TENNIS.

Southland Times, Issue 19634, 30 September 1922, Page 13 (Supplement)

TENNIS.

(By “Pennon.”) Everything pointe to a successful local season. At. the annual meeting of the Association all the clubs, with the exception of Winton, were represented by delegates and the meeting was an enthusiastic one. Since the Association was re-established its work has gradually increased, and now two Sub- 1 Unions are working to further the game in Southland. The annual tournament is now an established fact, and if for no other reason the Association has justified its existence. However, the work of the Association has gone further than the tournament and the competitions are now firmly established, and these do a great deal towards improving the game and making club members keener. It is pleasing to note that the Invercargill Club is going to make a big effort to re-organise its teams this year. The manner in which that club fulfilled its fixtures las*t year left much to be desired, and it is to be hoped that the new Match Committee will have a better system of placing teams in the field than last year. It is also up to the various members to show a little club feeling, and get together and regain the premier position lost last year, chiefly through bad management. The club is the strongest numerically in Southland, an 4 it should have the best opportunities of achieving the premier position. All that is wanted is a little more club feeling and better control. The resolution carried at the annual meeting of the Association with regard to members transferring from one club V° another in the town is a good one, and should tend to stop all the better players from gravitating towards one club. It works successfully in football management, and there is no reason why it should not work equally as well in tennis. Southend will again have a strong club this year and the courts of this club are perhaps the best in Invercargill. It has three excellent courts and its members were, towards the end of the year, showing improved form and making progress in every match. The club should have a good season as all its members are keen. Now that the YM.C.A. has settled the question of the fence that was going to spoil one court-, the club will soon get down to hard ’ practice. It went near winning the championsliip last year, but the absence of Dobie will considerably weaken the team for the coming season. However, last year Y.M.CA. had several promising young players coming on who should make good showings in senior games. The Invercargill Club will ojien its season on October 7, following with a Yankee tournament on Labour Day. Southland will open on Labour Day, and Y.M.C.A. as soon as its courts are ready for play. Few treasurers can boast of the record of Mr W. J. Hawley, of the Invercargill Club, who for the last five years has returned a balance-sheet in which no outstanding subs, were shown. Owing to his good work the Invercargill Club is in a sound financial position. At the annual meeting of the Invercargill Club the question of a new pavilion was raised, and the incoming committee is to consider the matter. The present pavilion is inadequate for the needs of the club, but the question of finance is a difficult one. The decision to commence the inter-club matches early is a good one, and the first games will be drawn for October 21. AH matches are to be plowed on the dates fixed by the Match Committee, one Saturday being allowed for a postponement, should the weather against play. This early play will give' the matches a good start before Christmas, and the competition should be finished in better time than last year. TENNIS IN SCHOOLS CONTROVERSY REVISED. Should lawn tennis become one of the standard games at our public schools? asks the Daily Mail. Last year, when Britain failed in the open lawn tennis championships at Wimbledon, many lawn tennis enthusiasts wrote suggesting that if our public schools were to look benevolently on lawn tennis the possibility of finding future chc.mpions would be increased. Britain has failed again this year, and the question of finding future champions has again become acute. It is said that the headmaster of Westminster School; one of the oldest public schools in the country, foUowing the British defeat at Wimbledon, has decided to allow those boys who wish to do so to play lawn tennis, but the majority of public schools do not encourage the game, and at various conferences oi public

schools headmasters any suggestion to make lawn tennis a standard game has received little encouragement. Inquiries show that one reason for this is that lawn tennis is looked upon by many boys as a “soft” game compared with the two national games of cricket and football, but the gkme as demonstrated by Mr G. L. Patterson, the Australian, at Wimbledon, with his terrific serves, cannot by any means be called “soft.” Another argument against lawn tennis in Public schools is that it is not a team game, and that it does not encourage playing for a side, but for self. Also, that it would often be difficult and too costly to provide enough courts. Lawn tennis is essentially a game where one must begin young, and it is felt by a number of sportsmen that a compromise might be made, and that those boys who show’ perference to lawn tennis should be given facilities to play the game when they are young under proper coaches, and it is only bj’ this method we shall get back our supremacy. QOO t