TENUIS TOURNAMENT.

Evening Star, Issue 14037, 19 April 1909, Page 8

TENUIS TOURNAMENT.

' ' -| The Association did not manage to get • the finals—left over from Easfcev Tuesday —played off on Saturday. Following a glorious morning there was a sudden I change in the weather about two o'clock, and after some of the school events had bean played and. the Boys' Single Championship started, a heavy downpour stopped proceedings for s r m>e time. An j attempt was then made to get off the } final of tbe Mixed Doubles Handicap, the j pairs left in being S. N. Brown and' Miss » Burt and Bray and Miss Templeton. When the score was 3—2 in favor of the former ! another heavy shower dispersed players i and spectators. As Miss Templeton had ! to return home by afternoon train, it was, with the consent of all parties, de- { cided to award the first prize to Brown and Aliss Burt. Bray and Miss Templeton taking second prize. The prizes in the following events were then presented to the winners by the president oi the Association (Mr A". E. Harraway), who made a few appropriate remarks to each recipient : —Mixed Doubles Handicap—lst prizes, S. N. Brown and Miss Burt; 2nd prizes, W. Bray and Miss Templeton. Girls' Championship—Miss G. Stoneham. Boys' Handicap Singles— Master ; G. Black. Boys' Handicap Doubles—Masters W. J. White and T. Young". Men's Handicap Singles (B grade)—lst, D. Pollock; 2nd, R, S. Black. The A grade and C grade banners, won by the Kaituna and North-east Valley Clubs respectively for most points in interclub matches during the season, were also presented, amidst cheers, to the representatives of those clubs, with the remarks that it was in the best interests of tbe game that the banners should -be won by different clubs. No club should have a monopoly if it could be avoided. Referring to the play and the tournament generally, the President said that all must | agree that it had been the most successful ever held in Otago. The-presence of A. F. Wilding, his father, and Ollivier, and the leading local players, had shown the public the great possibilities of the game—the local players had experienced it. He did not intend to belittle our best players. They had been matched against players of great renown, and he was sure they all felt that the Brown Bros., the defenders of the Champion Doubles, had played grandly, and that there was no doubt that they were still the best pair resident in Otago. He hoped that those who had competed would, during the next twelve months, so improve that there would be a reasonable chance of recovering the championships from our friends across the border. He had also to thank those ladies of the Kaituna and Roslyn Clubs who had attended to the wants of tbe players playing on their courts on Good Friday and Easter Saturday, and to the Kaituna ladies for again entertaining them on this occasion. He also desired to specially mention Mr J. Daggar, who had sole control at Kaituna during the first two days, and Mr R. S. Black who controlled the Roslyn courts. Referring to Mr W. Hamilton Irvine, the hon. secretary, Mr Harraway said that the majority of players had little idea of the tremendous amount of work which Mr Irvine had to do in running a tournament. The serious work began about a month before, continued at fever heat during playing dp'ys, and ended about three weeks after the tournament was over. Mr Wilding, sen., in his speech on Tuesday, said that he and his son had played at tournaments all over England and on the Continent, and they had never seen better management or met a better secretary than Mr Irvine. It was not necessary for him to say more.—(Cheers). . Before concluding he wished to thank the many ladies and gentlemen who had so freely given their services as and last, but not least, he felt that they were under a debt of gratitude to the Press, who so freely gave the use of their columns at all times, and thus enabled them to push forward the interests of the game.