LAWN TENNIS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue LXXXVIII, 12 September 1914, Page 10

LAWN TENNIS

(By "Huka.") WELLINGTON CLUB. The fifteenth annual meeting of the Wellington Club will be held on the 16th September. Several motions are on the order paper, mostly in connection with what subscriptions will be for the forthcoming season. One motion reads as follows:— "That this club affiliate with the New Zealand Sports Protection League." Notwithstanding the heavy expenditure of last yeai the credit bala.nce (£33 10s lOd) is most satisfactory. The management during the season was good, and lively interest was taken by all members. This was due in a great measure to the large number of matches, some fitteen in all, arranged by the committee. The season will be opened on Saturday, the 26th September, and there is every indication that the club will have an even more successful season that it experienced last year. The club's membership at present is fortythree ladies, thirty-one men, five honorary, and thirteen winter members-. Three of the club's members, Messrs. A. Boddington, J. D. Harper, and T. Lawless, joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. CONDITION. Just before the season starts it is well •that players should be given a reminder about condition. Not only in lawn tennis is condition a great asset, but in all paths of life, more so with war upon us than ever. Some day most players will learn that condition has won more matches, and the lack of it lost more, than any other one thing in the history of the game. Lawn tennis is no game for weaklings. But unfit, or half fit, men and women have frequently figured well in tournament play, and achieved a fair amount of success. This, so far from being an argument in. favour of lack of condition, is just the reverse. A player who wins in spite of physical weakness would have done much better if his game had been plus condition. Until very recently, and even then to only a very slight extent, lawn tennis lias not been an athletic game Li the sense that its followers have been athletes. The latter are trained and picked men, who come to the mark fit to go at top speed for their distance, whatever it may be. Lawn tennis players frequently—mostly habitually— go on the court lacking in condition to stand a hard match. Even "the best of them show the wear and tear of such a- match long before it is over, whereas they, if trained, would put up a better game, and finish without being painfully distressed. If they went into court well trained better matches would be the result, whereas the display given by Eome of our reputed champions is nothing more or less than an insult to the game. WILDING'S TRAINING. Probably no player of any day has been so continually and so conspicuously fit for tournament play as A. F. Wilding. Possessing little of the brilliance of many of his great rivals, he has in match after match foughft on doggedly, waiting for the first evidence of physical failing that will give him the opportunity to strike a blow in a vital spot. Time and again he , has lost two sets, and yet never lacked confidence of getting the next three. He is, in fact, one ot the few men who can put up a big spurt at the finish of a great match. Wilding has declared that the lawn tennis player should prepare himself in much the same way as the boxer. It is about time some of our players awakened to that fact, particularly the younger ones, if they wish to excel. Try it this season, and some of the old 'uns may have to take a back seatj BROUGHAM HILL CLUB. The Brougham Hill Club's annual meeting was held on Wednesday evening at Mr. J. A. B. Howe's residence, and members attehded well. Mr. -G. N. Goldie was in the chair, and whilst congratulating the club upon its success during the last year, appealed to members to strive to go one better during the present season. From the number of applications for membership it is certain that the club will have its full strength before the opening day, which was fixed for 26th September. Eight of the club's members have gone to the front in the Expeditionary Force. The following Management Committee was elected : Messrs. Roberta, Dean, Grace, Instone, and H. Howe. Messrs. J. A. B. Howe and W. E. Howe were re-elected lion, treasurer^ and hon. secretary respectively. The Chairman appealed to the members to back up the committee in getting their matches- off up to date, as doing so would go a long way to assist in making the season an enjoyable and successful one.