LAWN TENNIS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21774, 13 October 1932, Page 4

LAWN TENNIS

By Smash

A week 1 earlier thniii tisiiiil a start was made with the association’s competitions on Saturday afternoon, when the opening round of malches was played in the Intermediate and B Grades. It was a pleasantly fine afternoon and the result was that the various games proved thoroughly enjoyable, though- first-of-season lapses were apparent in some of the matches.' INTERMEDIATE GRADE Cosy Dell and Roslyu played a wcllfonght match with the issue in .doubt to the very end. At the close Of play sets were cvcn,.„but there was a slight margin of. games ip-, favour, of Cosy Deli. In the Men’s Singles Halstead notched a Win for Koslyn by defeating Dr Foeken, 9—7, but the other three' Cosy Dell men—^H\iliter.- Wilson, and fairly easy wins. . The Roslyn men . were very weak in Doubles play, but the ladies did well in these matches and also halved the Singles, Miss Eaton and Mrs Foxcroft being successful. The first and second Cosy Dell ladies each won their matches. Miss' Cameron defeating Miss Hlndlc and Miss Smith bgating Miss Barclay. Rpslyn showed.better team work In. tlic Mixed Doubles, but even three victories 11V this section; tpqkr iiot'Offset the earlier successes of the Cosy Dell players. : St, Andrew's gained- a narrow victory over St. Clair by a niargin of three games, sets again being even. The St. Andrew ’s* men were just a little better than their opponents, and the ladies of both teams ■were very evenly' matched. ’Miss Gray played well throughout the afternoon'in Doubles as well iis Singles and. placed three good victories to Tier credit. Miss Barltrop also 'won two of her matches. For St. Andrew’s Miss Archer and Miss Farquharson gave good displays, the latter doing especially well to defeat Miss Bartholomew.by the odd game. Opoho in aide a good if' against Kauuna,. and though" Kaituiia w'oii.iw'ith sq’nietliiiig tO spard, most of, the, matches wche very keenly ’contested;" Brown’ ju»t managed to get home on the seventeenth game against Penrose, and Douglas showed good form by defeating Anderson, 9 —6. The first Moil’s Doubles was a .hard-fought match in which victory went to the Kaitnna pnit;, Penrose and St. George, 6—d, in the third set. Aliss Jolly, Miss Cupplcs, and Aliss Edwards all had a successful .day and. appear. to have struck their form early.

Rnlmaeewon fielded a strong team against Cavorsham and. scored' a.Mecisiye win by 12 sets to three. For.Bahnace.wen Hawksworth, Wright, and Notmau. among the men, aiif} ills Grigg .among the ladies, won each of their three matches.. B GRADE MATCHES The three easiest wins in the R Grade matches were gained by St. Kilda, St. Mary's and' St. Clair., St. Kikla beat Balmacewen by 14 sets to,two; St; Mary’s beat Cosy Dell by 12 sets, to four; and St. Clair beat Otago by 12 sets’ to four. Most of the other matches were fairly evenly contested. THE PROVINCIAL LADDERS The provincial, ladders have been constituted as follows: f'' MEN’S ■ SINGLES. : 1 M'Dougall 11 Rawlinson -2 Pearce 12 Robertson 3 Guy 13 Sherrill ... 4 Deaker ... 14 Ross * 5 Pollock 15 Penrose G.Duthie ..16 Morrow 7'Roddy 17 Gregory 8 Phillipps ,18 Swallow ■ 9 Jensen 19 Mollison 10 Falconer 20 Barsdell MEN’S DOUBLES. I'M‘Dougall and Black 2 Guy and Duthio. 3 Jensen and Phillipps., • 4 Pearce and Deaker. 5 Moody , and Pollock. ) 6 Rawlinson and Falconer. ~ , 7 Penrose and Sherri ff'. ! 8 Chapman and Ritchie. 9 Greenslade and Wilson. \ . . LADIES’ SINGLES. ; - • jl* Miss Pattison 11 Miss Bagleyv 2 Miss’ Partridge 12 Miss Logan i 3,Miss White 13 Mrs' Dyke- ■ '4‘MiSs Cook 14 Miss Read I 5 Miss Cox 15 Mrs M-Plidrso'ii i 6 Miss Barton 16 Miss Hill ’ 1 - 7 Miss Rackley 17 Miss Jolly • 8 Mrs Cheync 18 Miss Flett ■ 9 Miss Fraser 19 Miss. Livingstone 10 Miss Sherriff 20 Miss 'Dawson

It should be noted .that challenges may be issued from Saturday next, October 15, There is.ample material on the ladders for some excellent competition as the season advances, but there are some notable absentees from- the list, including Moody and Black • from the Singles, and Boclcly from the Doubles. On the other hand, a. number of the younger players have come forward, indicating a noteworthy degree of keenness, and it will make for greatly increased interest if some of these players find their way to the higher rungs on the ladder of fame.

RULES OF THE ASSOCIATION It was decided at the first ■ meeting of-the executive after the-annual" meeting that the rules of the Otago ; Lawn Tennis' Association should be revised. This does not appear to have been done since the hand book was, published in 1910, One of the rules which needs revision is No.. .21, which states: "All persons present at all annual or special meetings of the association are entitled to vote, and the members of the outgoing committee are eligible for re-election.”

Under this rule as it stands, and even, reading it in. conjunction with other rules, there is a possibility of a person who is not a club delegate being elected to the committee. ■ This - is undesirable because it might mean that.in certain circumstances -a club would be virtually disfranchised-.: The'rule should-be alteredin such a way as to elisure- that the cbnu mittee is'elected- from the club delegates. It only needs to be added, that the-point is not raised here on any personal ground's, but simply because it seemed to be desirable that an obvious weakness in the rules should be remedied, , The rules do not seem to provide any special procedure for the election of a president, aftd this is just'as well, for it gives the association a wider range of choice in the search for m- suitable occur pant of, the position. Tf would be desirable on general grounds, perhaps, that the president j3hotild.be chosen from the ranks of th’e delegates—those who have borne the - heat, and burden., of administrative effort—but, on the other hand, there is no particular reason why the choice should be so restricted, and there would be certain disadvantages attached to such a limitation. The writer’s view is that the scope for the selection of a president should be as wide as possible, because other factors besides administrative ability enter into consideration, and no barrier should be placed in the way of the choice of the most suitable man for the-position. Moreover, definite - provision should be made in the rules for the retention of the services-of the'outgoing president-on' the committee for one year. • , THE UNITED CLUB . The United Club held its annual meet-' ing on Monday night, when Mr A. Jensen presided over a fair attendance of . members. Mi- I. .Penrose was unanimously elected president in place of .Mr.. Jensen, who- did not seek re-election. Other, oflieials eleeted were as follow: - Secretary, Air T. Griinsdale; treasurer. Air It. I’lli 1lipps: committee —Misses Brown ami Barton, Messrs S. Falconer'and It. A. Aloi'rison. together with four members 'of - the association. The committee' -of the club is to all intents duel' purposes the Works Committee of the association; and. as all revenue from the club goes'towards supplementing the financial resources of. the association it was decided to institute a “drive” for move members so that funds may be raised for the provision of more courts at Logan 'Park. VISIT OF THE AMERICANS The coming visit of the American team is creating a great deal of interest. Every endeavour is being made to secure a match- for Dunedin, as it is realised that the appearance in this city of such players as Vines. Allison, van Ryn, and Gledhill would give a tremendous fillip to the ' game. The team will leave Sydney for

Auckland early in February, and will spend three weeks in New Zealand instead of two, as previously announced. No programme for the American tour of the Dominion has yet been drawn up, but the week’s extension will enable the Dominion Association to provide for games in tlie South Island as well ns in the North, It is estimated that the cost of the tour in this country will be- about £IOOO.

Since there seems to be pood reason for believing, that Dunedin, will be included in the itinerary of the visitors, it. is hoped that our leading players will undergo an intensive course of training with a view to reaching their best form in February. It may be a bold thing to say. but there, are several players in Dunedin who are quite,capable of making the visitors play good tennis in order to defeat them. . NOTES It is understood that Miss Dulcie Nicholls will be playing at the United courts in Christchurch this season. The Koslyn Club has opened the new season in promising style. No fewer than 40 new members, senior and junior, have joined-up. and an atmosphere of great enthusiasm prevails. Two of the courts have been relaid, and promise, to give, every satisfaction. Although slightly fewer than last year, the entries for.the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association's interclub competitions, which commence on Saturday, are again very large, necessitating the division of three out of the four grades into two sections each. The numbers of teams entered in the various grades are as follow: —A Grade, 22; B Grade, 24; G .Grade. 20: D Grade, 14. At the St, Kilda courts recently a presentation was made to Mrs J- A. Dunniiitr (formerly Miss Gwen Smith) .to mark the occasion of her marriage. Mr Tregear made the presentation, and in doing so he conveyed, the good wishes of Tli’enibers, and spoke in appreciative terms of Miss Smith’s services to the club and of. her many excellent qualities as a member. Great keenness prevails at the St. KikU courts, and challenges are already in full swing. Recent matches resulted as follows: —Deakcr beat .Rawlinson, 0 —•!,

3—o, o—4; Highet beat Swallow, 4 —6, (3—4, o—4 (ui.ul sained a place in the A team); Miss Smellie beat. Mrs Clarke, 9—7; Mrs Hair beat Miss Harraway, 9—B. UNION NOTES PROSPECTS FOR SEASON ■ A Grade. —From alt accounts competition in this grade should" be even keener and more interesting than it was last season. Ravensbourne, with practically The'same team, are as strong as ever, and it keenness has anything to do with winning the competition they will certainly be. a hard team to beat. The new members of the team are Miss B. Asher, of last" year’s St. Leonards team, and J’. Pickerill, who has come up from the B .team. Tainui are at present, almost, an .unknown quantity eo far as playing strength goes, but it is fairly safe to say that while their ladies may find the opposition rather stronger than expected, the men will prove a fairly tough proposition. As this team meets Ravensbourne on Saturday a fair indication will then be given of their relative, strength. Forbury’s team is much the same as last year’s, the only defection being H. Jeffs, whose place will be taken by J. Gibson. The kdies‘ probable order will be Misses E. Sutherland, 0. Meinung, H. Garbutt, and. L. Meinung. Kaikorai, whoni Fprbury meet on Saturday, will be a considerably stronger team than that of last year, and will probably consist of, S. Gourlay, P. Jones, L. Keay, J. Thomas, and Misses D. Sligo, L. Walker, S. Fitcliett (last year’s secondary school girls junior champion), and Mrs Jones. this club has also at least three other men who are quite worthy of inclusion in the A team. ■ . IT . The Knox team has .lost A. Hay. ana also its fourth lady, but will still be fairly strong, especially in the ladies; with Miss Howell and Miss Rosevear playing first and second. First Church will be on a par with last year’s team, the men probably being Dr North, G. Salmoud, M. M’George, and K. Reid. As it is. not known yet whether Miss Sahnond will still be playing, tlieir ladies’ team is still indefinite. B GRADE ■ The teams'in this grade should all be fairly evenly matched, witli Wakan, Kaikorai (both of which have, been strengthened with some of their last year’s A players), Ravensbourne, and 1 orbury, perhaps, being a shade above Holy Cross, Tainui, Macandrew Road, and Kensington. However, any of the latter four teams may spring surprises,' and until two or three matches have been played it is difficult to state definitely which will be the strongest teams. C GRADE Kiwi. Forbury, Methodists, and Knox will probably make the top half of this grade, but Mornington, Kensington, and Ravensbourne should not be very far behind. D GRADE It is practically impossible to classify the teams in this section, as each one appears to have an equal chalice of completing the season at the top of the table. Most of these teams will be composed of comparatively “newcomers” to the game, but the experience gained in matches should be of the utmost, value in improving their tennis. NOTES The following are the union ladder rules in brief:— 1. Men's matches: Best of 17 games,, advantage sets. 2. Ladies’ matches: Best of 17 games, no advantage sets. 3. Players where possible to arrange challenges themselves. 4. Players' to toss for courts. 5. As a rule only one challenge iter week to bo placed on each club’s courts. 0. Challenges (o be played within a week of notification of same. 7. Challenger to provide balls. 8. Winner to notify union secretary of result, 0." The same two players may not enter a challenge until two. weeks have lapsed since the previous challenge was played. in. Any player not on the ladder may challenge the bottom player. 11. Any disputes to be referred in the first instance to the union secretary^ In a recent challenge game L. Kavc beat L. Facer. 9—2. for first place on the ladder, but. in all due respect to Kaye’s good win. Facer at no time showed the form be produced last rear. The draw a.s published in the papers will be the'only notification in this respect to clubs. 1 As will be" seen by the draw, another club, Aotea. which plays at St. Clair School has entered, making a total

of 14 clubs and 29 teams. It may be opportune here to point out some of the difficulties that have to be contended with in the making out of the draw. The A Grade teams are first apportioned “ home and away” games (not necessarily alternately, which would quite plainly be impossible), and the other matches and grounds are then set out accordingly. If a club has three teams playing, it is quite evident that if the A team has only two games at home (or three, as it would be up till the end of the B Grade first round), only four Saturdays out of seven are left for the remaining two teams — that is. a possible of two home matches per team. In some cases the A team may have played four games at home by the end of the B Grade first round, leaving only three spare Saturdays at home for their lower teams. The only , way out of this difficulty, keeping strictly to fortnightly games, is unduly.to burden clubs with only two or one teams entered, and in order to avoid this it has been found advisable to play certain games on the off Saturdays—a procedure which will also relieve tlie grounds question when the second round of the A Grade is commenced. Every effort has been made to apportion an equal number of home and away matches, and the following analysis of the draw will show quite clearly how each team has fared in this respect. A Grade. —Out of five mulches (the first figure being the number of “ home ” games, the second the number played away); Forbury, Tainui. and Ravensbourne, two ami three; Knox. First, and Kaikorai, three and two. The numbers will naturally be reversed in the second round. B Grade. —Out of seven matches — Ravensbourne, Kensington, and Macandrew Road, three and four,; Forbury, Kaikorai, Wakari, Holy Cross, and Tainui, four and three. C Grade. —Out of six matches—Ravensbourne. Forbury. Kensington, Mornington, and Kiwi, three and three; Methodists, four and two; Knox, two and four. The latter two clubs will, as far as possible, have the order, reversed in. the second round games. IV Grade; —Out of seven games—Kiwi, Methodists. Kensington, and Wakari, three and four; First Church, Macandrew Road, Holy Cross, and Aotea, four and three.