Problems In Selection Of Davis Cup Team

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29723, 17 January 1962, Page 7

Problems In Selection Of Davis Cup Team

ALTHOUGH a New Zealand men's tennis team to tour overseas this year and take Bart in the Davis Cup competition will not be selected until the end of this month or early next month, tne three tournaments of the circuit just completed will probably have the biggest bearing on the selection.

The Atktkland invitation tournament .being held this week and the New Zealand junior championships—in which I. s. Crookenden is piaying—later in the month will also be taken into account by the selectors, Messrs M. C. Healey (Canterbury), S. Painter (Wellington), and A. S. Burns (Auckland). Statement

Early in' the week of the New Zealand championships the management committee of the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association met and the chairman (Mr F. S. Ramson) later . issued a statement in which he said the committee favoured a team of four players It is understood that later in the week the committee reaffirmed this view and .thought that if L. A. Gerrard or J. E. Robson were available to strengthen the team lor a Davis Cup tie the one available should be sent as an extra fos the important few weeks. Gerrard has said several times he is not available but many still have hopes that he might ehange his mind about a shprt trip. Robson has not yet given his position definitely, but he probably would prefer not to go. In the three tournaments of the circuit, there were 10 players who reached one or more quarter-finals. They are Gerrard (Canterbury), Crookenden (Waikato), R. N. Hawkes, R. G. Clarke • Wellington), J. H. Lockington (Auckland), all three; Robson, A- S. Burns (Auckland), J. B,' Souter (Wellington), C. G. Judge (Canterbury), two; G. D. Moss (Canterbury), one. As well. Gerrard, Hawkes, and Clarke: were in all three semi-finals.' Robson was in two, and Crookenden in one; Gerrard and Clarke were in two finals each, and Crookenden and Robson one; and Gerrard had two wins, Clarke one.

It may: be that the New Zealand management committee will modify its first decision to send four players to

three players, putting the expense for the fourth into a manager instead. Of the 10 who reached quarter-finals, Robson, Gerrard, and A S. Burns can be subtracted, the former two because of considerations already mentioned, and the latter because he is probably past the touring team stage, although he would probably make an ideal manager who could be called on for a match if absolutely necessary.

This leaves Crookenden, Clarke, Hawkes, Lockington, Souter, Judge and Moss. Of those Clarke and Hawkes had quite the most consistent records on the circuit, both three semi-finals and Clarke two finals. Although Crookenden was the least consistent of the three he ended up in the best form; he lost to Hawkes in both the earlier tournaments but he beat him and did best of the three in the most important tournament, the national one.

Clarke, although he twice suffered severely at the hands of Gerrard, also had a win over the national champion and he was the only one to do that. He often looked extremely promising. Hawkes was very steady and he almost beat Crookenden to play the national final with Gerrard. However, if he is to make a trip it is essential that some one do something about his service which is a great way behind the rest of his game. Those three would seem to have the best claims to team membership; the selection of a fourth would cause considerably more difficulty.

Lockington reached the three-quarter finals but, unlike the others, he did not go past them. In two of them he was beaten by Clarke, once comfortably and in the other he was beaten, 6-1, 6-3, by Robson. He badly lapses in concentration. Souter did not maintain the fine form of the Wellington championships before the circuit began. In that tournament he beat Crookenden and lost the final, 6-8, 2-6, 6-3, 4-8, to Gerrard. He had the misfortune, as an unseeded player, to meet Gerrard in the quarter-finals of both the first' two tournaments, losing only 7-9, 5-7 in the first but 0-6, 0-6 in the second. These hard draws possibly helped in the deterioration of his play and in the nationals he lost 5-7, 10-8, 1-6. 6-2, 1-6, to Lockington. a player it was thought he might beat. Judge, a national semifinalist in singles, men’s doubles runner-up and mixed doubles titleholder last year, was not up to his best and this was contributed to by the lack og preparation before the circuit He had no club play at all. He was beaten in the first' quarter-final by Clarke, 6-0, 9-7. The next he did not reach because he was beaten by Lockington, 6-3, 0-6, 6-3, and in the last he was beaten by Crookenden, 6-1, 6-0, 6-4. Enigma Moss is an enigma. For a player who has had so little encouragement from administrators—he is the only one of the 10 mentioned who has not played tennis out of New Zealand—he has done excellently to put P. G. Nicholls out of last year’s national titles and Robson out of this year’s. He did not maintain his form of either of those matches in the next matches although he did go very close to taking his first set from Hawkes this time and that might have kept him going. He is a member of the Junior Davis Cup squad but he had not been included in that until "The Press’’ and administrators in Canterbury had brought to notice that his performances were better than some of those who were then members of the squad. He is a player who could have been developed more. The selectors’ main difficulty, if four go, will be to decide among these latter four players.