WOMEN’S TENNIS IN BRITAIN

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 106, 7 May 1938, Page 13

WOMEN’S TENNIS IN BRITAIN

SEARCH FOR STRONG TEAM HOPES OF WINNING THE WIGHTMAN CUP THIS IS JUBILEE YEAR This Is the jubilee year of the English Lawn Tennis Association, and a very earnest attempt is being made to celebrate it with a victory over the United States in the women's team match for the Wightman Cup at Wimbledon, June 10 and 11, writes J. M. Stead in the Christian Science Monitor. Rather often Britain’s preparations for international sporting contests are inclined to be a shade haphazard and belated; but this time the authorities are on the job good and early and are woiking along carefully prepared lines. A squad of players, representing the pick of Britain’s feminine talent, is now engaged in increasingly intensive practice at Queen’s Club here. Not only “ranked” players, who are usually in the public eye, but a number of up-and-coming people as well. Such as Rosemary Thomas, holder oi the British junior championship and Surrey junior champion for the past two years. Tne Newest Star I have followed Rosemary’s flight up into the stars with special interest, because when .she was quite a little girl we played together on the court in the garden of her parents’ home at Wallington. It struck me at the time that cither she was very good for her age or I was very baa for mine. Captain Decided The captain of the British team for the great match in June has already been selected. Mrs. M. K. King, a campaigner of great experience, who played in Lie Wightman Cup matches of 1930, 1931, 1932 ana 1935. She was on the top of hei form, unbeaten by any ot her countrywomen, in 1930, wmch was the year when Britain last won the Wightman Cup and, incidentally, was the year in which Britain last selected a woman to act as captain of the team contending for it. Since then, the skipper has always been a man, although the players themselves did not think this the best possible arrangement. When the Council of the Lawn Tennis Association recently adopted its new policy of going into a round-table conference with the leading players, the wish of the women to have a captain of their pwn sex was made clear. Four members of last year’s British Wightman Cup team —Kay Stammers, E. M. Dearman, Joan Ingram, Una Freda James—expressed early their intention qf taking pail, as did several more of the folk who have been training with them on the wooden courts at Queen’s Club. Included in the squad collected togather at Queen’s for the building up of Britain’s 1938 team are, in addition to the people 1 have mentioned: Mrs. R. D. McKelvie, Mrs. E. C. Peters, Mrs. J. B. Pittman, R. M. Hardwick, E. H. Harvey, Mary Heeley, Margot Lumb, N. M. Lyle, Joan Saunders, V. E. Scott, M. C. Scriven, and Mary Whitmarsh. Mrs. D. L. Little, better known as Dorothy Round, winner of the women’s singles championship at Wimbledon in 1934 and 1937, is not playing lawn tennis this season. Banking—And Us Difficulties The relative form of the best British women players is extraordinarily hard to assess just now. Even the high authorities of the Lawn Tennis Association, engaged upon producing the current “ranking” lists, had the greatest difficulty in settling upon the order of merit. And when they had done so, many people disagreed with them quite heartily. There was nothing debatable about

the placing of Mrs. Little on the top rung of the ladder of fame, but there certainly was about the elevation of Miss Hardwick into second place over the head of Miss Scriven, who, although beaten on one occasion by Miss Hardwick, hadi a much more consistently successful season in 1937 than anybody else. Miss Scriven did not win a place on last year’s Wightm.an Cup team, but she won a national championship on covered courts, reached the final of the national championships on hard courts, entered the “lasteight” at Wimbledon and won the South of England championship. A pretty impressive record. Here is how the leading British women are ranked at the present time:— 1. Mrs. D. L. Little (I>. 2. Miss R. M. Hardwick (5). 3. Miss M. C. Scriven (10). 4. Miss K. E. Stammers (2). 5. Miss M. Heeley (9). 6. Miss J. Saunders (7). 7. Mrs. M. R. King (3). 8. Miss F. James (4). 9. Miss E. M. Dearman (-). 10. Mrs. E. C. Peters (->. 11. Miss M. E. Lamb (-). 12. Miss N. M. Lyle (11). The figures in parentheses are Impositions Occupied in the list 12 months previously