Lawn Tennis GRADES DISTINCTION SOUGHT BY COMMITTEE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29024, 13 October 1959, Page 19

Lawn Tennis GRADES DISTINCTION SOUGHT BY COMMITTEE

An appeal for the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association to make an immediate distinction between grades for serious and for social play in its inter-club competitions was made last evening by Mr R. P. Murphy. Mr Murphy, who is chairman of the association’s competitions committee, was reporting to a meeting of the management committee.

The competitions committee had decided to limit the first mixed grade to 16 teams this season, said Mr Murphy, with the intention of strengthening the grade and providing a better standard of tennis. For this reason, the teams which had been judged weakest among those who entered for this grade had been placed by his committee in the second mixed grade. It was probable that one or more of these teams would withdraw from the competition, he said, refusing to play in the second grade. Some teams have been playing in the first mixed grade for many seasons, said Mr Murphy, where they were well out of their class. Mr A. B. McCallum supported

Mr Murphy, saying that players in this grade had often mentioned that some of the competing teams were well below the standard.

Mr M. C. Healey said that the competitions committee should relegate more of the teams in this first mixed grade. The first and second mixed grade teams contained those players who would be in the senior grades in several seasons, said, Mr Healey. Only by strengthening the lower grades would the senior grades ever become stronger. Mr McCallum said the trouble with the second grade had begun several seasons ago when the second grade played on the grass courts at Wilding Park and the third grade on the hard courts. There had been a general move among third grade teams to enter in the second grade to secure play on the grass courts, said Mr McCallum, with the result that the second grade became full of sub-standard teams.