F. J. Perry and Tennis

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18479, 18 August 1934, Page 9

F. J. Perry and Tennis

P. J. Perry seems to have got a lot of fun out of tennis, on ilio testimony of his entertaining bonk, “My Story.” A sidelight on Ins whole-hearted enthusiasm is given in a chapter comribiited by bis father, Air. S. P. Perry, tho former Socialist ALP., who reveals that his son was captured by tennis the moment bo climbed a wall at Devonshire Park, Eastbourne, to get a free peep at the play.

Perry, who remarks that his tennis has certainly not made a millionaire of him, discusses the money side of tho game with frankness. The career of the amateur ends at tho age of 35. Can he really be blamed, asks Perry, for turning lennis into cash while youth remains?

“Sooner or Inter time will Imam down the barrier. For this'powerful reason—that the lawn 'tennis governing bodies of the world have unwittingly created a class of young men who, if they are to keep * in the swim, ’ must play the game for months of every vear.”

Discussing temperament in tennis, lie writes of himself: “I admit 'that, my temperament is not perfect, any more than arc my strokes.” Apart from clicking cameras and “noises off'” when he is playing, his pot- aversion seems to be shorts. Here lie parts company with H. W. Austin. Discussing the latter’s shorts, he writes: “They are well-cut, not merely scissored ‘longs,’ but for my own wear J cannot abide such garments.”