PUT ON “THE SPOT”

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 45, 23 February 1938, Page 8

PUT ON “THE SPOT”

1 BUDGE IN A QUANDARY THOSE TEMPTING OFFERS HIS PARENTS NEED MONEY It seems that the Budge family would appreciate it as a reasonable gesture if Donald, the red-headed son of the family, Wimbledon and United States lawn tennis champion, would stop saying ‘No, thank you,’ to all those thousanas-of-dollars offers with which he is being pestered,” writes Clifford Webb in the London Daily Herald.

Said Mrs. Budge to Reuter’s Oakland (California) correspondent some time ago: “We are not any too well off, but the decision whether or not he will turn professional will be entirely up to Donald when he returns from his Australian tour.”

Budge, senior, Scottish born, Is, or was, a laundry truck driver: before that, he figured as a young man in Scottish football, though Donald, the last time I asked him, was pretty certain that his father had never achieved any real Soccer fame. Scottish League reserve team was about the apex. The whole family is mighty pleased and proud at the success which has come the way of the young redhead, and Donald himself is immensely popular in tennis circles because of a head that is not given easily to swelling. In a Spot. All the same, I would say Donald has been placed in something like a spot. He owes a lot to his parents; he owes a lot to the United States lawn tennis authorities, who did more for Budge than the Lawn Tennis Association has ever done for any one player on this side. He can repay his parents by seizing his professional chance and making anything up to £20,000 in the next two years. He can repay the United States lawn tennis people by remaining an amateur and helping the United States to retain the Davis Cup. Similar, this, in many ways to the problem that faced Fred Perry, although in Fred’s case there was no immediate hurry for a decision. May Compromise. When he was in this country during the summer, Budge told me he would not dream of turning professional. The tune will probably be altered now, and my guess is that Donald will compromise: say to the family, "Just wait one more year”; say to the tennis mandarins, “One more year, then I’m mixing with the money." If Budge goes over, he will probably hook up with Perry and Vines. The alternative is the Tilden troupe, but it is the Perry-Vines tours that haul in the big money. Over a period, of course

So far Budge has remained true to code —an amateur. But can a man survive the appeal of . such tempting offers when the money can mean so much to him and his?