LONG QUEST ENDS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 26, 31 July 1933, Page 7

LONG QUEST ENDS

BEITAIN'S MERITED WIN

THE FINDING OF PERRY

Ifc was iv 1912 that Britain last won tho Davis Cup, taking the trophy fron^ Australasia ia a, great contest at Melbourne, mainly owing to the brilliant performance of J. C. Parke, the Irish Eugby international. Parke, "a firstclass runner and a second-class tennis player" as ho once heard himself described, defeated N. E. Brookes in four sets, partly owing to a well-judged lob at a critical etag« in tho niateh, and as B. W. Heath, the second singles string of the Australasian team, proved weak, that victory clinched the rubber. Before this Britain had , enjoyed a fair share of the Cup. She had won every match for four years some time previously, and by the 1912 victory she ended a run of successes by Australasia which also had extended oyer four years. But in 1913 the American team, M. L. McLoughlin, K. N. Williams (who was still in Davis Cup tennis as late as 1926, when he partnered Vincent Bichards against Cochet and Brugnon and boat them), and H. H. Hacket managed to win tho Cup by the. odd match. Again Parke won both' his singles, but C. P. Dixon, the British second singles , player, failed in both hir matches and the doubles went to tho United States after a long fight. Since that day Britain has been in the challenge round only three times: in 1919 when A. H. Lowe, A. K. F. Kingscote, and A. E. Beamish met Australasia at Melbourne and were defeated by four matches to one, at Paris two years ago when Cochet's triple win saved France;' and this year. FIVE PERIODS. Tho history of the Cup falls into five periods, the timo when the United States held it for three years, after it was first presented in 1900, the dominance of Britain from 1903 to 1906, due to the ' superiority of the Doherty brothers, who were never defeated on the court after their country won the Cup, the rise of Australasia, accounted for by the emorgence of those two great playors, A. F. Wilding and N. E. Brookes, which aided' the Antipodean team to hold the trophy from 1907 to 1910 and again from 1914 to 1919, the reign of America, to be traced to the magnificent play of W. T. Tilden and W. M. Johnston and w.hich lasted from 1920 to 1926, and tho advent of France, with her "Four Musketeers," Cochet, Lacoste, Borotra, and Briignoii, who stood at tho head of world tennis.season after season and had only ono serious rival, Tilden himself. In all these years Britain had been waiting for another chance to take the trophy, but the chanco had not conic. Players rose and faded, "champions" were discovered, but found to have been nailed too soon. At last H. W. Austin developed, and when thej British team visited this country five years ago it was able to say that "another Austin" would bring back the Cup. In 1930 that "other Austin" was discovered. He proved to be Frederick Perry, the son of a Labour member of Parliament, a young mam of twenty who took tennis with the light-heartedness of a Borotra and who had some of Borotra's brilliance. In 1930 this young man went through thu' Wimbledon meeting to reach the last sixteen. Tho following year ho was beating Sidney Wood, the Wimbledon champion, and Borotra, playing in the Wimbledon semi-final, making his way into the semi-final of the United States singlos and beating seven of the first ten. ranking players in America. In 1932 he was defeating Borotra again to win tho Coupe de Noel, which was regarded as almost French property. This "other. Austin," it was speedily seen, was better than Austin. NO SURPRISE. So ifc was no surprise when Britain mado her way into tho challengo round in 1931, defeating a somewhat jaded American team. Yet Britain failed that year, and failed again last season, her passage to the inter-zone final being blocked by the Germans, who had kept their crack player Prenn away from Wimbledon and set him practising on slow courts to upset the Britons' game. But this season better fortune awaited them. Perry was defeated relatively early at Wimbledon, a thing which probably was a stroke of good fortune for Britain, as it kept him fresh for ono of the hardest journeys to the challenge round that any nation has yet been called upon to make. With Australia beaten, the United States heavily defeated, and the French making a desperate search for men to win not five matches, but merely three, the odds were on Britain from the beginning. Thoir victory marks the end of the French in Davis Cup tennis for years to come. Their old team has fallen to pieces, Lacosto is invalided out of the game, Borotra is tired, Brugnon is nearly forty. The quest now must begin where it began almost a decade ago, in the search for young players who can stand tho stress of struggling through to the challengo round once I more. j