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Press, 28 March 1979, Page 38

“It has taken Canterbury long enough to get — you see that you hang on to it for a while.”

This was the message yesterday from Charlie Angas (left) to Peter Hampton (right) as the two Canterbury’ tennis captains got together with the sport’s most honoured trophy. the Anthony Wilding Memorial Shield.

A team consisting of Hampton, Brett Hibbert, Stephen Harley and Michael Mooney, with Rhett Mason as reserve, won it at Lower Hutt recently, to give Canterbury its first victory in the national

men’s teams’ contest lor 40 years.

Significantly enough, the shield, which commemorates Canterbury’s and New Zealand’s most famous player, was brought back into circulation this summer after being mothballed by the N.Z.L.T.A. for three years.

Mr Angas led the last Canterbury team to win the trophy, in the days when it was competed for on a challenge basis.

The team of Angas, Arthur Barnett, Dewar Brown and Bob Pattinson, with Rolle Cant as .reserve, beat Wellington by 10 rubbers to two at Wilding Park, in the days

when adults were charged 2/- and children sixpence tor admission.

Since then the shield has been held mostly by Auckland, with occasional successes by Wellington and Hutt Valley. Mr Sam Clarke, the well-known coach and administrator who managed the Canterbury team at Lower Hutt, said the four players had been under his tuition when they were 10 or 11 years old, and they had played together in various agegroup teams.

“As a consequence we were able to have the same approach in the Wilding Shield matches. I

impressed on the players the need to treat every game as the last match they would ever play,” he said.

“They have had a good deal from Canterbury' over the years, and their display was justification of the faith shown in them at representative level. It was a real thrill for me to see them win it.

“The junior organisation in Canterbury is probably the best in the country, and we have been well served by the chairmen of the junior body, in particular. I thought that if we could get a good group of juniors going it would be a logical progression

for them to win the national senior teams’ event.”

It was a clean sweep for Canterbury at Lower Hutt’s Mitchell Park courts, for the women’s team of Robyn Hunt, Sally Chapman, Christine Newton and Shirley Haig gave the province its sixth consecutive victory in the women’s competition, for which the Nunneley Casket is again the prize. “A grant from the Government to improve facilities at Wilding Park, two Davis Cup ties, and the Nunneley Casket and the Wilding Shield both won — it must be the best year Canterbury has had,” Mr Clarke said.