TENNIS PLAYERS PREPARE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21648, 5 December 1935, Page 16

TENNIS PLAYERS PREPARE

AN EARLY TOURNAMENT SEASON i I interesting matches in I CHRISTCHURCH [By CROSSCOURT.] After a slow start on account of the long spell of wet weather, the lawn tennis season in Canterbury has already produced many interesting men's matches, both for ranking list positions and in the inter-club competitions. The new ranking list rule making it incumbent on the challenged player to meet the challenger within a week under penalty of default has achieved its purpose of speeding up challenges, and so far the interpretation of the rule has been sufficiently elastic to prevent injustice. The strength of the women's ranking list has, of course, been much reduced by the absence of the three leading players in Australia, but so far few of the others have shown any inclination to play matches. With constant match play the men, at least, are getting into something approaching their best form. They have only three weeks more before the round of tournaments begins with the Christmas open and handicap tournament at Wilding Park. On the final day of that tourney there will be a visit by the Australians, Vivian McGrath and E. F. Moon. The New Zealand championship tournament will be

held at Wellington from December 30 to January 4—nearly a month earlier than last year. No doubt these fixtures will be followed by challenge matches for the Anthony Wilding Memorial Shield and the Kathleen Nunneley Casket, both of which are held by Canterbury. Young Players Improve Most of the youngsters have struck form early, and are making good progress up the ranking on which they have admittedly been placed too low. Ivan Corich, who began the season in tenth position, has gaineu two places, but in the senior competition he beat B. A. Barrer. who is fifth. R. G. Pattinson, New Zealand junior champion, has gone to fifteenth place, but he has a victory to his credit over R. A. Young, who is seventh. There has also been an unusual change in the higher positions. A. R. Cant, striking form early, has gone from fourth to second, beating H. Dymond and H. A. Harnett, and will play C. Angas, the Canterbury champion, for first place this evening. Dymond had a narrow escape from falling another rung. -In his match against Barrer he was down 0-3 in the third set, and the latter was five times within a point of 4-0. Barrer, who had been scoring steadily through the second and third sets with fine passing shots, at this stage gave up a defensive role for attack, fell into errors, and failed to win another game. The score was 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, in favour of Dymond. In a women's ranking match, the only one so far notified to the association, Miss D. Dickey (challenger) beat Miss S. Boyd for seventh place, 6-3, 6-3. Competition Leaders Meet Two of the unbeaten teams in the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association's senior inter-ciub competition will meet in the third round on Saturday. These are United 11. and Canterbury College. The other unbeaten team, United 1., will meet Cathedral, and either Fendalton or Linwood will gain its first point in the third match. Cashmere has the bye. Again there will be interesting matches between leading players of the province at Wilding Park. Angas wiil meet Arnold, sixth on the ranking list, in the United 1.-Cathedral contest, and the game between Robinson and Loughnan in the same match should be attractive. In the United 11.-Canterbury College match Barnett, third on the ranking list, will meet Corich, and Duffield and Penfold, two other young players of great ability, will be opposed. In the match between Linwood and Fendalton the meeting of Cant and Barrer should be interesting. The second round of the senior mixed competition will also be played on Saturday. Cathedral will be strengthened by the return of the Poole sisters. The club was fortunate that during their absence in Australia two rounds of the competition had to be postponed on account of wet weather. Cathedral dominated the first section of the A grade competition —the equivalent of the present senior mixed grade—for many years, but this season will have strong opposition from the United team. Wellington's Dress Reform Wellington, one of the first New Zealand centres to popularise shorts for tennis, appears to be carrying dress I reform still further. "Two men, members of one team, came out in original tennis costume. It comprised shorts and shoes, but neither shirt, singlet, vest, nor cardigan," writes "Forehand" in the "Dominion." "This ought not to have been allowed by the authorities, assuming that any of them saw the occurrence. The association's courts are meant to be used for playing tennis, not to be used for sunbathing, which is more appropriately carried on at one of the beaches." Kugby in Germany Germany is organising a Rugby tournament for next May to precede the Olympic Games, and to be a preparation for an international competition for the Coupe de Paris, to be played in the French capital in 1937. For the Berlin tournament probably only four nations will enter—France, Germany, Italy, and Rumania, and the form of recent years indicates that Germany may be the favourites. The standard of play continues to improve there, and the French ranks are being weakened by transfers to professional Rugby League teams. The latest convert, of note in France Is Chaud, the international Union full-back of recent years, who will play for Roanne.