TENNIS UMPIRES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 46, 23 August 1939, Page 20

TENNIS UMPIRES

BUSY SEASON AHEAD

"I appeal to you to make your best efforts this season," said the chairman, Mr. D. A. Syme, at the annual meeting of the Wellington Lawn Tennis Umpires' Association, held last night. "This year is New Zealand Centennial yea? and in the tennis world—particularly as far as Wellington is concerned —it will be a strenuous one. A lot of events have been arranged and it is up to Wellington --to show the rest of New Zealand how umpiring should be done. I.ask every member of the association to bring along at least one more member." Mr. Syme stressed the fact that nobody would be asked to do more than he thought he could. The membership stood at 97 and eight members had been successful in qualifying in the New Zealand Umpires' examination during the year, bringing the total number of qualified umpires in the association up to 21, said the annual report. It was hoped that the membership and the number of qualified umpires would, be greatly increased. -, As the association had been waiting to receive the standard New Zealand; examination paper from the New Zealand Umpires' Association (which was compiling it), the examinations had been held up. The paper had now come to hand. . Referring to this Mr., Syme said it was a good pap§r, and! the eighteen members who were ready to sit their examinations could be taken at any time now. At the Wellington Lawn Tennis Association's ' Christmas. tournament, 221 games had been umpired during- the four days, the report said. It was noticeable that there had been few members of the association available for the tournament and it had been necessary to rely on the players for practically the whole of the umpiring. At the Easter tournament the response to the call for umpires from members of the association had been most dis r appointing. The total- number of games umpired had been 224. The greatest number of games umpired by- a competitor averaged 1.75 a day. For future tournaments the executive had decided to call upon women competitors to umpire. Umpires were slow to respond at the champion of champions tournament. Five hundred feet of film had been donated to the association and it had been decided to use the greater portion during the Centennial tournament in February, when it was hoped that famous internationals and certainly the best players in New Zealand would be present. Approximately 100 feet would be used in making a film showing the correct umpiring procedure for a championship match. The attention of members was drawn to a ruling received by the New Zealand Umpires' Association from the rules committee of the Lawn Tennis Association of Great Britain. It read: "If a player, after taking his stance to serve, swings his foot over the | centre-line during the service, he has not committed a foot-fault." v Officers were elected as follows:—j Patron, Dr. Robert Stout; president, Mr. D. A. Syme; vice-presidents, Messrs. H. Ludwoici and L. Donovan; ( hon. secretary-treasurer, Mr. G. A. Ward; management committee, Messrs. A. Butcher, H. Sturrock, A. W. Griffiths, M. Smith, and C. W. Watts; delegates to Lawn Tennis Association, Messrs. D. A^ Syme and L. Donovan; hon. auditor, Mr. J. L. McDuff.