Comely Tennis Queen Sits Rightfully On Her Throne

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 86, 12 April 1941, Page 4 (Supplement)

Comely Tennis Queen Sits Rightfully On Her Throne

GOOD QUEEN* ALICE held court ill this outpost of her te • the Exhibition Garden on the night, of Marci. 11 and 1 ft"o em P^ re »t Vancouver subjects fully convinced that she =i; = ri 'litfnlw of hw writes Ray Gardner. e * V u P° n h " throne. La Marble, who took on a big job—allx-it at a bi<r salarv— stepped into Don Budge's and Fred Perry's shoes a= the lipo/It en *** barnstorming troupe, fills the bill almost to jieru-ction. iner In the past the hit of these shows lias always been the heavy Vtr of the tennis species, the Budges, the lVrrys. th e Vines an Tildens. A tough role for a gal to fill, but, last night anvwav M; e w" and her English partner, Mary Hardwuk, stole the chow fromVl,« Budge and the ageing Tilden. re ®"he»ded Miss Marble, as is her habit, defeated her cornel v British straight sets, G—2 and 10 —8, but only after Hie and ** served up some real tennis for the folk. ~ h»4 Accustomed to watching the masterpieces in ' pat-ball" plav that go under the heading of tennis when the gals take over, seasoned ton goers were delighted when Alice and Mary took up their' positions back 0 "?* 314 baseline and chose to slug and think it out. ~ the Smooth Placement Shots. There were few of those prolonged rallies that usually feature worn#*' tennis, hut instead both participants gave a show of sheer athletic profiri * La Marble and La Hardwick were picking the corners, joe key in" one of position with keen placement shots. This is a strong point of Alice' 1001 perfect game and she was continually catching Mary flat-footed on a "w to a far corntr and then scoring with a short lob ovet the net. The first set was all Miss Marble's, hut she was dowh 3 5 at one ti in the second and had to bear down to win. c All in all the San Francisco blonde gave the lie to the belief that innnm athletes are merely an unnecessary evil. Besides having enough of whritt office boy calls "oomph" to get her by as a torch singer in eastern night clube-! a role she has already played —she moves with grace on a tennis court and pkr« the game like a man. She is the finished athlete. You can almost say as much for the charming Miss Hardwick. She's a step below La Marble's class, it is true, but quite good enough to play tennis for anybody's money. She made a tremendous hit with the crowd did this rjnnfanatural English girl. Tilden, over the hill in a tennis way, bowed to Donald the Red in their singles match and gave the impression that he's getting by these days on tb« odd "old" Tilden shot and his gift for showmanship. Flashes of > Old Form. The Oakland trap-drummer had to do little more than go through the motions to dispose of Big Bill in straight sets, 6—3 and 6—3, but the were pleasant to watch. This was a jolly, friendly affair, but the crowd "oakd* and "ahed" when Budge cut loose with a blistering forehand or crashed over a sizzling serve, and they accorded the old master the same reception when he uncorked flashes of his once great form. Big Bill teamed up with La Marble to turn hack Miss Hardwick Budge in the mixed doubles match that was almost on a par with the MarMe-Hud-wick go. For the records, it gave Alice and Bill a 13—12 edge in their ton4otown series. Alice and Big Bill romped through the first set 6—2, dropped the ■eoood 6—3 and then took the decision by the same score. The Marble person was outstanding in this match, too, so all in all it was Alice's show. Yes, it was a great boon to the tennis fans from New Yflji to Vancouver when Good Queen Alice decided to take the 50,000 dollars and forget the centre court at Wimbledon.