Tennis Tournament For Country Players Only

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28524, 1 March 1958, Page 5

Tennis Tournament For Country Players Only

frequent calls for more hard competitive play for tennis players at all levels in New Zealand, the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Sub-associations have taken a really positive step to this end. The tournament at Wilding Park over two week-ends, restricted entirely to country players, deserves success and looks likely to gain it. The Town-Country fixture at Wilding Park each season shows that the sub-associations are producing players of worth, but few of them play in the Canterbury championships. Because of a grand entry of 206 they have shown that they are much more keen to take part in championships solely among country players. In the Browning Shield competition, which is divided into two sections, several top players do not have the opportunity of competing against several other top players. But in this way the virtual champions of the country districts will be found. Holding the tournament at Wilding Park appears to be a wise move because it is the most central venue among the six sub-

e associations—Ellesmere, Mid-Can-r terbury, North Canterbury, Huruv nui, Malvern and Banks Penini sula—and it also has the most e courts available. 0 Sub-associations’ administrators t who have been considering th« 5 » arranging of such a tournament F for some time, have every reason to be gratified that their players are prepared to travel to a cent tral place to play oh four days s over two week-ends—today and |- tomorrow and next Saturday and v Sunday. The top two seeded players in n the men’s singles have both shown 0 that they are well up to the y standard of the best men in Christchurch. Seeded first, K. Familton, of Mid-Canterbury, was '■ beaten only 9-7, by the top-ranked ° Canterbury player, C. W. Pritchard, in a Town v. Mid-Canter-bury match last season. A. J. :r Hewitt (Malvern), seeded second, e beat G. A. Burton, 9-6, on couny try day last season, and A. L. Blackwell, a former Canterbury I- champion and top-ranked player, ;e 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, to reach the semist finals of the Canterbury men’s )- singles title this season.