HUMOUR AT WIMBLEDON

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23429, 19 August 1939, Page 22

HUMOUR AT WIMBLEDON

FOREIGN PLAYERS' NAMES TONGUE-TWISTERS FOR UMPIRES One of the minor delights of the Wimbledon tennis tournament is to hear the unlucky umpires whose tongues do not take kindly to foreign words get tied up with the pronunciation of Continental names, states an English writer. This year's entry provides some teasers, such as Jedrzejowska —although most people know by now that it is sounded, roughly, as Yendre-yovska—Tloczynski, do Meulemeester, Weiwers, Canepele, and Kukuljevic. There is always a way out for tho timid umpire, who may call "advantage server" or "receiver" and thus limit possible errors to the ends of games; even then he may, and sometimes does, mumble the name, but the bolder ones produce thorough John Bull manglings such as "Boozes" for i Boussus.

Once- there was, so it is said, a "deliberate plot to extract the best fun out of umpires' difficulties. This was shortly after Senorita E. de Alvarez had been married and she was playing in the French championships during which she paired up for the Wimbledon mixed doubles and presented umpires with the formidable task of singing out "Advantage Kukuljevic and Comtesse de la Vaklone." A sigh of relief went up in the umpires' rooms when it was heard that they had been knocked out.