TENNIS

Southland Times, Issue 20615, 13 October 1928, Page 18 (Supplement)

TENNIS

By

“Chop."

Gladstone opens to-day. Wednesday matches commence on October 24, Saturday on October 27. Wednesday competition will be open this year. Both Kennington and Georgetown Clubs have affiliated to the Association and will probably enter Saturday B teams in the competition. Entries for inter-club competitions close on Monday. The Association executive will meet on Tuesday and make the draw. The provincial ladders should be made available for publication shortly so that challenges can be put in. Mr A. McKay is ladder secretary. The association has long felt the want of a court of its own, but although the matter has been given much consideration there seems littie prospect of getting furthur ahead —lack of money being the stumbling block. The Invercargill Club made a sporting offer that if the Association put down a court in the vacant space to the east of the club courts the Club would maintain it and give the Association the right to use a certain number of courts whenever they were required. Unfortunately . even the £lOO needed to put down a j court was too big a hurdle for the AssociatI ion. whose expenditure each year is almost equal to the revenue. Can anyone suggest a way of raising the money? The president, of the Central sub-Assoc-iation (Mr C. Mason) mentioned that twelve school children were given the use of the courts at Waianiwa and were making good progress. It is to be hoped more clubs will follow suit. Mrs Corkill should be an acquisition to 1 Southland tennis. She and Miss Humphries ■ of Winton will probably earn places in the representative team. . A grading sub-committee was set up at ! the executive meeting of the Association on ! Tuesday. It should not be necessary for I the committee to draw up a rigid list of A and B. grade players, but it will be useful should an A grade man who is getting on in years or who is carrying too much weight wishes to drop into B grade matches. A club has no right to take it for granted that a player who has previously been A ■ grade can at his pleasure slide into B grade. It is necessary to apply to the Association for a re-grade and that is when the committee will get to work. The motion passed at the Association meeting urging the New Zealand association to do more for the smaller centres was not out of place. Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch get all the plums but Dunedin, Invercargill, Oamaru and Timaru send in cheques to lhe Association just as do the favoured cities. I can see no rea son why a team of four crack New Zealand players should not be sent round the Dominion visiting the centres that have no opportunity to ree first class tennis. As far as Invercargill is concerned I am certain any necessary guarantee would readily be forthcoming. The visitors would not necessarily be pitted against a Southland side for it would not bring out their best tennis, but exhibition matches would do a great deal of good for the game here. It is surprising how much can be learnt from the intelligent watching of good players. Keith Poulton, whose death as the result of a motor accident was this week reported from Sydney, will be remembered by many in New Zealand a- a popular member of the 1923 New South Wales team. He played against Otago at Dunedin, his opponent being H. K. Sumpter who was then living in Oamaru. Poulton has a most peculiar service but very attractive ground shots. He defeated Sumpter 6 —4, 6—3 on that occasion. In the test match at Christchurch he played remarkably well, being more at homo on grass than on asphalt. TENNIS DEPORTMENT AN ARTICLE WORTH READING. Looking through some old tennis magazines I came across the following article entitled “Lawn Tennis Deportment.” It is well worth reading. It has been said, and I think truly eaid, that it is far pleasanter to loae to a sporting opponent than to vanquish a grumbler, or one who “looks as though he had been born with a bad taste in his mouth, and never got rid of it.” The sporting player—and ( happily there are many such, who en-

courages his enemy with an occasional “Good shot!” or a friendly “Well tried!” —shows that his interest lies in the game as such; that he enjoys a good shot even at his own expense, and that though he be every whit as keen to win as his adversary, still he considers that “the play’s the thing.

Now as to the causes of the bad temper often shown on the courts. One of the most frequent is the net-cord stroke. It seems to delight in coming at critical moments, when, moreover, one such stroke gained is by no means a compensation for another lost. A player who habitually returns the ball from low down instead of near the top of the bound, is especially likely to score net-cord strokes, which, too, in such cases, may add quite considerably to his handicap. Usually a net-cord stroke is as disappointing to winner as to laser. I beat a friend one season in an open event largely owing to his discomforture at my benefiting by no fewer than seven net-cord strokes, and it robbed me of the satisfaction of a fair and square struggle, and spoilt our game. But reader, pause a moment and ask yourself if you have ever played a match without net-cord strokes. And, seeing how frequently these occur, is it not better to make a virtue of necessity, to realize that they are part and parcel of the game, and accept, them as such! The theory I advance, kindly but firmly, is this—that to be a good all round tennis player one should to a certain extent be a good all-round philosopher. It should, I think, be our aim and endeavour to rise superior to all the irritating minor troubles, as, for instance, the slithery court, the washed-out line, the sunlight side-streak, or the black centre-shadow. Our tennis deportment should remain unaffected even by the little bit of grit on the court, which sends an easy ball bounding sky-high at, an impossible angle, or the net-cord stroke already mentioned. This, by the way, is often caused by too slack a net —an “uneducated net,” as a wag once called it, explaining as he escaped that, he meant that it had not been “taut” enough.

Perhaps, however, the hardest thing to bear in a sporting manner is the bad decision of an umpire. And yet, after years of watching, I believe that many of the decisions adjudged incorrect by the losing player are perfectly just and sound. As has been frequently pointed out in discussing this question, one must not forget that the umpire is looking down on the lines from a point of vantage. He in the best position to judge the ball, sitting passively on the scaffold-like stool of penance that generally does duty as a seat; in consequence, he is far better able to see the ball than the player moving rapidly across court. Make up your mind before going into court that one or two or more bad decisions (that is decisions that appear to you to be bad) will be given against you during a match, and make up your mind to grin and bear them as natural occurrences. It will prevent an upset, at a critical moment, prevent even the throwing away of a match out of sheer panic, which I have seen happen now and again, after what seemed to me a perfectly correct decision of the umpire. To sum up then, could we not all make up our minds to remember that we play lawn tennis for pleasure; that we are as a nation noted for our sporting instincts and keenness for fair play, and that whether it be the barbarous bail-boy, the disheartening decision, or the nettling net-cord, there is no need to lose our temper? Whatever seeming ill-luck may befall us during a match we owe it to our love of sport, to our opponents, and above all to ourselves, to preserve our equanimity unruffled during the progress of the game. That is the plea I put forward, certain of its soundness; certain, moreover, that it is a sure plea for pleasure all round.