LAWN TENNIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 262, 5 November 1931, Page 19

LAWN TENNIS.

SUCCESSFUL club openings.

AUSPICIOUSLY

(By HALF-VOLLEY.)

Last Saturday was the first occasion for veral years when all tlie clubs opened f e ther -under weather conditions which eft nothing to be desired. For many years the'opening Saturday of the season sufficiently, doubtful to give club committees a good deal of worry in •ding whether to open their courts or not year"there was no doubt about it. If Ist Saturday is a fair sample of what a,inlanders are to expect tor the coming =nn - there is 110 doubt that the season *Tll be: a successful one. Or the A Trade clubs Parnell is easily the West this being the GOtli season since its -tahlishment. Many people wonder how desirable a building site as the Parnell . f , eomes to be unoccupied: the expiation is found in the fact that the ffß Cathedral site, and the club is mprely occupying it while the community ®it f or the new Cathedral to be built file in/the (as yet) distant.future. The ' L oldest club is Eden and Epsom, whose 4fitk season commenced on Saturday. Some fthe courts are the same as the original nurts laid down in ISSC. Subscriptions in | those days, it may be .noted were one I inpa- for men and halt that sum tor todies The Koyal Oak Club (formerly the nVhiinea Club, which has this winter rhaneed its name) is next in point of SA, having been founded about 1888 while Kemuera, now by far the largest of II tiipJA crade' clubs, was founded only twenty-five years ago. The University and Campbell-Park Clubs are much younger members-of the family, of A grade clubs, though, like many other younger brothers, they are not always content to accept defeat at-the hands', of their seniors.

l'[ lnter-c!iib Prospects. The entries for all grades of the Auckland Association's inter-club competition close oi Monday next, November 9. The A grade competition calls this year for entries 'of teams of ten men and eight ladies. " This is a change from last year's conditions, where each team consisted of twelve men and "twelve ladies. This year, too the competition has been altered by cutting out the B grade knock-out competition which will probably have the effect of eliminating A grade clubs from the B crade competition. It is thought , that some of the A grade clubs will still enter teams ixi • the C and D grades. ' In the junior grades (B, C and D) teams are of four men. and four ladies. No player regularly selected in an A grade team may play in'any junior grade, though an emergency A player may do so. In the A grade the holders of the Cup, Eden and Epsom, will stand out of the competition, the other five clubs playing 0 g a knock-out competition to decide who shall play Eden and Epsom in the final. On paper the odds are heavily in favour ofEem'uera being the survivors. Indeed, only once since the war has a final been played where the rival finalists were not Eden and Epsom and Remuera. Under this year's amended A grade rules five men's singles and three ladies' singles Trill be played. The remaining five men md ladies will play mixed doubles. There will be five men's doubles and four ladies doubles. : This system will remove _ the objection; taken to last year's competition that the result depended too much on the combined doubles matches. . The C and I) grade conditions are the sama as last year. The B grade is also unaltered, except that the competition is now purely a " play-all " event, the knoekoufc section having been deleted from the conditions of entry. The attention of club captains and selectors is drawn to the rule requiring all clubs to submit, at or before the time of the submission of the names of the team to play their first inie: club match, a grading list of all their inter-club players properly ranked in order. Ladder Placings. At the beginning of the season it is always tof interest to recall the rankings of players. on the Auckland Association ladder at the end of last season. The singles ladders at the end of last season were as follows, the figures in parentheses being the corresponding ranking of the player concerned at the end of the 192930 season:—

Men.—l, A. C. Stedman (2); 2, E. L. Bartleet (1); 3, N. G. Sturt (3); 4, M. M. Morrison (4): 5, E. W»- Griffiths (8); 6, S. Lamb (9); 7, V. R. Johns (7); 8, A. K. Turner (11); 9, W. G. Watkins (13); 10, G. Martin (14); 11, H. Brinsden (10); 12, P. E.Potter (15); 13, A. E. McKeown; U, M. T. .Wilson; 15, M. Robb; 16, G. Rich.

Ladies.—l, Miss B. Knight (3); 2, Miss 1L Hacfarlane (1); 3, Miss J. E. Ramsay (2); 4, Miss D. Newton (7); 5, Miss M. Potter ■ (9); 6, Miss Marion Macfarlane H); 7, Miss P. Miller (6); 8, Miss L. Roberton (—); 9, Mrs. B. Napier (10); 10, Miss M. Richardson (13); 11, Mis 3E. rearnley"(l2); 12, Miss P. JFrankham (15); 13, Miss R. Taylor (16). Among the men the positions, as will be leen, changed very little during the past reason, the chief changes being due to four players who were on the 1929-30 fedder , resigning their positions for Mierent reasons. These were H. C. Rowlands, who occupied the fifth place, W. H. Entwistle (No. 6), V. IST. Hubble (No. 12), »nd A.Porter (No. 16). Among the ladies the chief changes were the progress of w'ss Newton and Miss Potter, the rise of Knight from No. 3 to No. 1, and the establishment of Miss Robertson, who Previously was not on the ladder, at No. S. Ine ladders are. well worth while for , keen players, and players who wish i , graded on them should, get into ™limth Mr. E. W. Griffiths, who cono'a tqem for the Auckland Association. although the first four places a ladder look pretty secure, <1 er , e should he a number of changes in W * r Potter had a good season , ' I rJ, ear , and may not he content with Vioff iF- . T.' Wilson, too, should llio Position by several places in i ® ea r .future —fourteenth is now too * And where are Jack Wil?J™® and Epsom). M. Aldred and Chalmers (Parnell), R. Milne and knii r. ca f .(Remuera), A. Porter (CampSgf)? ' and Ja ° k Harrison (° ne " . Ainong tlie ladies Miss Newton cannot my opinion rise any higher this season, can Miss Potter. Miss Taylor should several .places, however—thirteenth is her—while Miss Roberton it K t! fifth place, if not in third, tHa continues to improve, as rapidly se sf° n as she has done in the last vi ' /he ladies' ladder has three vacant le 163I 63 al r - Griffiths should not " ln receiving applications for these.

Tennis Fop Beginners. .week I wrote a few words on lenl+lf anc l preached the gospel of donW • I will consider the as » ame . and will try to summarise « n T 35 Possible the essential differvtJ* ®ehveen doubles and singles tactics. ►]~,' while it is optional in singles to tie - ei , . the 'base-line or. from ODtin ' doubles there is no such (r ° n \ Good doubles must ibe played bW ne ' Position. Not merely one m a ;® r at the net all the time, nor both ijpl, ? at the net part of the time; the tiffin Partners at the net all the k t' T whole aim of doubles tactics jj°.Set to the net and stay there, t ' w useless, too, for one partner- to Ca .,v p , an d one hack. The first and tari ri, l e of doubies is that the both advance and retreat t(i°ti ' tlle - v must he in line parallel is nt ne ' : ' follows that the one who a j ° actually plaj-ing the ball must (ritli v or so as to be in line fw . ,® s partner. Having grasped the Daru Primary fact that the two let i f move parallel to the net, ordp * a PP'. vr it- The server, in folW 1° caiTy oufc this Precept, must li« i sen 'ice in to the net and join who is already up there, the r i i lO . ser \er must successfully reach n ®vaiid join his partner, or the

partner anust fall back; it i 6 useless to persevere in the "one-up-one j back" formation which is so often seen in junior clubs. _ No self-respecting double in decent tennis would ever'condescend to be seen using a "one-up-one-back" formation.

Doubles then resolves itself into a (battle for the net position. The server tries to run in on his service,, and, joining his .partner at the net, to set up a volleying attack. The receiver, "by a crosscourt drive or a well-placed lob over the player at the. net, attempts to drive -back the server and his partner, and as soon ae this is done he and his partner rush the net together, pushing back their opponents to the back of the court and themselves assuming the net position. - To summarise the last two "weeks lessons. In singles go for length all the time. ■ In doubles length is _ not the important thing, the net position is the key to success. Next week I will begin to analyse the use of the various strokes and show their relative importance in singles and in doubles. ■