LAWN TENNIS.

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 27, 27 October 1926, Page 8

LAWN TENNIS.

(By

“Forehand.”)

Sergeant Murphy Discourses on Suzanne •‘Did you sea that that French teunis girl, Suzanne What-ever-you-eall-ber has signed a form as a ‘pi’o’t ’ asked Heddle. ~ , “I did,’’ replied Sergeant Murphy. “The world is still staggerin’ from the blow. On receipt of the nows Consols moved wan eighth, a mass meeting ol exFrinch Premiers passed a vote of confidence in her; Senator Borah advised Congress to tack on tin per cent, to the amount of the Frinch debt to the amount of tho French debt to the U.S.A. The ‘Daily Gasp’ collected wan hundred and eight opinions on the subject from people as far apart as .Dean Ink and the keeper of the John O Gwat s lighthouse: high tide at London Bridge was wan hour in advance of schedule; Mistlier Joynson-Hicks postponed signing the order for the licensin’ of twoseater taxis; the guy-rotary .system for prams was abolished in Kensington Gardens; and the Lord knows what else. “Amid ail this fuss and turmoil tho little heroine herself was the only wan to preserve her calm. " ‘l’m fightin’.' says she. ‘the battle of the pure amachoor. Lawn tennis has degenerated since the days when min with pot-hats and side-whiskers played it for the love of the game. Now it s all advertisement and gate money, and photos of girls in graceful, though unseemly, poses. So ailioo to Wimbledon. I'm for the simple life as a professional, whore the money ie handed over in advance aud in chunks —win. lose or dhraw’. And she signs on the dotted line for a fee of twinty thousand pounds.” . “It’s a Tot of money." says Heddle. . ‘‘To me or vou or Misthej- Baldwin it may be.” replied the Sergeant. "But in the circle or squares in which Mamsell Long-glinn sthrides it’s the sort of tip you’d put in a child’s hand, and is only given 10 bind the .bargain. “Just think of her publicity Y, alue ; Why, Niagra Falls or Halley s Comet combined can’t equal it. There s not a thing she wears, from the bandage round her head, to her rubber soles, that can t be capitalised and placed on the assets side of her accounts. Whin you, Heddle, put some stuff on your hair, nopin it 1* stretch a bit and cover the bald spots, divil a soul inquires whether its cart grease or Oozo,«the famed spicinc of the Wampun Injins. But whin Suzanne adopts a face powdher, the face powdher adopts her. and the news is broadcast from all stations You’d never think that, because a girl can play tinnis better than anny other girl, she s an expert on tooth paste. “Klaxon horns, trost bite early editions of ‘The Lives of the Saints,’ sparkin’ plugs, and nearly everything else. Wby, if a manufacturer wants to build up a thrade in patty-defoy-grass or whatever-you-call-it underwear, all lie has to do is to. request Suzanne to accent a sample and display it in the way that’s become the custom at Wimbledon, and that’s brought many a blush lo the cheek of the copper .on duty. The next day the fact ho ties are workin’ to capacity.”—A. P- barland, in the "English Review.”

Club Interest. Interest in tennis this season is becoming verv keen. Entries have already closed for the Hutt Bowling and lennis Club’s handicaps, the number ot entries being large, and the four newly-mawo courts are in first-class order. the Thorndon Club, St. Peter s Club,. and St. Joseph’s Club will open next Saturday; Miramar Improvements. Improvements arc continually being effected on the association courts at Miramar. Recently there has been erected to divide one line of eight hard courts from the other lino of eight hard , voarts, a wobden fence, boarded to a height of about ten feet. The effect of this improvement is tremendous It gives players a first-class background, a thing they did not have before. Letore the erection of this fence players were continually baulked in making then shots by the fact of seeing players moving about on lhe courts in front of them when making their strokes. Other than life members, who number about 250, the paying members of the club number between sixty aud seventy players. A Wellingtonian’s Success. Charlie Watt, au ex-member of Brougham Hill Club, and lately a student at Scots College, has recently won the Freshmen’s Championship at Canterbury College, ond was runner-u.p in the final of the open championship. Standing well over six 'feet. Watt has the makings of a first-class player. His height and reach enable him Io serve a tremendously hard ball, which he has yet to get more under control and deliver with more accuracy. His somewhat loose knit frame .makes for freeness in the execution of his strokes. He plavs the ball low down with a great deal of lift and top. and it crosses the not at great speed, and. because it tails so quickly, is very deceptive. He can, and will, be even more deadly on short lobs, while his volleying is fair. Since leaving Wellington he lias made great improvement. The Game in the Schools. Great activity is manifest in schools’ tennis circles these days, and in the Hutt Valley the competition for the Melody Cup (teams of four boys and font girls) is in full swing. In six weeks’ time the big schools’ tourney is due to commence, and with Perkins an absentee, the destination of the Ferguson Cup is very doubtful, and tho competition for this coveted trophy should be very keen. Referring to the game in the schools a correspondent writes: .There Is no gainsaying the fact that the standard of school tennis is steadily deterioraing, and it is difficult to suggest a remedy for this deplorable state of affairs. A certain amount of reproach might be hurled at the teachers; but with the increasing encroachment of scholastic work on their leisure time; it seems improbable that nddit'ional energy will be spent in coaching children. It is a different mvxr, though where the seniors are concerned, and the shining example set by Teddy Roberts and Mark Nicholls in coaching school footballers might well be emulated op the schools’ tennis courts by some of the local champions of the racket, quite n. few of whom, by the way. owe everything to the sacrifices made by their teacher-coaches when thev were schools’ players. The position is so deplorable, iu fact, that I feel sorely tempted to name some of these "illustrious ingrates” who, by their studied “abstemiousness” are doing their level best, to justify the charge so frequent y laid against tennis that it is essentially a game that engenders selfishness. Let these illustrious seniors and seniorjuniors take a leaf out of the Rotary Club’s book and run a “fattier and son’ tourney at Miramar one of these days. I shall provide 1G worthy sons (and 111 worthy daughters too) any time these plavers of note are prepared to assume their parental'(tennis) responsibilities. Tn the meantime let us urge teacher-coaches to impress on their chaiges the necessity for hitting the rising ball, returning services consistently, gripping their rackets firmly nt -the moment of striking the ball, exploiting the centre theory in doubles, etc. Muritai Club.

Thiee years ago the Muritai Club was almost defunct, so casual was the interest taken in it by the few members who were content to drift along with unkempt courts and go as you please conditions. Un Saturday last, with a membership of 60 men and 30 women (just treble that of three seasons ago); with all four courts in perfect condition; with a fine knock-up board (when will tennis players in general realise the value of this great'asset?); and with a capable and enthusiastic, committee, the club opened its season with every prospect of a bumper year. To Mr. C. T. Andrew, the energetic and popular club captain, all credit for this gratifying state of affairs is due. Backed up by an enthusiastic committee comprising Misses Barnett and Shortt. Messrs. Beale, Barnett. Poole and Wilson, with Messrs. Curtis (hon. treasurer), and A. Munden (hon. secretary). Mr. Andrew has laboured untiringly in furthering the club’s interests, and the fact that each season the club presents rackets to the Muritai school singles’ champions, who arc also granted a year’s free membershin, is merelv an indication of the interest that is taken in the junior members by the elub’s seniors. Already record entries ha.ro been received for ths club

competitions, and it is not an unusual these days to find, all courts occupied before breakfast. The Yankee tournament week-end bids fair to become a great success. Prominent amongst the lady players are Mesdames Melody (starting again after over a year's rest from the game), Robinson, Braund, and Andrew, and Misses Shortt, Wood, and Harrington, whilst from Messrs. Curtis, Andrew, Morrison, Paget, I’oole, Barnett, Black and Dodds (the last four very promising juniors), a strong men's team is available. A noteworthy feature of the club is the appearance on the courts of so many members of both sexes, wearing the club’s blazers (green and gold). A large new pavilion is a. possibility in the near future, and with the genial president, Mr, 11. L. Shortt, confining as sponsor, the future o ftho dub seems a particularly rosy one. Handicapping and Championships. A few remarks addressed to clubs about to make up the handicaps for their handicap matches may not be amiss There is a tendency to place the outstanding champions on the owe mark and then believe their chances of winning are thereby made more difficult or even impossible. This is a fallacy. The man on the owe mark, because the game is thus prolonged beyond the number ot points which it is intended the match shall be up to, has a far better chance of winning. . Let us suppose the game is 50 points up, and A is handicapped owe 10 and B is handicapped 10 on. B is not getting 20 points in 50 as is so cheerfully believed but 20 in 60. And it is obvious that A has a much better chance of winning while the game is 60 up. I am firmly of the opinion that the best player should start from scratch and the handicaps arranged from that fact. Taking the above mentioned case why should not A bo put Ch scratch and B get the 18 points in 50 which is his priori argument usually advanced for the owe method of handicapping is that startin" with the champions on scratch will involve putting the limit men forward and thus handicapping the champions out of it. As opposed to this I contend that handicaps are a concession to handicap (which means for the most part very mediocre) players. It is no more for the good of tennis for the champions to go pot hunting omong the handicaps than it is for “rabbits to go blundering in among the cham.pions. io speak of it is experience for the ‘ rabbit" is sheer nonsense. The champion plays through with a bored indifference while the “rabbit" careers about impotently too strained in getting to the ball to' have any intelligence left as to where ho is going to put it when he gets - there. , . , , I am greatly in favour of restricted entries for championships. A player should have produced a recognised standard pt plav before being allowed to compete in championships. A parent would never dream of allowing a standard 1 child to be put straight into Standard VI. And yet that is what tennis people, are doing wherever and whenever possible. Many of us are still in Hie standard I. and 11. class of tennis and are foolish enough to let ourselves be made to look ridiculous at the hands of the standard VI. plavers. Let the improvement be progressive by logical stages. By all means let us get as much practice as we can against better players but do not let us lav the flattering unction to our souls that our improvement will come by riishing baldheaded into the championship ranks. Of course the chief objection to restriction is financial and that fact alone is indicative of the fact that the best interests of tennis are not considered by any of the associations, least of all by the New Zealand Association. I am not unmindful of the fact that a Pr°/™e such as I have outlined would lessen the number of days it would take to complete the New Zealand championships, but I am certain it would be more than compensated for by a considerably higher standard of play. None of the players could then afford to ease up. as some are enabled to do now to their own ultimate undoing. , The medium players could be catered for bv matches in ivhich tl\ey would probablv meet opponents perhaps a little better than themselves. The big trouble in New Zealand is that there scarcely any such thing as practice. When Iwo players, co on the court it is with the obvious intention of tho one cleaning up the other fellow. They make a game of it. iluch of the fault lies in a tincture of jealousy at the other fellow’s skill. The desire to win robs anv opportunity Hie time Wght have given for practice. All that.it does, is to give an opportunity for perpctiating faults. A man fears to r’sk his »bot or a new method for fear of losin„ the game

R. N. K. Swanston. c -r, ™ tWhile regretting the loss of K. N. KSwanston, tennis players will jom in congratulating him on Ins promotion to the managership of the Auckland brane of the Bank of Australasia. Although it is some years since be represented New Zealand’ and Wellington in.tennis, his interest in the game has never flagged, and he was always ready to take part in the game itself. His method of keening himself fit for an important fixture could well be emulated by many of to-day’s budding champions. His training was as severe off the court as on it Road work, morning mins, and long walks wore studiously and consistently indulged in. When on the court before the great events he was assiduous hi his practice. Until the event the result was nothing. The of his strokes was. everything!■ bi<* occasion arrived he was PoT s,l ' a .’ y and mentally fit, trained to the minute eve, hand, and body acting,™ unison He was a fairly bard hitter, but above all an accurate one. As a spot man he was without a rival. No one em saw him. ruffled, and no one ever had to question his sense of rainless. Rather did he err on the side of the vein he was wont of late to inauibe i ruiint the moral or adorn a tale, but he P could never be induced to sing his own praises. Wellington’s loss is Auckland’s gain. Other Potential Champions. The 1926 tournament has revealed, where the good golfers live. We know now that Dr. K. Ross, of Dunedin, is capable of doing two recessive round of 74 on such a course ns Miramar. We know that Came Bidwill, that great match player from the Wairarapa, is capable of putting out such an opponent as Dr. Ross in the very first round. Our education lias been added to fur ther bv knowing that N. H. Ben, me Waikato champion, is class enough to eliminate Bidwill from the lists Young nlivers of class are coming along in Wagg (Hutt), B V. Wnght (Timaru), and M. H. Duncan (Wellington), who can be depended upon to be serious challengers when their nerves have been stiffened up for big match play. Kapi lareha, J. Black J. Goss and E. hi. Macfarlane are still forces to be reckoned with, any one of them being good enough to take a national championship it right on his game.

International Contests. New Zealand golfers are indebted to those sporting Australians who came over and added interest to the tournamerit bv having a tilt for Dominion honours. It was very pleasing bear from Mr. R. C. Kirk chairman of the New Zealand Golf Council, at the prize-giving ceremony on Saturday that arrangements had been practically completed for annual contests between the Commonwealth States and New Zealand in future. This will still further make for an improvement in the standard of New Zealand play, as nothing pushes a game along so much as friendly rivalry between the star plavers of different countries. H. Morrison and W. R. Dobson, the two leading Svdnev plavers of the contingent that came across, proved that thev could produce quality golf. 1 hey will no doubt be different propositions when our players meet them on Austrajian links-