TENNIS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 29 January 1927, Page 13

TENNIS

LOCAL CONDITIONS.

Everything meteorological 1m the past three weeks, ever -sauce tiic Lun of Christmas Day, lias been .all to- Hi advantage .and joy of tennis entlius lasts. An occasional,shower -and Lea J dews Lave kept the grass of the court in capital order, but- now the courts generally are- beginning to Mok 'Somewhat brown and more ram non Id be welcomed and would do- a. power ot good in restoring the green sheen to saw the resumption of the competition matches and keenest interest centres round that between Liawera A v. Park A both unbeaten teams. Apart front t-he honour ot winning the match, there is the atkhd interest taken in the meeting of these teams, for the result trill govern the placing of the- players for such a- fixture as South v. North Taranaki. li e men players are very even m both clubs, and it will be a- difficult matte to say who should be dropped out of the first- -ten players from the two 'Hie other match will be that between Park B and Manaia. at Manaia. it is probable the latter will win, as their men are more experienced ami most of them are specially noted lor their combination. lhcir laches also good .and will help the men worthily to uphold the honour ot the duo. "it is understood there will be no- second round played, and therefore, the next two matches will decided the w inners of the competition Ihe team winning in this round will be declared the leader for the zone and will piay off with the winners of the other zones Future matches likely to- be arranged after the competitions will be the North, v. South, which last year, held in Hawera ,proved a complete success. And this is likely to b'e staged again, because of its popularity last year and cntliu&iasts. will look forwarcl keenly 'to the struggle .between the two districts. New Plymouth suggested the match he held on their courts, but no doubt the question of a central locale will have a great weight in the decision. El th ain has a strong claim on the match, because of its central situation and because they have excellent courts. In addition there is the probability of ia. match or two with outside provinces. These will demand the best effort, that Taranaki can give, and therefore it behoves all club leading players to> secure all the practice possible.

NEW ZEALAND LADIES.

THEIR PLAY BELOW PAR,

“Ladies’ tennis in New Zealand is wcalr, very weak. Maybe the men could help the ladies a little more. But I don’t think the men are to blame. It is the ladies themselves who are at fault. I personally wouldn’t go along and say to a girl: ‘Come and have a game of tennis.’ But if a girl came to me and said: ‘Will you play with me?’ I’d say ‘Sure.’ ” . Seated in his room at a city hotel to-day Frank Peach, captain of the visiting team of New South Wales tennis players, made this comment to a Christchurch reporter concerning the allegations of Miss May Spcirs that the men could help the ladies more than they do. “I haven’t seen much of the ladies’ tennis since I’ve been in your country,” Mr Peach said. “But what little I have seen, has not impressed me. It has been very weak. How could it bo improved? ” Well, the men might help, a little. It is just a case of the ladies asking them. Then visits from overseas teams mean a lot also. A New South Wales team has been invited over. If it comes, it will be the means of. placing ladies’ 'tennis in New Zealand on a higher plane. It is only by playing with different types of players, by experience alone, that a tennis enthusi-' ast will develop into a really good player. ’ ’ “What do you think of Miss Spiers?” “ I can’t give you an opinion. I saw her play the final of the singles championship with Miss Howe. It was one of Miss Howe’s ‘out’ days, and it was one of Miss Spcir’s ‘off’ days.,' That’s how it struck me. You’ll often find that in tennis. There are clays when a player can’t do anything wrong, and there are days when he can’t do anything right.” Mr Peach said that there had been a distinct improvement amongst the men, since his last visit three years ago, but the ladies had shown no improvement. “We are more or less missionaries,” declared Mr Pcacli. “Hundreds of people, who previously took no interest in the game, have come to see us play, and they have subsequently taken up the game. That is a good thing. Wo are glad to see it. Your crowds are excellent. They’re very fair. We have been treated very well everywhere we’ve been.”

Mr Peach said that he was going to recommend to his association, when the team returned, that on the occasion of future visits, three test matches should be played instead of one.

"I think it would be much more satisfactory,” he said. “Geoff. Ollivier is still the best mau you’ve got in New Zealand. There is no doubt about that. Some of these chaps who watch tennis say there isn’t anything very brilliant coming from his stick, but believe me, he can make it hot. Playing my brother and 1 at Masterton, he showed us what he could do—he—well, lie made himself a nuisance.

“Geoff, doesn’t get the credit for ivhat lie does. He does all the hard solid work, and his partner provides the tire-works. Its the tire-works that gets the crowd, and the man who provides them gets the applause.” Tennis is very capably administered in New Zealand in the opinion of Mr Peach, who declared that he was very impressed to see so many members of the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association on the railway station platform to meet; them wheu they arrived by the ferry train.

“There must have been ajjput a dozen of them,'* he said. fi That’s real good of them. ft makes a fellow feel glad to see them turn out like that. It was so unexpected. Of course we might have expected to see the secretary and one or two other officials, but not so many as there wore to greet us this morning. ’ ’