SWELLED HEAD

Evening Star, Issue 21079, 16 April 1932, Page 17

SWELLED HEAD

A TENNIS DISEASE At the annual meeting of the British Lawn Tennis Association the chairman of the council, Mr A. C. Griffiths, made some critical remarks about the manners of young players. Mr Griffiths said that the general conduct and sportsmanship at tournaments were better than ever, but unless the germ of doubtful behaviour were eradicated the game would suffer. He summarised questionable conduct under these headings:— Questioning and chatting with the umpire or linesmen. Losing a point, the temper—and the ball by hitting it into space. Turning up late for a game without apology, “ as if the player owned the earth.”. Leaving a tournament without paying entrance fee. THE WIMBLEDON TRADITION.

“ Some of us who legislate for the game,” he went on, “ may be getting old, but we are not blind or deaf yet, and we know what the Wimbledon tradition is, as applied to lawn tennis generally—and we know when that tradition is departed from, “ This new mentality among younger players must be due to one cause or another—either ignorance, thoughtlessness, lack of manners, or swollen head. They get fulsome praise in the newspapers—they are budding Tildons or Lenglens—and the results are unfortunate for themselves, and, may X add, for their parents!” POINTS DISCUSSED. A proposal that decisions of the council in regard to players should be final and binding and that there should be no right to appeal to either a court of law or otherwise, was carried. It was said that the highest legal advice had been taken in regard to the proposal. A proposal for the adoption of a ball slightly harder than that_ at present in use was carried without discussion after it had been pointed out that it was a reversion to the ball formerly in use in England. The election of Mr F. L. llisoley, the world-famous player and an ex-holder with S. H. Smith of the doubles championship at Wimbledon, as vice-presi-dent for life, was carried by acclamation. Medals and mementoes were presented to the members of the 1931 Davis 1 Cup team—Messrs Roper Barrett (the non-playing captain), H. W. Austin, F. J. Perry, G. P. Hughes, and C. H. Kingsley. Lord D’Abernon and Lord Desborough complimented the team, and Mr Barrett, in reply, said that they were beaten in the final in Paris “ by four of the best players in the world before the worst-behaved crowd in Europe. ”- WOMEN THE WORST. Commenting on Mr Griffiths’s criticism, Mr S. N. Doust (‘Daily Mail’) holds that the remarks made do not apply to the majority of tournament players, who take good and bad decisions quite unperturbed, and with whose manners no fault can _be found. “ But they are certainly true about some who are aspiring to international honours,” he wrote. “ They are overkeen to win, and show irritability when things go against them. Women players are the chief oifenders. They imagine from good newspaper reports that they are budding Lenglens, and can behave like her. 1 have been told by lawn tennis committees that it is most difficult to obtain private hospitality for some of the present-day young women tennis players.” Mr Frank Poxon (‘ News-Chronicle ’) says: “ From a long experience I must endorse Mr Griffiths’s remarks. What he said is entirely justified.” TOO MANY TOURNAMENTS. Mr Wallis Myers, writing in the ‘ Daily Telegraph,’ says that if young players are less decorous and modest to-day, that is duo to a number of reasons. “ Tournaments are almost endless in number,” ho says; “ players are pressed by promoters, some of them associated with the trade, to enter them even when they are obviously stale. The personnel of local committees has changed. The honorary worker finds a lack of inspiration; the agents of manufacturers are too much in control. The psychology of younger players is also influenced by the unchecked success of oversea invaders. When a Japa-

nese player can win an unbroken sequence of tournaments the depreciation in the class of play is advertised. The Lawn Tennis Association have been invited to refine and graduate their tournaments. Open to all comers as most of them are, the stronger competitors aro not adequately challenged, either physically or morally. Their spoils are too easily gained. Hence the temptation to slack, _ a wrong valuation of form, and an inflated reputation.” TEMPERAMENTAL PLAYERS. Mrs Geraldine Beamish, an England player and a former covered courts champion, said in a ‘ Daily Mail ’ interview ; “ This tendency to tantrums on the courts seemed rather on the increase this year. I do not think you find it in club tennis. It is these tournaments and competitive tennis that are so bad for our young players. They play far too much, and it is too great a strain on their nerves. I think it might be remedied by not playing so many tournaments, and I should be very strict and suspend people who did not behave themselves. The Lawn Tennis Association has every possible power. Regrettable behaviour on the court is the worst feature, because it is so bad for the prestige of England if foreigners see it. lam afraid some of our English players aro becoming as temperamental as some wo have known from other countries, and we aro in danger of losing our reputation for sportsmanship. Nowadays our players blossom into competitive tennis at, say, fifteen years old, and foolish critics may lead them to believe that they aro all Lenglens and Tildons. At such an early age it is wrong physically to play so much tennis, and if you knew the number of girls who burst into tears in the dressing room after they have lost a match you would bo very surprised. And the girls are no more temperamental than the men.”