LAWN TENNIS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 972, 12 November 1910, Page 12

LAWN TENNIS.

(By Side-line.) Tournaments, Now Zealand Championships at Blenheim, on December 26, 27, and 28. Southland Championship and Handicap Tournament 1 on December 26, 27, and 28. Dannevirke Championship and Handicap Tournament on January 21, 23, and Pahiatua Championship and Handicap i Tournament, at Pulnatua, on January 2 and 3. To-day's Play. This afternoon's matches should provido some interesting games. The result of the men's A grade will be decided in tho meeting of the Thorndon and Wellington teams, and the results of tho Brougham Hill v. Wellington 11,. and Victoria College v. Muritai matches will give a fair indication of the positions of the respective teams for the final r«sults.

The ladies' match between Thorndon and Wellington A grade teams has been postponed, owing to additional courts not bsing available for this afternoon. This match will bo played off ou November 26 ou the Thorndon courts. v Last Saturday's Matches. ■Fine weather prevailed last Saturday, and theso who had the pleasure of playing on the Day's Bay courts had a most enjoyable afternoon. jUatchos in the A grade provided results as anticipated, none of them furnishing oloso contests. Wellington I easily disposed of the same club's seoond team. Victoria College had no chance against Thorndon,. although Cleghorn and Smith played up well ngaiust Carter and Putnam. Snuth tiefeated Putnam in two sets, ami Cleghorn lost to Carter after a good three-set match. , . . , Muritai niado a good showing against Hutt. Wright forced Cornell into i three-set match, and had hard luck in not being ablo to get tho third set after reaching five all. Wright scored 1-1 games to Cornell's 13. Naglc and Lewis started off well against Cornell and Ward in tho

double by taking the first sets, and had scoured a lead of i to 3 in the second set, when tire Ilutt pair retired. Of the B grade matches, the only closo finishes were those between Victoria College, and Hntt men's teams, and Victoria College and Brougham Hill ladies' teams. In the former match Kirk, of the Hutt team, played well in defentine Rutherford in a three-set match, and, partnered with llrown, defeated Taylor and Rutherford in their doubles ill two sets. In the ladies' match mentioned Miss Hogg put up the best performanco for the lossrs, winning both the single and the double with Miss Howe. Leary's defeat of Hurley in the Brougham Hill-Victoria College match is worthy of mention. Oiu performances Lean* is uiulor-e-stimatcd in his club, but 110 doubt his defeat of Hurley in two sets will give his club's Selection Committee an opportunity to recognise his ability. The C grade matches are providing somo interesting contests. Brougham Hill's first team is going strongly, and on. performances appears to be the strongest team in the grade. Muritai and Trinity Club are also strong, and, on then meetings of these three teams, should rest the result of this competition. Items of Interest, The Brougham Hill tournaments are now well under way. Misses Rothschild and Hayes have reached tho final in the ladies' doubles. • . It is understood that the Wellington Provincial body lias allotted its annual championship meeting to Masterton, the tournament to be held at tho same hmo a~ the Masterton Club's championship and handicap tournaments, about January 22. Seven courts will be available for play. Tennis players who are not travelling at Christmas will be pleased to hear that the management committee of the Wellington Provincial Lawn Tennis Association has decided to hold its handicap tournaments at that time. National Traits in Tennis, At the Brussels Exhibition tournament Max Decugis has just beaten A. F. Wilding, the champion of England, by 3 sets to 2 —a great performance for the Frenchman. This win illustrates the universality of the game, and brings very much into point the following extract , from an article, by A. Wallis Myers:— You who may play- a quiet j;ame of lawn tennis on your own or your neighbour's lawn have probably no conception of its cosmopolitan vogue. You would be surprised to hear that a dozen per-fectly-equipped halls are set apart for its winter, pursuit in . Stockholm, that more rackets are swung in Germany than in England, that every outpost in South Africa has its ant-heap court, and that the Parsec and the Jap are rapidly learning the finer points of the game. So catholic has this once-despised pastime become that, were a census taken of all its votaries, black and white. Christian nnd Pagan,'male and female, the result would amaze cricketers and golfers, and some of those editors who, when it comes to sizing up relative space for relative sports, are inclined to push tennis to the wall. ■ '

Pursued by so many different nationalities, on varied planes, and in varied climates, the tennis court ought to provide a' fertile field for the student of national propensities. It does. There is no game in which human traits are better illustrated, and. no game in which a country's psychological tendencies are more strikingly visible. If one were creating an ideal' player, a kind ,of super-champion, one would probably do what the . cook does, and extract ingredients from many different compartments. Without a spice of the American's dash (the-"big stick," let us say), the dish would be tasteless and unattractive. One. would also like to t import some of that grim colonial stolidity symbolised in Norman Brookes. From Japan I should like to borrow some of the lissomness and instinct foT motion that go to win -a foot-race or a wrestling match;'and from India I would fain extract the Supple wrist. To South Africa and Sweden I would go for physique; and to Ireland for tenacity in a gocd or bad cause. In England—well, I am one. of those who are of the opinion that the super-champion might be discovered intact in this little island.' "■ No other sport or game save,', perhaps,: horse-racing and polo, has, or; has, ever had, such a vogue m the world, and these two are too expensive for the most of us.