TENNIS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 15 November 1913, Page 11

TENNIS.

The knowledge that, at the last meeting of the Taranaki Association, it was decided to hold the Taranaki 1914 lawn tennis championship and handicap tournament at Hawera should spur on both clubs to see that special attention is paid to all courts so that they may be in the best possible condition for the tournament. It should also serve as a fine fillip to play here and keep all members practising steadily in view of entering for the various championship and handicap events. The New Plymouth Club opening was to have been held last Saturday, but was postponed. The Park Club courts at' New PlyTn' v"+h were opener! for play last week. Fitzrov courts will nrobably be opened next Thursday-week, Tbpvn i s a nronosal on foot to form a tennis club at the upper end of "VWeltown. A *neet'"<» +o consider the matter was held on Monday evprnnqr.

M the -mnnal meetings of the Npw Zealand Apsoointion, fast ww'j. o^ +^o <mggpstion Tvv Wter.'of Mr T\ S. Wilding, it was decked +" forward s»n iuvit*tim> to the C»^adi nn Association to send a team to New Zealand and to ask

them their terms. The writei 6tated Viiax the Canadians were very seen-on having an invitation exienaeU .10 them to visit S\ew Zealand. interviewed on iiis return from the Davis Cup contest and a round the world trip, Horace Bice, the crack Australian player, gave some very interesting recollections of his experiences, uf the Americans he said mat '•\Ve found Americans immediately hospiUitue. lh&y take no time to'thaw out but are friendly right away." "As to the courts, there is no doubt that the match was played too early in the American season. .But the dates were fixed by England, as the champion nation, and so as to fit in with the dates of the English championships in Juno, ihe Americans would have been only too glad to fix the match later. Our difficulty was to get courts to practise on Iheir 6.vstem in doubles is not as good as ours. Neither the server nor his partner gets in much closer than the service hue. That enabled us to stand m close while our partners were receiving service, because a moderately decent return was not killed as it would be out here with a player close up. As to the match itselt, we were beaten fairly and squarely by better men. '}Ye had a fine time also in England," continued Mr Rice. "The English people are slower starters than the Americans in making friends, but they are very sure once they know you. Everybody did all they could to jnake our trip pleasant. Mr Cocheran, an Irish gentleman, put us all up at his Irish home, and placed one of his motor ears, with a chauffeur, entirely at our disposal. In it wfe were rtriven every day to the Dublin tournament, and the chauffeur waited all day and took us back. Mr Cocheran has a private cricket ground and a covered Badminton court That is a fine game, and we had a trial of it, and got very warm. He is quite converted to tennis now, and is going to build enough courts to run a tournament. Of course, he is a millionaire, or he couldn't do all that. 9he hard courts need a great deal of practice. 1 *? surface is very sandy, and one slides very much. The experts on them slide to the ball and know how to stop. We...were simply hopelessly *ti-«uidfeffc-. time and again, and had to watyh the ball go by untouched."

The Australasian says that the news of the death of Mr A. A. Chomley, which occurred in Sydney on Wednesday, October 22, will be learned with regret, especially by tennis enthusiasts, for Mr Chomley was regarded as the founder of the Lawn Tennis Association of Victoria.