LAWN TENNIS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11843, 21 December 1901, Page 7

LAWN TENNIS.

The inter-club doubles, which were arranged for Saturday last, and had to bo postponed owing to the unfavourable state of the weather, will, be played off to-day (weather permitting), play starting punctually at two p.m. Tho same teams as appeared in our last week's issue will represent the different clubs, and will play in the same positions as before stated. The recent rains will do a lot; of good to the various lawns, and will assist the energetic committee of the Eden and Epsom Club very materially in getting their ground into first-class order, for the forthcoming championship tournament. These lawns are most perfectly laid out for first-class tennis, every ; feature required in such a ground seems to have been considered, such as plenty of space behind the courts, a good light, good ; surroundings, and all the courts running parallel, so that given good weather we ran confidently assure our Southern visitors that they will have as good a. ground as any that previous tournaments have been held on. The committee of the West End Club deserve a; word of praise for their thoughtful action in placing their lawns at the disposal of both visiting and local players for practice during the time the Eden and Epsom; ground will be closed in preparation for the championship tournament. F. M. B. Fisher and P. Marshall are the only visitors who have yet arrived, tho rest of whom will likely bo with us on Monday next. Fisher is killing two birds with the one stone during his visit, as besides playing tennis lie is taking part in the athletic championship meeting, : competing in _ tho jumping and nutting the shot competitions. He is a fine all round athlete, and we are pleased to note his obtaining second prize in putting the shot. Referring •to the Ashburton tournament, we quite agree with "Twister" in his remarks. - It is indeed a great pity that any association should think fit to hold a tournament at the same time that our annual meeting for the championship of the colony is proceeding, as it must tako a certain proportion of the leading players away, -and so take interest out of the one tennis event of the year. In .this instance such notable players as J. U. Collins, D. Harman, and A. Wilding, will bo sadly missed, and will rob both the singles and doubles championships of a deal of interest. As the big event of our tennis year only occupies four days, wo would suggest to > Ashburton and similar associations a very simple remedy in the future, viz.", to hold their small tournaments at different dates. The entries for tho championship tournament are coming in well, though in the two principal events, the ladies' and gentlemen's singles, they are not so numerous as in the past. . For the men's singles. there are nine competitors at present, and for the ladies' five have entered, but as the entries do not close till to-night we hope several more names will be added to these lists. For the handicap events muoli larger numbers have entered, and tho competitions promise to be very keen and interesting. A full list of the names of competitors will appear in Tuesday's. issue, as this will give time for the Australian entries to reach us on Monday, should a team be coming.