LAWN TENNIS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 4, 4 December 1931, Page 5

LAWN TENNIS.

The annual match, Palmerston North versus Tile Rest, takes place on Saturday at the Linton Street courts. The Palmerston team is Beckett, Blakeney, Brown f Graham, S. Grant, Hooper, M. Johnston, Louisson, McDonald, Robertson, and Wheeler. Campbell is unable to play. The Rest’s team is, Boddy, Coombe, Isaacs, Jewell, Mabey, O’Brien, Pringle, Salmond, Sorensen, Turnbull, Thompson and Williamson. In previous years Palmerston North have always won, but The Rest have a much stronger team this year, and, if only the inter-club matches had been fixed for a week earlier, an even strong selection could have been made, but as it is they have still a very great chance of winning. Coombe will be playing in first place for The Rest. He is a. newcomer to Feilding and quickly gained the top rung of the ladder by beating Boddy and Dr. Salmond. He plays a very nice all-court game with good control .of the ball, and volleys well. Whether Brown, who will presumably play in first place for Palmerston, can beat him is very doubtful. Brown is a good singles player, with the best service of any of the players, and a forehand drive with lots of sting in it, which drives many of his opponents off the court. But he is not strong on the backhand and his game is not nearly so well balanced as Coombe’s. Robertson will probably meet Dr. Salmond in the second place. These two met in last season’s local championship, and, though Salmond won, Robertson scored more games and seemed unlikely to lose when he had a strong lead in the final set. He has a chance to reverse the result on Saturday.

It seems to be uncertain who will play in third place for Palmerston, but, whoever it may be. Boddy should win, for he has shown this season that he can beat all the Palmerston players except perhaps Brown. The rest of the players on both sides are above the average of previous years and should provide some very interesting individual matches. Mr Goldie, of Wellington, who has lately -returned from England, has been reported as saying that “Buster Andrews will shortly be visiting New Zealand and that he was in India at the time of last Wimbledon tournament. This gentleman is a bit inaccurate in his statements. There is no chance of “Buster’s” visiting New Zealand this season, and at the time

of the last Wimbledon tournament he was not in India, but in U.S.A. He only took part in one tournament after his return from his long foreign tour, and this was at Gleneagles where he won from a strong field without losing a set to any of his opponents.