Annoyance over reports

Press, 13 February 1982, Page 64

Annoyance over reports

Yesterday’s report of a doubles dispute in the Air New Zealand tournament at Wilding Park was criticised by the circuit director, Mr Ivan Houghton, of Wellington. and one of the players in the disagreement, Bruce Derlin, of Auckland. Both took strong exception to the report by “The Press” tennis reporter. John Brooks. Mr Houghton said that this report. and a front-page report on lan Schindler had caused “quite a stir.” He said that the “Auckland Star” had seized on the doubles incident and “blown it up further.” The stoppage lasted 23 minutes and Mr Houghton wanted to know whether the reporter had timed it. He was reassured that this was

so. He said that the incident had been magnified. “I told the players that it was like an afternoon tea party, but you said it came closer, to a punch-up,” he said. [The report quoted a player-spectator calling out. “Hey — there’s going to be a punch-up.”] Because of an error, the report gave the impression that Derlih’s partner, Rocky Vasquez, was the son of Rocky Marciano, a former world heavyweight champion. Vazquez’s father was a friend of Marciano and named his son after the boxer. Derlin was critical of the inference and said, “If you write that rubbish, you'll

never get another interview from me.” He discounted that there had been a technical error and said, “You couldn’t possibly chop seven words out of a sentence.” Mr Houghton was also critical of a reference to lan Schindler, an American player, urinating on the centre court and said that such references did not do anything for tennis. “The Press” received several similar complaints by telephone yesterday. One man telephoned the secretary of the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association. Mrs Vai Harris, to say that he deplored the American’s “disgraceful” act and that the association should do something about it.