YOUTHFUL BRITISH TENNIS TEAM AT WILDING PARK

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30058, 16 February 1963, Page 9

YOUTHFUL BRITISH TENNIS TEAM AT WILDING PARK

nou « h tne ranked players, L. A. Gerrard and J. E. Robson, 2f* / V 1 some at the best tennis of the season should be seen at Wilding Park tomorrow and on Monday when the British team will meet New Zealand in the second of the three unofficial test matches being played during its current tour of Australia and New Zealand. These contests, the third of which wiU be at Wellington on February 23-24, J 1 * being conducted on Wilding Shield lines with four singles and two doubles being played each day. Gerrard, Robson, L S. Crookenden and R. G. Clarke met the British team in the first match at Dunedin earlier this month, and were beaten by nine rubbers to three. It will be surprising if Crookenden and Clarke with C. G. Judge (Canterbury) and P. Thomson (Waikato) can reverse this decision, but the match will still provide a good trial of strength with a truly international The British visitors have taken New Zealand tennis circles somewhat by sur-

prise by the unexpectedly high standard they have displayed after a hard tour of Australia. But already M. Cox (19) and R. Taylor (21), who are both lefthanders. are ranked eighth and ninth in Britain and Taylor has won a place in his country’s Davis Cup teams. Bearer of. a famous name in sport, S. Matthews, at 17, has already won the British national junior title for three successive years, and with G. Stilwell, also 17 and the second ranked junior, is regarded as a particularly bright prospect for the future.

The absence of the outstanding New Zealander, Gerrard, and of Robson, is to be regretted. The Davis Cup tourists of last year, J. B. Souter and R. N. Hawkes, are away with the universities* team in Australia so the team is probably as strong as possible. All four have had oversees experience and have already performed quite well against the visitors. Crookenden beat Matthews at Timoru in the opening match of the tour, and Stilwell in the recent Auckland invitation tournament, while Clarke very nearly

beat Stilwell and gave Matthews a bard fight art Dunedin. Crookenden art bis best has the ability to win boto has matches, and should be well supported by Clarke in the top bracket.

Crookenden and Ctorfce will be toe top New Zeeland doubles pair.

Of particular interest will be the perttortnances of the two newcomers, Thomson, the junior champion, and Judge, the leading Canterbury player, whose appearance will provide considerable local appeal. Thomson has represented hus country for the last two years in the international junior tournament to America, and he won has title art Wilding Park recently without being extended. He has his chance to make a firm impression with bis play against leading overseas opposition of his own age group, and having performed well to losing 4-6, 6-8, 6-8, to Cox ait Auckland, he can enter his matoihes against Matthews and Stilwell with reasonable confidence. Judge and B. E. Woolf (Auckland), a former Davis Cup representative, were the only playens 'to secure

• sert from Gerrard when be won has fourth successive national singles championship. The free-stroking OsMtatbuij man reached toe New Zealand stogies semi-finals to 1961 When he was ranked number six on toe national Hot. Judge took a sert from StiHiwefl at Ttonaru to hue only encounter wtito the British players, so with Thomson he should form a sound tower bracket. Pedestrian Rate Apart from the spectacular innings played for Wellington against Northern Districts by J. R. Reid, there was little indication in toe Plunket Shield series of 1962-63 that batsmen were making the game more attractive. The average scoring rate during the series was 2.26 runs an over off the bait, not a remarkable speed by any means. Allowing a generous 20 overs an hour, that represented an average hourly scoring rate of 452; with extras it was still under 49, yet a run a minute is regarded as toe basis of reasonable, attractive cricket For all that, the scoring rate this summer was the best since 1954-55, when it was 2.55 runs an over. The decline in toe rate of scoring to Plunket Shield matches has been quite startling since the first matches were played in 1921-22. This may be accounted for, in part, by the tactical changes the game has undergone, and to part, perhaps, that today the rewards for players, in the form of tours, are so great that the batsmen tend to be more intent on avoiding failure than to seizing success.

Ait all events, the figures show that in toe first seven years of Plunket Shield cricket, the hourly rate—based on 20 overs to the hour, and including extras —never fell below 64. In the 13 seasons up to the war, the lowest rate was

53 to the hour. Since the war, it has fallen as low as 44, and has been below 50 to each of the last eight seasons.