TOP NATIONAL CONTESTS FOR WILDING PARK

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33962, 1 October 1975, Page 14

TOP NATIONAL CONTESTS FOR WILDING PARK

A benevolent New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association will hand out all its Christmas presents to Canterbury this year.

For the second successive season, Wilding Park has been chosen as the venue for both the national senior and junior championships. And it will also be the scene of the first inter-district tournament.

Tennis has taken a leaf from cricket’s book in laying down the format for the new national teams’ contests for men and women. The old system for the Wilding Shield and Nunneley Casket competitions has been scrapped. In its place will be a three-day, round-robin tournament to decide regional supremacy in men’s | and women's fields. The country’s 21 associations will be divided into six districts, which will correspond with the first class cricket areas. Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago will be joined by teams from Northern Districts and Central Districts for the new competition. It is expected that Briar

Fairlie, whose home is in Taupo, will be available for Centra! Districts. The New Zealand Davis Cup player would be a great drawcard for the first of the new tournaments. The inter-district contests will start on Boxing Day, and will immediately precede the national open championships. It is expected that the quality of the fields for the national titles will be markedly boosted by this continuity of major events, for competitors in the inter-dis-trict contest wiill have to appear in the national championships in order to qualify for financial assistance. ’ The restructured Shield and Casket contests were allocated to the Canterbury association at the request of the sponsor, Rothmans, and this was a clear reflection of the promotional experience of tennis administrators in Christchurch and

of the splendid facilities at Wilding Park. The Canterbury association excelled itself with its organisation of the Benson Hedges men’s tournament in Cowles Stadium last season, and it is a matter for regret that this

spectacular event will not be repeated this year. But to have held the tournament again, Canterbury would have had to double the prize money to SUSSO.OOO and even this bold stroke would not have guaranteed the association any particular named players. The event would also have clashed with a similar tournament in Perth, so, reluctantly, the ' management committee bowed to the odds.

However, the indoor court, which cost §6OOO to purchase and lay down, will not be put into mothballs. It will be available for use in emergency situations — and Christchurch has had more than its share of wet weather tournaments in the last two summers — and might be used for the proposed Aus-

tralia — New Zealand twoman “test” if Canterbury’s application is successful. The association is also prepared to hire the court to other tennis bodies and, no doubt, pass on the

knowledge acquired during four days and nights of painstaking laying. Christchurch played host to many notable players last season. Evonne Goolagong (Australia), Gerhard Wimmer (Austria) and Sue Mappin (England) were prominent at the national championships, and Scott Carnahan (United States) and Joao Soares (Brazil) were to the fore in the Canterbury championships. The Benson and Hedges

tournament featured such accomplished performers as Roscoe Tanner, Sandy Mayer and Cliff Richey (United States), Ray Ruffels and Dick Crealy (Australia), Ishmael el Shafei (United Arab Republic) and, of course, the top New Zealanders, Fairlie, Onny Parun and Jeffery Simpson.

Overseas participation in the BP national championships is not yet known, but the game in Christchurch will receive a decided fillip if the great left-hander, Tony Roche, apd his fellow

Australian, Alan Stone, are persuaded to play the New Zealand team.