TENNIS

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 December 1937, Page 11

TENNIS

BUDGE DEFEATS CRAWFORD

[BY CABLE —PRESS'ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.]

SYDNEY, December 29.

Australia defeated Germany at tennis by three rubbers to one. Results: A. Quist (Australia) defeated H. Henkel (Germany), 6/2, 6/4, 6/2. G. von Gramm (Germany) defeated J. E. Bromwich, 6/0, 7/5, 10/8. In an exhibition match J. D. Budge (America) defeated J. Crawford (Australia), 7/5, 6/1, 6/2. An overflowing crowd of 12,000 people saw a splendid day’s tennis. Quist forced the play throughout against Henkel, and maintained an immaculate length on his drives. Budge received an ovation. He was very keen and served extremely fast. He scored numerous aces with his backhand placements. Crawford, with characteristic steadiness, thoroughly tested the American. The tie between von Cramm and Bromwich was really exciting. Von Cramm, with acutely angled backhand and forehand drives, scored many clean winners. He was first profitably to take the net against Bromwich, who staged a grand recovery from 1/4 to 6/5 in the third set, in which lie saved four match points.

/ OFFICIAL AND REVOLVER

SYDNEY, December 29

Critics agreed that Budge, to-day, completely rehabilitated himself and gave the crowd a display of quality. He exploited every corner of the court and kept Crawford on the run. Mr. Henry Marsh, secretary of the New South Wales Tennis Association, who Was so caustic in his ' criticism yesterday, declared that the real world champion was seen and had thrilled the gallery. At least 1000 people were unable to gain admission to the courts and angry scenes resulted. One man’s foot got wedged in a turnstile, and while he was calling out in pain an official drew a revolver and commanded, the crowd to keep back. Women screamed and men shouted and hooted. Somebody summoned the police, after which the crowd started to disperse. The gate official explained that the revolver, which was not loaded, was used to protect the gate receipts. It accidentally fell off the table during the crush. He merely picked it up and some of the crowd became panicky.