THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1933. BRITISH SPORT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22020, 1 August 1933, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1933. BRITISH SPORT

Gkeat Britain is reasserting her claim to the ascendancy in manly forms of sport which was unquestionably hers in the past and of' which the loss for many years may be attributed to a combination of causes. Of these the more potent and the more regrettable was the terrible sacrifice of the flower of British youth that was suffered during the Great "War. Another is the increased competition with which she has i had to contend from other countries where the recognition of the value of sport in the development of national character came much more slowly than in Great Britain. No branch of athletics has assumed a wider international scope than lawn tennis has, and the annual competition for the Davis Cup now attracts entries from literally every corner of the globe. Some of the competing nations may have not the faintest expectation of success, either at present or in the near future, but it may bo assumed that all appreciate the value of participatibn in the contest, since it is by pitting their players against superior players of other nations that the lessons are to be learnt that will lead to an improvement in the standard of their play. And even if they suffer repeated defeats they will, if the sporting spirit has been acquired by them, not necessarily be discouraged. The success this year of the British team —a success which will have been hoped for rather than anticipated—should have the effect of greatly stimulating interest in the contest. When Great Britain last held the Davis Cup the competition was confined to only a few nations. This was over twenty years ago, before the competition was interrupted by the war. The victory of the British team on this occasion is a matter for lively gratification not only because it was well-earned against formidable opposition but because, through it, the country has recovered the laurels that were secured for her and maintained for her by an earlier generation of players. The success of the British players on the lawn tennis courts follows upon the success of the English team in the test cricket matches. But, very complete though the triumph of the English cricketers was, there are various indications that the British public, which is a distinctly sporting public, is becoming somewhat uneasy concerning the strategy that was employed by them to achieve success. It is fairly evident that there was some misapprehension at Home concerning the "body-line bowling," so called, to which serious exception Avas taken by the Australians. To bowling of this description there has been recourse on a few occasions during the current season at Home, the majority of the county captains having agreed not to sanction it, and, though bumping deliveries directed against the leg stump are less fraught with risk to batsmen on English wickets than on the harder Australian wickets, the innovation has apparently been viewed with more concern than favour. If, as seems likely, the Australians are, in the objections they raised to the use of "body-line bowling," vindicated by the English experience of it on a small scale on English wickets, the evil of which they complained may be productive of a real beneiit in the banning of this class of bowling by universal agreement and in the consequent preservation of a charm in the game that was in danger of being lost.