Judge And Thom Will Gain From Overseas Experience

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29339, 19 October 1960, Page 13

Judge And Thom Will Gain From Overseas Experience

TTITTING up at the United Club's courts only a day after their return to Christchurch from overseas, Canterbury’s two young tennis travellers. Grantley Judge and Bill Thom, looked more mature as players, more assured in their strokes. What they have gained will be better assessed as this season progresses.

Judge, a dental student at the University of Otago, will return to Dunedin for two weeks or so, but will play in Christchurch throughout the season, for his club. University. “If they will have me,” he says. Thom will play again for Elmwood. Both agreed that they found the competition they met “pretty tough,” although it did vary. The tournaments in England before Wimbledon were consistently hard

and Judge gave an example of the Northern championships at Manchester, one of the biggest and best tournaments they played in. It included all the British Davis Cup squad, part of the Australian squad, and some leading players from countries such as the United States. Poland. South Africa, and India. In this tournament Judge was beaten in the third round by the New Zealand Davis Cup player, M. Otway. who eventually won. and Thom was beaten by R. Becker, of the British Davis Cup team, in the fourth round.

Many of the players in the field were mature, and had played the circuit for several years, said Thom.

But Judge and Thom should have gained from these hard tournaments, for some of the

players they bowed out to are well known in world tennis. Thom took Becker to four sets in the British hardcourt tournament at Bournemouth, where Judge also lost to Otway in the second round. Judge put up good displays against the leading Cuban, Orlando Garrido, at Surbiton, 4-6, 4-6, and Mike Davies, of Britain. 2-6, 5-7, at Hurlingham. The two Canterbury players experienced all kinds of court surfaces, including several tournaments on en-tout-cas, which Judge said was regarded as one of the greatest levellers of standards. because the ball came off so slowly. Giving an example, Judge said that Bill Alvarez, of Colombia, did not look a strong player and he had one of the worst backhands among tournament competitors, but at Hurlingham on en-tout-cas he beat Becker and Tony Pickard, and he had beaten Davies just by hitting them back. Long Match “I played him at Guildford.” said Judge, "and I got beaten, 6-1, 6-0, but the match took an hour and a half, and Alvarez eventually won the tournament. He was not the same player on grass and at Wimbledon he got beaten by Paish. who is now considered well past his best.” Both Thom and Judge said there were many English and Continental players who were virtually unheard of but were still desperately hard to beat whatever the surface. For play on the hard courts. Judge said they found they bad to develop topspun backbands for the chopped variety was not of great use. “We also learnt to lob over there.”. said Thom. “It was a necessity on hard and on grass, and especially in doubles.’’ Discussing the other young members of the New Zealand contingent in Britain, Thom said that Richard Hawkes, of Wellington, was perhaps the most impressive in die hardcourt tournaments but when they finished and play was more on the grass, Hawkes lost some of his edge and it was’an -

other young Wellington player, Robert Clarke who came on. Thom' said he also found his best form after Wimbledon on the grass. He got into several finals, won the doubles with Peter Dibley, of Auckland, at Penzance, won a mixed doubles at Galway in Ireland, won a doubles at Cranleigh with Otway, and at a tournament at Franilingham in East Anglia, played the best he ever had when he got into three finals. Judge also had greater success after Wimbledon. He won a singles championship at Havant on the South Coast and in another tournament won the singles and was runner-up in the doubles and mixed doubles. He was run-ner-up in the Scottish doubles at Edinburgh with John Lockington, of Auckland, and he won the Galway doubles. He felt he played well on a trip to the Continent with Lockington. They played in five tournaments and at one, in France, were runners-up in the doubles to J. N. Grinda and D. Contet, leading French players. Judge and Thom said they found there many big tournaments and not many small ones. Most were run by the sports firms and if players were under the auspices of one firm they played a particular circuit and if they were under the other firm they played another circuit. The firms subsidised the clubs where the tournaments were held and if there was a gain the club did well; if there was a loss the firm bore it.

“For some of the smaller tournaments a firm will take oyer thevillage green and lay out the courts and erect nets and fixtures,” Thom said. Judge said, and Thom agreed that one of the main advantages of the tour for them was that they now tended to hit more balls in. An advantage for New Zealand tennis was that it would probably tend to make young players keener if they thought they had the chance to make a similar tour.