SEVEN SEEDS BEATEN

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31580, 18 January 1968, Page 11

SEVEN SEEDS BEATEN

A further seven seeds were eliminated, four of them in the under-13 section, and many other seeded combinations were tested on the second day of the Canterbury junior lawn tennis championships at Wilding Park, yesterday.

The day began in beautiful weather but in the mid-afternoon blustery, cool conditions made play difficult. B. McDowell (Southland) the eighth seed in the under--17 boys* singles was eliminated in the second round by M. Beaumont (Canterbury), 6-2, 6-2. This was after McDowell had struggled for about two hours and a half on Tuesday to win his first round match

against M. Sibley (Canterbury). Beaumont, who is not a very regular player, took command at the beginning and never looked in danger of being beaten. All of the seeded girls in the under-17 singles came through to the quarter-finals. Apart from Misses K. Davey (Canterbury) and L. Harris (Marlborough), who both lost a set in the second round, they won easily. The third-seeded pair in the under-17 boys’ doubles, G. Clifford and N. Dillon (Can-

terbury) was given a jolt by another local pair, Sibley and R. Adams, before it won the second round encounter, 7-9, 6-3, 6-4. The first set was very even as both pairs fought for supremacy and it was the far more inexperienced combination, Sibley and Adams, which managed to win. Dillon and Clifford were not really troubled to win the second set but they were making many errors. Sibley and Adams had their chances in the third set and were down 4-5 with Sibley’s service to come but Sibley lost it and the match. D. Mitchell (Canterbury) and Miss, R. Tayles (Southland) laboured for a considerable period before surrendering to I. Leckie and Miss G. Skilling (Canterbury) in the second round of the under-15 mixed doubles. Seeded third, Mitchell and Miss Tayles ran away with the first set 6-0, but Leckie and Miss Skilling improved to take the next two sets, 7-5, 10-8.

M. Saggers had no difficulty beating the third seed, B. Sanders, 6-4, 6-3, in the third round of the under-13 boys’ singles and Miss L. Milne (Southland) beat Miss J. Higgins (No. 4) even • more easily, 6-3, 6-1 in the under--13 girls’ singles.