A pick-up for handicraft items and accessories consists of a stick having an adhering member on one end of the stick. The adhering member may be hook material of hook and loop fasteners, or it may be adhesive of the type that remains tacky. The stick may have a ring to be supported by a person's finger, or may be long enough to be grasped by the hand. A kit for the pick-ups includes a bottle of the adhesive and several sticks. The package for the kit has a cradle to hold a stick when not in use, and provides a base for the bottle of adhesive.

The invention relates to a tennis ball holder and storage apparatus incorporated with a garment to be worn by a tennis player. The garment is previded with a hook element and a loop element of a hook and loop connector. The hook element is attached to the garment along a pocket open end and the loop element is attached to a pocket flap which exteds over the pocket opening such that the hook and loop elements will be aligned and engaged. The hook element on the garment can further be engaged with the nap surface on a standard tennis ball to thereby attach the ball to the garment. A pouch having a loop portion of a hook and loop fastener attached along its upper edge and adjacent its opening is provided. The loop portion on the pouch can be engaged with the hook element on the garment to thereby provide the garment with an auxiliary pocket for holding tennis balls.

An alphabet learning and word forming game is presented which utilizes a round ball having letters on its surface and four pick-up sticks. The surface of the alphabet ball is made of a material that is readily attached to one end of the pick-up stick. This attaching mechanism may be a vinyl ball and a pick-up stick having suction cups on one end or it may be a ball covered with a clear adhesive pile surface and a pick-up stick with a VELCRO hook surface on one end. The ball is rolled between players and the pick-up stick is attached to the ball such that one letter is underneath the pick-up stick each time it is rolled. The players accumulate points for forming words during a set time period from the letters which they have obtained through catching the ball with the stick. If the player is dissatisfied with the letters that he has, the ball may be re-rolled to him to obtain a new letter with a penalty of one point for each re-rolling. One point is awarded for each word formed. The first player to accumulate a certain number of points wins the game.

A gripping device (10) for attachment to the bottom (102) of a tennis racquet (100) to retrieve tennis balls (200) wherein, the gripping device (10) is fabricated from a used tennis ball (20) having at least its lower quadrant severed beneath the midline of the used tennis ball (20) wherein, a plurality of vertically extending slits (22) are initiated at the sever line (24) to a point above the midline of the used tennis ball (20) to create gripping fingers (25) that will releasably engage the periphery of relatively new tennis balls (200).

A retrieval device is connected to a racquet and is structured to allow a user to pick a ball up off of the ground without having to bend down to do the same. The retrieval device includes an elongated retrieval member having a stationary section connected to the racquet via an attachment assembly, and a movable section which is disposed in cooperative engagement with a guide assembly, at least a portion of the guide assembly also being connected to the racquet via the attachment assembly. The movable section of the elongated retrieval member is disposable between a storage configuration and a retrieval configuration. More in particular, the storage configuration is at least partially defined by the movable section substantially conforming to a corresponding portion of the head of the racquet, and the retrieval configuration is at least partially defined by the movable section being disposed in a retrieving relation to the ball.