LAWN TENNIS NO PLAY FOR TITLES

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28162, 28 December 1956, Page 9

LAWN TENNIS NO PLAY FOR TITLES

INTERRUPTION BY RAIN There was no play in the Canterbury lawn tennis championships yesterday. The courts at Wilding Park were only a little affected by the morning’s rain and a ball bounced on one for some time barely got wet. It was thought when the weather seemed to be clearing that play would be able to start about 2 p.m., but because the rain was continuing very lightly play for the day was declared abandoned by the chairman of the management committee of the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association (Mr W. A. Clothier) soon after 2 p.m. Because all sections were taken through quickly on Wednesday, the loss of the second day of the championships should not affect their completion on Saturday, provided rain does not interrupt play today. Play will begin today earlier than was intended, at 9 a.m., with boys’ and girls’ singles. Alsd in the morning the quarter-finals of the men’s singles and doubles in all sections will be held. The main events of the day will be the semi-finals of men’s and women’s singles at 2 p.m. SOUTH ISLAND TITLES RADFORD IN MEN’S SINGLES FINAL (New Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, December 27. A former Otago Wilding Shield player, D. F. Radford, reached the final of the men's singles at the Southland and South Island tennis championships at Invercargill today. Radford, the No. 1 seed, beat G. Roughen (Invercargill) in the first semi-final, 6-3, 11-9, and is favoured to win the title tomorrow. His opponent will be either J. Morgan (Gore) or R. Bennett (Dunedin), who had just started their semifinal when rain washed out play for the day. Bennett played a game lasting three hours in the quarterfinals. Miss G. Hopkinson (Christchurch)

and Miss M. Johnson (Wellington), the women’s singles finalists, joined forces to reach the final of the women’s doubles, in which they will play an Invercargill pair, Mesdames M. McLeod and J. Adams. In the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles N. Hoskin and J. Morgan, the second seeded pair, were beaten by A. T. Skelt and E. N. Adams in three sets. Most finals will be played tomorrow, and the tourney will end on Saturday.