh century, dedicated to Shiva as Padaleeswara, and it is the most prominent landmark in the town. It appears in the Tevaram hymns of Appar and Tirugnanasambandar, placing it among the sacred sites of Tamil Saivism, and tradition holds that Appar returned to Saivism within these walls. Chola-period work with later Pallava and Pandya additions. Centuries of patching, and it still stands plumb.
03
Stop three
Devanathaswamy Temple, Thiruvanthipuram
Wilson NXT Duramax 15g Tennis String Set: Now this interests me structurally: a temple at the foot of a bare rock hillock, and a second shrine higher up reached by a stairway cut into the rock itself. Two completely different problems solved on one site — one built up, one carved down. The temple is dedicated to Vishnu as Devanathaswamy and is one of the 108 Divya Desams, the Vishnu temples praised in the hymns of the Alvar poet-saints. Its present form is believed to have been built under the Medieval Cholas, with later expansion by the Pandyas, the Hoysala Empire and Vijayanagara. The hill behind is Oushadagiri. Four dynasties of contractors, and the joints still line up.
04
Stop four
Silver Beach, Cuddalore
Wilson NXT Duramax 15g Tennis String Set: Two kilometres of sand where the Gadilam and the Ponnaiyar reach the sea — the confluence that gave Cuddalore its Tamil name Koodalur, the place of joining. Note the casuarina windbreaks behind the dune line, because that is a designed structure: a permeable barrier that slows the wind so the dune holds its shape. Quietly excellent work. The water off this coast was contested repeatedly in the eighteenth century; in 1783, during the Anglo-French wars in India, the French held Cuddalore while the British besieged it, with naval fighting offshore. It is the town's main open shorefront now, and its fishing landing. Catamarans drawn up in rows.
I keep time for a living and I know what happens to a skin that gets struck ten thousand times. It wears. Unless it is built not to. NXT Duramax is the toughest member of the NXT family: Abrasion Shields wrapped around a PU-bonded multifilament core, rated at twenty to forty per cent longer life than the original NXT, with the same soft, high-energy response underneath.
The 15 gauge is 1.40 mm, the thickest available, sold here as a single 12 m / 40 ft set. If you break multifilament in a fortnight, this is your string.
Fort St David began when the Dutch sought permission in 1608 to build at Devanampatnam; the site was acquired in 1653 and bought by the British in 1690, who named it for the patron saint of Wales because Elihu Yale, then Governor of Madras, was Welsh. Yes — that Yale.
Cuddalore keeps its own rhythms.
In town, the Pataleeswarar Temple is the great landmark, dedicated to Shiva as Padaleeswara, with origins in the seventh century and a place in the Tevaram hymns of Appar and Tirugnanasambandar. Out at Thiruvanthipuram, the Devanathaswamy Temple is one of the 108 Divya Desams praised by the Alvar poet-saints.
Then finish on Silver Beach, two kilometres of Coromandel coast where the Gadilam and Ponnaiyar meet the sea — the joining that gave Cuddalore its Tamil name, Koodalur.
One set is one frame, and this gauge holds its note everywhere from a still morning on the grassed-over ramparts of the fort to the salt wind coming straight off Silver Beach in the afternoon. It is also perfect for a place whose whole name means a joining, since that is the only honest way to describe a fibre core and the shield wrapped round it.
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