The Hawera Star. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1926. TENNIS AND TEARS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 18 February 1926, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1926. TENNIS AND TEARS.

Delivered every evening by 6 o'clock in Howora, Mftnoia, Normanby, Okaiawo. Eltharo, Mangatokl, Kaponga, Alton, Hurleyvflle, Patea, Waverley, Mokola, Wh&kamara, Oh&ngat, Meremere, Fraser Roed. and Ararat®.

No doubt France is intensely prouu of Millie. Suzanne Lenglen; but. it is most unfortunate for that young lady that she betrays nationality so at critical moments in, big games. Empires and referees the world over are every day giving rulings against this plsiyer or that. Sometimes the n.'i.pjies are wrong; more often they are right. But, right or wrong, they have the final word, and it is the mark of a sportsman, that he accepts every ruling without question. Mdlle. Lenglen, handicapped equally by the impetuosity of her race and the sensitiveness of her sex, has made one ar two bad breaks on the tennis court. For these she is to be pitied rather than blamed, but their effect, cannot bat be harmful botli lo the game of lawn tennis and to . the sporting reputation of the French people. In her match with Miss Wills on Tuesday, Mdlle. Lenglen appears to have controlled her temper moderately well, and that in a. trying situation for a highly-strung - girl. Peril aps it was fortunate that she found refuge in tears so soon. Nevertheless, the announcement after the match that she had not. said her last word regarding the officials was quite unnecessary and wholly out of place. Mdlle. Lenglen won the match well, and, because France will not make the- fuss of it that America would had the result been different, the tennis world may be pleased. But it must be admitted that the real honours of the contest go to Miss Wills. Although a stranger in her opponent’s country, and beaten to the verge, of collapse, the Californian girl kept a wonderful self-con-trol to the end, and had nothing but generous praise for her conqueror. That- is sportsmanship. When an American wins, the American, people

go crazy; but most Americans can

take a heating with the best. We do not remember having seen it stated liow many generations “American’ ’ Miss Wills really is; but her name indicates a foundation of good AngloSaxon blood. Let the pessimists moan as they may of the decadence of British sport and the supremacy of foreigners, the fact remains that British sportsmanship is as true as ever it was. And such encounters as that in which Miss Wills went down figlitand unresentful, prove that the seeds of British sportsmanship, scattered far from English fields, blossom again in all their beauty wherever Britishers have, made their homes.