LAWN TENNIS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23118, 18 February 1937, Page 4

LAWN TENNIS

By Smash

EASTER TOURNAMENTS Otago Association. Tuapeka Sub-Association. Canterbury Association, Wellington. Association. Auckland Association. South Canterbury Association. REPRESENTATIVE MATCHES February 20.—Otago v. Maniototo. at Ranfurly. February 27. —Otago v. Southland, at Invercargill; Otago v. Eastern Districts. at Palmerston. March 6—Otago v. North Otago, at Dunedin; Otago v. Vincent, at Clyde. March 20.—Otago v. South Canterbury, at Dunedin; Otago v. South Otago, at Dunedin. ROSLYN DEFEATS K AIT UNA By the narrow margin of three games the Rosiyn Men’s A Grade team defeated Kaituna, and so earned the right to meet Otago to decide the winner of the competition for the current season. Unfortunately, adverse weather prevented the match being completed on Saturday, the conditions under which the Singles were played being particularly bad. Rain showers caused constant postponement of games, and a high wind during the whole course of the match militated against displays of accurate tennis. When the day’s play was concluded the position was an interesting one, both matches and sets being even. The two Doubles, which could not be finished, were, played off on Tuesday evening, each team winning one. Rosiyn, however, gained the victory by. three games. Boyd, the young Kaituna player, whose performances this season stamp him as one of the most promising juniors in the province, added another meritorious victory to his credit by defeating K. Bryan after a stern tussle in the third set, which went to 9—7. Bryan took the first set at 6—5. He actually led s—l, when rain caused an adjournment, but on resuming Boyd collected four games before the Rosiyn' man took the set. In the .third set; Bryan led 5—4 on his own service, and actually had a match point, but he hit the ball out of court, and Boyd,:, profiting by this let-off, played exceptionally well to win 9—7. Sherriff played probably better than he- has done before this season, but he found Rawlinson too steady for him, and although he took the middle set he went down 4—6 in the third. Laidlaw was too good for Grimsdale, who could collect only three games In

the two sets played. Sincock made very few mistakes in his match against Phillipps and won in straight sets. This game, however, was quite spoiled by the frequent interruptions caused bv rain. At the end of Saturday’s play both Doubles were uncompleted. Rawlinson and Bryan having one set in against Boyd and Laidlaw and leading 2—l in the second, while Sherriff and Phillipps had taken the first set at 6—4 against Grimsdale and Sincock. When the matches were resumed on Tuesday, Bryan and his partner soon disposed of Boyd and Laidlaw, the Kaituna juniors taking only one more game. When Grimsdale and Sincock commenced their Double they were In the happy position of having to win only one more game to save the match. Faced with the task of completing the last set without the loss of any more games Phillipps and Sherriff probably played more carefully than usual, but they could not save the match, although they won the set at 6 — 3. As the Otago Club is sending a team to Ranfurly on Saturday and there are no more available Saturdays until later on in the season, the final match between Rosiyn and Kaituna will not be played until after the Easter tournament. A TIRELESS VETERAN The French ranking list, recently issued, places Jean Borotra at the top of the Singles list, where he is bracketed with Bernard Destreameau, the most promising of the youngsters. Borotra is 38 years of age, and for the last couple of years he has contented himself with playing Singles in indoor tournaments, ‘ and with friendly matches. And the fact that he is one of the busiest men in France makes his performance all the more remarkable. ' As the director of a large chain of bowsers, he is given a tremendous amount of work to do. Not uncommonly, he flies to tournaments and returns home at the end of each day’s play to catch up on the work accumulated during the time he has been absent. Next day he races back to the tournament, plays two or three hard matches and returns to business. How he does it is the everlasting wonder of the tennis world. Still the gay Lothario of the court, he can take on plenty of youngsters and race them around to exhaustion while he himself is still warming up. And his ranking at the top of the. list may see him reentering next season the lists as a Davis Cup Singles string. It was only to give the youngsters a chance that he retired from Singles .play in the cup two or three years ago, SUCCESSOR TO PERRY In the search of England for'a successor to Fred Perry as Singles string of England’s Davis Cup team, Frank Wilde, who toured New Zealand in 1933 with Perry and Lee, is mentioned as a possibility. If he is chosen, it will be a case of eventual fulfilment, for as a youngster, playing in the same club as Perry, Wilde was reckoned the promising one of the two. He has come more firmly into the' limelight lately by several fine performances in Singles, including an extremely capable one in the British covered-court ■championships, ■ when he gave Karl Schrader, the .eventual winner and straight sets conqueror of Austin and Borotra, much the hardest fight; of the tournament. Wilde was born at Wimbledon on March 19, 1911, so that, by no means a youngster, .he has had plenty of experience. He has twicetoured America with teams, and has had several successes in the stronger tournaments at HOme, including a thoroughly good performance at the last Wimbledon, when, partnered by C. E. Hare, he was runner-up for the Doubles to G. P. Hughes and C. R. D. Tuckey. There are few other, possibilities for the position, since Lee, never an outstanding Singles, player, gives much time to business thesedays and Pat Hughes is tqo valuable as a Doubles string to use in Singles. ■,:; THE HAMMER GRIP ' ■ In recent years there have been many advocates of the English, Continental or hammer grip (states an Australian lawn tennis writer). Prominent followers of this style have been Henri Cochet and Fred Perry, both of whom are endowed with abnormal wrist’ 'strength. , ■Perhaps the best method of acquiring this is to hold your racket like a hammer with which you desire to drive home a nail. With this grip it is not necessary to make any change for backhand and forehand strokes, or for the service, volley and smash. This is an advantage when the play is from close quarters. A tight hold of the racket is essential. It is best to depend on this by a firm pressure of the little and third fingers on the bottom of the handle. The second finger is slacker, and the first finger can be looser still until just before the moment of impact. Until that moment it can be used to guide the direction of the racket. Be sure that the head of the racket is held above the level of the wrist. This will help you to bring your eyes nearly to the level of the flight of the ball, and give you a better chance of making a good return. It will also help you to avoid the tendency to scoop the ball when it should be driven. CLEGHORN AND WALKER CUPS A number of matches has already been played in both the Cleghorn and Walker Cup competitions, but so far there has been only one surprise—the defeat of E. A. Pearce by W. Smith (University) by a score of 12—14, 6—o, 6—l. After the first set, which took 26 games to decide, Smith showed a definite superiority over his opponent and won the next two sets with the loss of only one game. The following are the results so far:— First Round—J. Paterson (St. Andrew’s) beat E. Collie (Waimana) 6—2. 6—l; W. Smith (University) beat E. A. Pearce (Anderson’s Bay) 12 —14 6 —o, 6 —l; G. Lawrence (St. Clair) beat J. Flinders (St. Patrick’s) 6—l, 6—l; D Hardwick (Tainui) beat W. Johnson (Caversham) 6 —5, 6—3. Second Round.—B. Boyd (Kaituna) beat A. Chisholm (Moana) 6 —4, 6 —4; A. Gregory (Macandrew Bay) beat G. H. Sed’don (Balmacewen) 7—5, 6—4; K. Bryan (Rosiyn) beat Laurence 6—4, 6—4: J. C. Robertson (Otago) beat A. Paape (St. Kilda) 6—l, 6—4. The following are the results so far in the Walker Cup competition:— First Round—Miss Jolly (Kaituna) beat Miss Miles (First Church), Miss Paterson (North-East Valley) beat Miss Riley (Opoho), Miss Pattison (Rosiyn) beat Miss M. Hungerford (Nga Maara) by default. Second Round—Mrs Rawlinson (St. Kilda) beat Miss Williamson (Anderson’s Bay), Miss Jolly beat Miss Somerville (Balmacewen), Miss Gray (St. Clair) beat Mrs Frew (Tainui)

NOTES The Auckland Lawn Tennis Association has decided that no challenge will be made this year for the Wilding Shield. . ~ At the last meeting of the Auckland Lawn Tennis Association it was revealed that the Championship Tournament had been a great success m every respect, a profit of £IOO having been obtained. LAWN TENNIS UNION The positions on the various union ladders are as follows: Men’s Doubles.—l Facer and Pickerill 2 Booth and M'Kenzic, 3 Gourley and Hope, 4 Jackson and Facer, 5 Rawlinson and Griffen, 6 Aderman and Sutherland, 7 Sims and Gibson, 8 Hanning and Meinung, 9 Brown and Mason, 10 Paterson and Brown, 11 Sims and Craig, 12 Ross and M’Lay, 13 Callander and Thornburn, 14 Johnson and Osmond, 15 Smith and Coutts, 16 Lawry and Lamb, 17 Lichener and Lindsay. Ladies’ Doubles.—l Misses Bullen and Page. 2 Misses Sinclair and Thompson, 3 Misses M’Phail and Herbison, 4 Misses Asher and Blackwood. 5 Misses' Sutherland and Thompson, 6 Mrs Craig and Mrs M'Kinrion, 7 Misses Facer and Connor. 8 Mrs Laidlaw and Mrs Craig, 9 Miss Jarvis and Westwood. 10 Misses J. Carr and A. Carr, 11 Misses Paine and Brown.

Men’s Singles.—l Gpurley, 2 Facer, 3 Jackson, 4 Booth, 5 Pickenll, 6 Hope, 7 Sutherland, 8 Stanton, 9 Johnson. 10 Smith, 11 Macdonald, 12 M’Kay, 13 Albert Jackson, 14 Paterson, 15 Hanning/ 16 R. Facer. 17 Callander, 18 M’Lay, 19 Griffen, 20 Mason, 21 Evans. 22 Lawry. , , Ladies’ Singles.—l Miss Sutherland, 2 Miss Bullen, 3 Miss Sinclair, 4 Miss M’Phail, 5 Miss Asher, 6 Miss Wilson, 7 Mrs Laidlaw, 8 Miss Baker, 9 Miss Blackwood, 10 Miss Denmead, 11 Miss Facer, 12 Miss Brown. 13 Miss Herbison, 14 Miss Currie, 15 Miss Davis. 16 Miss Gillies. , . In the A Grade match between Ravensbourne and Aotea, commenced last Saturday, the strong gale made good play impossible. Ravensbourne collected three of the Doubles to lead 3—l, but Aotea reversed the position by winning five out of the seven Singles played. All these matches were strenuously fought, and except in two cases there was a difference of only two games in every set. When rain stopped play Aotea was leading by one set and one game. After the next four sets this position was unaltered, each team winning two, with again only two games difference in all four. To win the match it was necessary for each team to secure the final set. Ravensbourne by at least two games. As it managed this exactly it emerged the victor by one game. Ravensbourne has still a lead of two points over Kaikorai, which it will meet next Saturday.