Tennis—With The Admiral

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31304, 25 February 1967, Page 11

Tennis—With The Admiral

'pWO admirals played tennis in Christchurch on a recent warm Sunday evening; one of them had arrived in New Zealand by air only about an hour before. Commander of the United States Navy Antarctic operation for the last two years, Rear-Admiral F. E. R. Bakutis has an insatiable appetite for tennis and he was delighted when he found that his successor, RearAdmiral J. L. Abbot, was a keen player, too.

Admiral Bakutis left a game of tennis to greet Admiral Abbot at the airport, take him to his Christchurch home in Eversleigh street and on to the neatlykept grass court at the back. For Admiral Bakutis, now over 50 but looking much younger, enthusiast is too mild a term to describe his liking for tennis. He has been known to visit major tournaments at Wilding Park but never to stay long.

He cannot bear to watch; he has to play. And he says to one of his Christchurch friends: “We’ll go and have a game. I’m a player, not a spectator.”

He treats it not solely as a relaxation, but in it he finds a philosophy of life.

“I don’t know why more people don’t play, because it is a wonderful game. I tell my children it is a lot like life—you can defeat yourself. If you get mad, you play badly and that can be so true in everything you do. Tennis teaches qualities that can be used elsewhere, including selfcontrol. But because it can be so frustrating, many people leave it.”

Admiral Bakutis gives the impression that he feels he is just starting it. With a wry laugh he speaks of friends who have asked: “How about coming out and teaching me tennis this week-end?”

Then he refers to his own struggles to improve at the game over the last 10 years and more.

He became Interested at the comparatively late age of 42. Handball (like fives, but indoors on a bigger and more enclosed court) had been his first sporting love.

When he was stationed in San Diego as a training officer on the staff of the Commander Naval Air Force, Pacific Fleet, in 1955, he joined the Coronado Hotel Beach and Tennis Club rather for the use of the pool and the beach. But

when he saw players enjoying tennis he decided it was a better game for him than handball; it was not so strenuous and it would keep him outdoors. “I have been at It since at every place I have gone,” he said. Admiral Bakutis recalls with some warmth the help he has had the enlisted lad in San Diego who “worked patiently with me;” my friends who “took me in tow, encouraged me and tried to teach me all they knew.”

He has played a sort of Pacific circuit. When he was commander of a seaplane tender, the Gardiner’s Bay, he sought his tennis whereever he went. He played with a Japanese professional at Iwakuni, near Hiroshima; with a 62-year-old professional who is a former member of the Portuguese Davis Cup team; with Chinese ball boys and with two brothers Tsui, who were doubles champions of Hong Kong for 20 years, in Hong Kong; with noted young American players such as C. Crawford and T. Edlefsen in California.

“At the La Jolla Beach club I had the distinction of being beaten by Bill Bond when he was 12 years old.”

And In New Zealand? When Admiral Bakutis arrived two years ago looking for opponents, one of his aides got in touch with Mr M. C. Healey, chairman of the management committee of the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association. They played five sets and “I got stuck into him,” Mr Healey recalls. “I had to show an American admiral we could play tennis down here.” They have been keen opponents and friends since. Among others who have regularly joined the Admiral for tennis at his home, at other private courts, at clubs and at Wilding Park have been one of the fathers of present-day Canterbury tennis, Mr J. Mercer, Dr. W. J. Smith, one of the province’s finest players after the Second World War and nationally ranked, another Canterbury representative, .Mr G. Shaw, and Messrs F. Ullrich, J. Ullrich and E. Palliser. Mrs Bakutis, also a tennis addict, has had a similar circle of Christchurch tennis friends.

Popular among men from the base at Harewood, the court at Eversleigh street has had a lot of use.

RIGHT: Rear-Admiral Bakutis in action.