LAWN TENNIS Men’s Competition Has Several Possibilities

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30075, 8 March 1963, Page 8

LAWN TENNIS Men’s Competition Has Several Possibilities

An interesting finish to the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association’s senior men’s competition should result from the short round now to to played at the end of the ordinary round. When the competition resumes tomorrow after a break of two Saturdays because of other fixtures, the teams will be in A and B sections, divided up by their points in the round completed three weeks ago. Points at the end of the round were: Cashmere 5, Edgeware 5, University 4, Elmwood 4, United 4, woolston 3, North Linwood 3, Barrington 0. Of the three teams with four points, University won 29 individual matches, Elmwood won 24, and United won 21, so United was put in the B section on the count-back.

Tomorrow, in section A Edgeware will play Elmwood and Cashmere will play University; in section B Woolston will meet North Linwood and Barrington will play United. The next Saturday winners will meet winners and losers meet losers in each section, and on March 30 all teams will play teams they have not met in their section.

First-round pointe will not be carried on and only pointe in the short round will count If each of the next three Saturdays is fine Hie winner of the competition will be the A section team with most pointe; if one Saturday is wet the winner will be the winner of the match between the A section first day winners. In the former case it would be possible for as many as three teams in the top section to finish with two points. There is one Saturday in April before Easter which would be available for a playoff but there would be diffi-' culty in providing for two play-offs. Anyway, the competitions committee is hoping that. a clear winner will be known on March 30. The competition has been one of the most even for many years after looking as if it would be a comfortable success tor University. But, after winning its first four contests with the loss of only two individual matches. University, since the beginning of the holidays, has lost three matches in succession.

Even tomorrow University will be without its top man, G. A. Davidson but it will have P. S. Alexander and L J. Walpole, neither of whom has played in the three lost matches.

The inchudon of Alexander recalls an incident in the 1960-61 competition when the country championships were being held at the same time as a round of the mein’s competition. Playing a match in the country tournament, Alexander was late for his club doubles and was forced to default it That match,

between University and Edgeware finished in a tie, 56 games each. The University club protested to the committee which enforced its rule.

Tomorrow Alexander will again take part in the country championships in which he Is a singles semi-finalist but is not in doubles or mixed doubles. The University club and the controllers of the country championships think it will be possible for him to play in both this time without difficulty. Cashmere, last year’s winner, which began this season badly, should provide stiff opposition for University now that it has caught up and gone ahead.

The end of the first round has also shown that the points teams gain are not necessarily related to the wins they have in individual matches. For instance Cashmere and Edgeware led the points one ahead of University, Elmwood and United but Edgeware and Cashmere won 23 and 21 matches respectively, compared with University’s 29, Elmwood 24, and United 21. Woolston might to considered the most unlucky for it was second only to University with 26 wins but got only three points. This was because Woolston had two narrow losses on sets when matches were 3-3, whereas Cashmere had two wins on games and one on sets and Edgeware had two wins on sets.