LAWN TENNIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 242, 9 October 1920, Page 18

LAWN TENNIS.

(By FOOTFAULT.) Tennis in Auckland should boom this coming season if it has never boomed before. Just think of it, the final of the Davis Cup, the greatest teams' match competition in the world, to bo pla.VC.l on a specially prepared court on thn Auckland Domain. That alone is enough, but following on after that t>. New Zealand championship will take place, prohablv on the Kden and J-.psoin lawns, during'the first week in January, and the American and Australian visitors can Ik- looked upon as certain competitors. If such competitions as these do not help to make tennis go ahead well, nothing ever will. All the local clubs are making arrangements for their openng day, and quite a number of them have arranged for their annual meetings to be held during this month. Talking of annual meetings, it is really an extraordinary thing how fewmembers ever bother about attending the annual meeting of their club. iHo notice of the meeting is received, but only about 10 per cent ever bother about attending unless something to warrant special attention happens to be on the order paper. The. usual procedure is for the outgoing committee to be there, and to re-elect themselves to the various positions, and so carry on with the good work. Shortly after the season opens i one hears Mr. So and .So complaining I bitterly about the management of the affairs of the club, saying "it was the same last season, why "don't the committee do so and so?" A committeeeman happens to overhear the conversation, and asks Mr. So and So why he doesn't come along to the annual meeting and voice his opinions there, but he only replies, "Oh, I cannot be bothered to attend annual meetings, and so the matter ends. i\ow if you want your oommitteemen to be encouraged do good work show them that you yourself take an interest in the affairs of the club by attending the annual meeting. 1 would remind all those who intend resigning that applicants are waiting to get into all the clubs in Auckland, and it would help the secretaries considerably if resignations were sent in before the season opens at the end of this month. CRICKET. , (By ACTAEON.) EIGHT BALL OVER. If P. F. Warner voices the opinion of the Marylebone Club, as has been reported, that the English team coming to Australia will not agree to the eight balls ; fo the over, it is a pity, writes Frank- ..Iredale. the ex-Australian crieketeiv r . While there may be something v ;Jl,' the contention that fast bowlers jeel the strain on our hard wicko'ts'ifl sowling the eight balls in succession/Jtlwe are so many things in its favoiir tb,at| one has been convinced that its mftPjY, advantages outweigh any additional burden which it may place on a bowleVl f ' r l-Yom the point of view of saving , • {imt, it is already popular, and the people in Australia have by this time become reconciled to it. Strictly speaking, and if one could really get at the truth," I don't think our bowlers have found very much to grumble at in the innovation; I have yet to hear of a breakdown amongst the bowlers. Leaving the bowler out of the question, there can be no gainsaying the fact that the captain of the side has been saved some anxiety, and I am sure the fieldsmen are thankful for the fewer changes. It eeems to mc, and it is also the experience in other sports, that cricket reforms are going to be hard to bring about if we wait until the 'Mother Country is convinced of the necessity of any change in the laws. The conditions of the game in England and Australia Hire different, and are getting, if anything, wider apart, so that unless both sides are pretty careful, we shall find Australian players playing under one code of rute'e and the Englishmen under another. The hours at present are different, the wickets are not the same, as we prepare ours differently, and we do not have a time limit to our matches. There is just one other point in connection with these reforms. In past years, when an Australian team toured Bngland. we invariably endeavoured to meet the Marylebone Club in mattere connected with the arrangements in E-ngland. I am sure if it is desirable to have eight balls to Jie over—and no one doubts that it ie a good thing— surely the English team will meet us in this respect, just as we have met them in like matters in days gone by. It may not be generally known amongst players wh<- have an idea that covering the wicke i an innovation that spasmodic attem r 3 have been made to preserve the wickets from rain on many occasions in the past. The wicket was covered in Adelaide in 1902 in the match New South Wales v. South Australia. Private grounds in England invariably protect the wickets. Apart from this fact, in the revised laws of cr,icket provision is made to protect the pitch during the night, the only stipulation being that it must be the actual part where the ball falls at each end. If it is right to do this during the night, what great harm can it do if it i* done in case of a sudden shower during the day? No one is ever likely to forgot the debacle on the second day of the Victorian match in Sydney last season. Heavy rain at 1 o'clock ruined the pitch so much so that no more play took place that day. It spoilt the whole day's pleasure, and killed the match. Had the covers been adopted the game could have boon proceeded with after a couple of hours. Moreover, thousands of people would have seen what they paid to see. The only possible objection that 1 have to covering the wickets is the fact that in doing so you rob the bowler of an occasional harvest of wiukets. But after all it is an inglorious spectacle to see a procession of batsmen going to and from the wickets. Is there not more selfsatisfaction to the bowler when heknows that he has achieved a good performance when things were not in his favour? Whatever may be said to the contrary people go to cricket matches to see the batting. They are ready to applaud any good feate of bowling, but if the battinjj fails I think a good many people come away from ou r ground* di»- . appointed. Whatever thrills there arc in the game come from the efforts of the batsman. Whoever can forpot the waves of excitement which came over the people when liowell hit up his Do asainst Stoddart's team, or the exhilaration i when Darling flogged the English bowlers ■in the memorable test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground, when he scored lGf'i? Those are the thrills in cricket, ■ and something that in remembered. Covering wicket* may or may not be- a ■ success, but it k at least an endeavour to help in doing away with some of the . drawbacks which set up irritation. alienate a lot of people who might i be encouraged to become supporters" of the game.