Lawn Tennis

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 61, 9 September 1905, Page 14

Lawn Tennis

[Br Huka.] From information received, lawn tennis is booming in the country districts already— several clubs intend putting down new courts, as their membership has increased beyond whatever was expected. The club at Levin has been very active, thanks to Mr. Burns, late of Victoria College, and it is eager to play matches against all-comers. It has a fine wood court, laid many years ago when timber was cheap, and many of our best players would bo surprised, if thoy played on it, to find that it is probably tho fastest court, in the colony. The Wellington Association will have to wake up, and see that country shield matches are arranged, as otherwise these clubs outside of the city will one day form a sub-association on their own account. In fact the time is now ripe for tho Provincial Association to force the hands of its clubs, and follow in the lines of the cricket and football bodies. It a club affiliates, one of the conditions should be that' it enters a team or teams for the club contests. It is the Association's duty to boom the sport, and no better plan than an intcrclub contest has yet been discovered. The club that does not enter a team in the Association's contests is lacking in its duty to its members, to its' association,' and to the sport, and it will in time slowly but surely descend to old-time garden party tennis— afternoon tea and costume display. It may seem hard for clubs to be told that they must play club matches, yet it is the only sure and safe method for an association that hopes to hold its own in the tennis world, lhe English authorities have recognised it, and the famous champions, tho Doherty Brothers, battle for their club, even when their less powerful clubmates could comfortably win the matches, or the majority of them. With the little time before it the Association can hardly n °Pe to work out a complete and workable scheme for this season, but it should early next winter go thoroughly into the matter, and attempt, to cater for. all its clubs. It may mean hard work for some little time, but what- good object was ever attained without such hard work ? Once clubs . are roused to the proper enthusiasm— and in every . club some enthusiasts will be found to help— the work of tho governing association will be light and the contests will be taken as matter of course. Members will see the benefits, to bo gained, and thus the playing 'form of all will' be improved. One has only to think of the events that have been' lately completed on _ the other side of the globe to be satisfied that teams matches are of some use. The international contests are between the best players of tho world, and yet the majority of the players — the whole of them— would learn something that they did not know before. Mr. W. H. Collins, captain of the British Isles team, told his. hearers at a dinner given to the international teams that from year to year certain people used to tako trips over to Australia and New Zealand and come back with stories of the wonderful power of the players that they had encountered there. Those storios wore regarded as fairy tales — but "we know that those stories were not fairy tales, but the frozqn truth." From the play of the Australasian team something had been learned, and there is not a single club team in New Zealand that could not learn something from playing in interclub contests—^somo have done so already. Too much could not be written or said upon this subject, but the writer hopes that with the littlo that has been written some earnest worker^ 'will take the matter up and see it through. If they do, in years to come their names will be remembered as the men who "took the ball at the top of the bound," and carried the sport to tho high place it deserves, but which has evidently hardly been thought of yet in New Zealand. In England the press has given the sport a tremendous lift of lato years, by constant criticism. In fact so well did the papers cater for it during the international events that the grounds were full long before the matches started, and the gates were closed to the public Mr. H. A. Parker, the New Zealand champion, has left England via America, and is expected to arrive here about the end of next month. • Parker had considerable success while in England, winning several open championship events, and carrying off trophies running into double figures. Ho was unfortunate just before the Davis Cup ovent, as ho was hit on thn face, by a tennis ball. As he wears eyeglasses, he was very fortunate in only roceiving a slight injury to oiib of bis eyes, which nevertheless prevented him from playing in the big event. Since then ho has won several open events, so must have completely recovered. A. F. Wilding won the Open Singles at Redhill very easily, hardly being pressed in any of the rounds. He also won tho Doubles with Kenneth Powell— his Cambridge partner. They had a hard fight against E. M. Simond and A. D. Prebble in the final, winning 6—l 11—9, 4—6, 6—4. Miss Powell and Wilding were beaten in the third round of the Handicap Mixed. ' B. Murphy "(Australia) krpt in the Open Singles at Epsom until he met M. J. G. Ritchie in tho semi-final,' when the latter won/, 6—l, 7—5. Murphy and Finiason went down to thS Allen Brothers in the final of the Doubles, 6 3, 6—o. With Mrs. Armstrong, tho Australian also lost in the semi-final of the Mixed, 7—5, 6-r-2.