LAWN TENNIS Hutt Valley Beats Canterbury, 10—6

Press, Volume C, Issue 29437, 13 February 1961, Page 9

LAWN TENNIS Hutt Valley Beats Canterbury, 10—6

A weakened Canterbury representative lawn tennis team was beaten by Hutt Valley by 10 matches to 6 in the annual interprovincial match at Wilding Park on Saturday. Without its two top men, C. G. Judge and G. Moss, its top woman, Miss J. Davidson, and its third woman, Mrs P. Leopold, Canterbury met a strong Hutt Valley side and was overshadowed from the beginning of the mixed doubles in the morning.

It was Canterbury’s third meeting with Hutt Valley—and its first loss. When the fixture was instituted in 1958-59. Canterbury won by 13 matches to 3 at Wilding Park and last season at Mitchell Park, Lower Hutt, it won narrowly by 22 sets to 21 after both sides had won eight matches.

Shute beat the Canterbury player who toured overseas last year, W. Thom, 10-8, 2-6, 6-4. Like Sandilands, Shute is a left-hander and he was much steadier than his opponent. Thom, however, often looked the better player with a lot of speed on his shots and especially when he followed a service in to cut off the return with a sharply angled volley. But Thom made the more errors and Shute could almost count on at least one point from a double fault in all Thom’s service games, a very useful concession at any time.

The trend of play w’as set in the mixed doubles when the Canterbury top pair of W. Thom and Mrs G. Middelberg played well to beat B. N. Shute and Mrs M. Anderson, 6-4, 3-6, 8-6, but the other three Canterbury pairs lost. Mrs Middelberg then won her singles also but the other three women lost. L. Walpole won the fourth men’s singles and the other three men lost, giving Hutt Valley the unbeatable lead of nine matches to three. After that Canterbury won both women’s doubles, one by default and one of the men’s doubles in which only one set was played. Top Players The two top men players for Hutt Valley, B. N. Shute and R. S. Sandilands have fine reputations in the North Island and they proved themselves in the south on Saturday. Shute is top for his province at present but Sandilands has often been top and he was the most impressive on Saturday when he beat the second Canterbury man, B. J. Shirlaw, with the loss of only two games. Sandilands had not played a great deal of tennis this season up until recently when he won the Wairarapa championship for the third year in succession and he is now in grand form.

Sandilands beat Shirlaw, 6-1, 6-1. Shirlaw is noted in Canterbury as a correct and steady piayer with good court coverage but against Sandilands he did not have a chance. The Hutt Valley player was much too severe in service and overhead and he also had a lot more zip in his ground shots than Shirlaw. When Shirlaw got into the net he sometimes performed with distinction but most of the time he was kept well back in the court and not allowed to venture up. Sandilands had the ability to make Shirlaw run on the baseline until he eventually worked him out of position. The top men’s singles was a much closer struggle when

Thom virtually beat himself in this match because he often had the advantage. In the first set he had a lead of 5-3, another at 7-6 and another at 8-7 before he lost, 8-10. He won the second set with power and accuracy and looked as if he had the match won when he led. 3-1 and 4-2 in the third set. Then he lost four games in succession and the match. Played Before Several members of the Canterbury team had already played matches in the senior mixed inter-club competition before they took part in the representative match. This did not seem to affect them a great deal and one of those who thrived on the extra play was L. Walpole, the University player, who won the only men’s singles for Canterbury when he beat D Higgins, 8-6, 1-6, 6-2. In the other men’s singles, the experienced A. D. L. Hunter, of Canterbury, lost to G. Spiers, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6. Hunter could not sustain his good form of the first set and he tired towards the end. Another who had a very full day’s tennis was the top Canterbury woman, Mrs G. Middelberg. After playing for University and winning her singles in the senior mixed grade, she won her mixed doubles with Thom in the representative match and then won her singles as wpll. In this she turned the tables, for at the New Zealand championships recently she was beaten fairly comfortably by her Saturday’s opponent, Mrs M Anderson. On Saturday, Mrs Middelberg won, 8-6, 6-1, and she got better and better as the match went on. In the first set she played some brilliant shots, but she was not consistent. Then in the sec-

ond set, as Mrs Anderson tired. Mrs Middelberg conceded few points. She was stylish and accurate. Mrs Anderson played some fine passing shots in the first set and her ground shots were smoothly produced, but she did not last the match.

Although Mrs Middelberg won the only women’s singles for Canterbury, Mrs E. Campbell did her utmost to win another. In the team as originally selected, Mrs P. Leopold was to have played second but she did not arrive in time to do so and Mrs Campbell became second with Miss S. Mackay third and Miss K. Williams fourth. Mrs Campbell was beaten by Mrs J. Carr, 7-5, 3-6, 16-14. Mrs Carr had a strong service and some good net play to back it up, but Mrs Campbell returned almost every shot and by her tenacity almost won. Only the best of shots won points frojn her and as usual she covered the court wonderfully well. Results (Canterbury names first): — Men’s Singles W. Thom lost to B. N. Shute, 8-10. 6-2, 4-6; B. J. Shirlaw lost to R. S. Sandilands, 1-6, 1-6; A. D. L. Hunter lost to G. Spiers, 6-3, 4-6. 4-6; L. J. Walpole beat D Higgins, 8-6, 1-6, 6-2. Women’s Singles Mrs G. Middelberg beat Mrs M Anderson, 8-6, 6-1; Mrs E. Campbell lost to Mrs J. Carr, 5-7, 6-3, 14-16; Miss S. Mackay lost to Miss S. Robertson, 0-6, 4-6; Miss K. Williams lost to Miss D. Davies, 6-8, 6-3, 5-7. Men’s Doubles Hunter and Shirlaw lost to Sandilands and Higgins. 8-10, 6-2, 4-6; Thom and Walpole led Shute and Spiers, 9-7. Women’s Doubles Mrs Middelberg and Miss Mackay beat Mesdames Andersop and Carr, by default; Mrs Campbell and Miss Williams beat Mrs Robertson and Miss Davies, 6-1, 6-4. Mixed Doubles Thom and Mrs Middelberg beat Shute and Mrs Anderson, 6-4, 4-6, 8-6; Hunter and Mrs Campbell lost to Spiers and Mrs Carr, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6; Shirlaw and Miss Williams lost to Sandilands and Miss Robertson, 6-3, 8-6; Walpole and Miss Mackay lost to Higgins and Miss Davies. 3-6, 3-6.

Hutt Valley won by 10 matches to 6.