N.S.W. boys enliven junior tennis

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34026, 15 December 1975, Page 30

N.S.W. boys enliven junior tennis

(By

JOHN BROOKS)

Six members of the 20-strong New South Wales combined high schools team reached the last 16 in the boys singles when the Ballins Canterbury junior lawnj tennis championships began at Wilding Park yesterday.

Although they were on the courts—in what they considered to be unseasonable summer weather — shortly after the end of their transTasman flight, the visiting players acquitted themselves well. Perhaps the most impressive was the rangy Greg McLean, who, with his Abe Lincoln beard, looked like a father figure to the freshfaced teenagers in the field. McLean came from behind to beat the ninth-ranked New Zealand junior, David Neilson (Canterbury), in one of the best matches of the day. Neilson’s application was admirable, but he was forced to bend the knee to McLean, a strong stroke-maker with a keen appreciation of shot placement. The other New South Wales boys to win through the first two rounds were Gary Condon, Chris Herden, Craig Swift, Steven Marquet, and John Whittred.

Herden, the top-ranked visiting player, had a desperate struggle on his hands when faced by his fellow Australian, Mark Summer. The protracted match ended with Herden clinching a tiebreaker in the third set.

Earlier, Herden had been hard pressed by Fraser Hodgson (Waikato) before winning in three sets. The diminutive Whittred played impressively to eliminate one of Canterbury’s leading juniors, Lindsay Walton, in two sets;

However, the secondranked New South Wales player, Jim Watts, was knocked out in the first round. He lost in straight sets to the wiry Wellington boy, Paul Smith.

The top seeded players, Steven Harley, Peter Hampton and Michael Mooney (all of Canterbury) and Sam Dean (Auckland) all moved purposefully into the third round. Hampton dropped only one game in eliminating Peter Webb (New South Wales), but Mooney had to move into top gear to beat a determined Bay of Plenty boy, Denis Kingston. All the seeded players in the girls singles reached the quarter-finals. Apart from Jenny Oakley (Hutt Valley), who dropped a set to her doubles partner, Arono Ngatai (Bay of Plenty), the

favoured players all won with relative ease.

A Canterbury girl, Phillipa Lewthwaite, upset Debbie iLeat (North Shore) in three sets, two of which went to tie-breakers, but she was well beaten by her fellow [Cantabrian, Sally Chapman, [in the second round. The favoured combinations in the boys and girls doubles all moved serenely into the second round. Competition is expected to become intense when seeded players clash today and tomorrow.