TENNIS

Southland Times, Issue 20963, 21 December 1929, Page 18

TENNIS

(By

“Chop.”)

Christmas tournament on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Some thriling finals assured. A lull in club matches for a while.

The match between Town and Northern District at Lumsden last Saturday was a most enjoyable one from every point of view. The last time an Invercargill team was in Lumsden was Easter 1928. Since then the game has unquestionably progressed in the Northern District and a better style is apparent among the younger players. The team taken from town was far from a representative A grade one, but it combined a number of experienced players and some very promising younger players. The North- , ern ladies more than held their own, but [ the men were not proportionately as strong. It was rather the opposite with the town team. For the first half of the match the sets remained equal, but Town forged ahead to win by 15 sets to 9. Considering the disadvantages under which country players labour as compared with town players the Northerners have good reason to feel satisfied with the result. A fine sporting spirit prevailed throughout the day, the weather was ideal and the Lumsden ladies were , most hospitable. Mrs Biggar, Northern’s top lad}’, is a left hander with a nice sense of when to play the ball. She was very good in her double and mixed double but found Miss Tapley's forceful and accurate shots too good in the single. Both Miss Brotherston and Miss Johnson have taken part in Southland tournaments and both are sound players who need only a little more punch in their strokes to make them really good. Miss Johnson came through the day with three wins to her credit a sterling performance. Mrs Wilson never regards a ball as unplayable and is wise enough to remember that the first thing to be done is to hit the ball over the net and into court. It is not surprising that she is hard to beat, though a good attacking opponent would outplay her. A Gore High School girl, Miss Paterson, was the most promising 'of the northerners. She has a fine temperament, is quick on her feet and can make great recoveries. When she changes her style to a free spinning drive she will go ahead rapidly. Miss Stanton also shows promise, her style being attractive. Two of Northern’s leading ladies were absent playing for Wallace at Gore. Shellard, the top man, has come on rapidly. His serve, though unusual, is effective and his forehand good. He lacks a good back hand. When he acquires this and improves his volleying he will lie a hard man to beat, for he has plenty of activity. The other Northern men have been playing for a number of years and have not had the advantage of having good players to copy in style. They are all good sportsmen and place shrewdly and it was pleasant to see them coming into the net and giving it a go there. It is rather too late in the day for them to worry about changing their style. 'lhey will get more fun out of the game playing as they do, so I shall refrain from any individual criticism. After all the champion player gets no more fun out of the game (probably less) than the average or mediocre player. There are youngsters in the district who have advantages the older players never had. It is up to them to make the most of these advantages.

The town players taught the Northeners the importance of being able to volley and assume the net position. This was particularly so in the men’s doubles. The one up and one back formation is no good. It is better for both to be back, but far better still for both to be up. All the tow’n men got to the net whenever possible and volleyed well, particularly* Jack. The girls, too, did not linger at. the back of the court when the opportunity presented itself of getting up. A pleasing feature of the town team’s play was the good showing) of the juniors. Miss Tapley’ and Strang are still at school and if they’ maintain their rate of progress should soon be in senior teams. Miss Tipley was disappointing in her double and mixed double and made amends by playing a great single. Strang has a fine style and volleys well. When he overcomes a slight laziness and tendency to hang about “no man's land” he will be still better. Miss Wesney and Miss Cardno are also junior players in that, they have been very few years at tennis. The former played excellently in all her games and the latter in her double and mixed double. Both are improving rapidly. Miss Oughton and Miss McCallum were less fortunate than the other town ladies in that, victories did not come their way. Miss Russell played a very fair double and mixed double but. found Mrs Wilson’s accuracy and determination too much in the single.

Features of the men’s play were Webb's cannon ball forehand drives, Jack’s finished volleying and Smith’s and Ferguson’s great success at the net. Invercargill defeated St. Mary's by 10 sets to 6, but had to work hard to do so. Miller did extremely well to defeat Stret tell in his single. The score was eight, all and 40 —15 in Strettell’s favour but Miller hung on grimly and registered a meritorious win. Miss Harrington also did well to defeat Miss Logan in another close contest. Considering Miss Metzger has played hardly at all this season her performance in beating Miss Mahoney was a very’ fine one. Shand, a promoted junior, deserves credit, for overwhelming President. Baird. It. was anticipated that the Central—Waihopai match would be fairly close, but the Central team won decisively. Stephens must have played very well to defeat McKay 9 —5. On his Gore form the Central man would be a formidable proposition. Though Manson and Whyte won their singles the overwhelming superiority of the Central ladies settled the issue.

The surprise of the B grade matches was the defeat of Invercargill by Southend B. The Invercargill Club has been giving as many players as possible match practice this year. Twice the B grade team, when not by any means at its strongest, has got home by the narrow margin of 9 —7. This time it was the other team that had the margin in its favour. Southend B are to be congratulated particularly their ladies who really won the match. Southend A were hard put to beat Kennington. There should be a great game when Southend A and Invercargill (at its strongest) meet. Georgetown and Waihopai 1 had good wins while St. Mary’s won by default from Bluff.

Barnes, Georgetown’s top man, had his colours lowered by Cullen in the postponed Georgetown—Southend A match. This is Baine’s first defeat in inter-club singles matches for a long time. It was a decisive one, too.

The entries for the Christmas tournament are greater than for the last three years. In fact it is questionable if they do not constitute a record. In the quality of players as well as in the number of entries the tournament has drawn a great response. In the ladies’ singles championship Mrs Scott, the holder, will be very hard to beat, but Misses Rein, Melvin and Guest, not to mention several others, will make things interesting. It is a more difficult matter to pick the winner of the men’s singles championship. McDougall, the Otago champion, has been playing very well this season. There is a slight doubt about his actually participating in the tournament although he has entered, but if he does he stands a good chance of winning.- The Sumpter brothers should again be prominent, but anything may happen with such other strong players in the event as Dobie,

the Deakers, Lindsay, McDonald and Henderson. There will be some keen struggles in the men’s doubles but the holders, Sumpter brothers, appear just a shade better than the other pairs. The handicap events have drawn large fields and the back-markers will have their work cut out. In the mixed doubles, particularly, there should be first class matches. The junior championships have not been patronized as well as they should, but the quality of the players is there. Miss Harvey, of Gore, should just about win the girls’ event and Strang or A. Baird the boys’. On Christmas Day the men will play on the Waihopai courts, the ladies at Invercargill and the juniors at St. Mary’s. On the second and third days all will be at Invercargill. The Mataura electorate players scored a decisive victory over Wallace last, Saturday, largely owing to the superiority of the Mataura men. The match was not dissimilar from an Eastern-Western match, although the Wallace team included two Northern District players. The good showing made by the Western men against Town at Otautau on November 23 gave reason to extract better things of them at Gore but they did not appear to be in the hunt. The ladies were more evenly matched, and on both sides there were some very promising players. It is a pity more of them have not entered for the Christmas tournament. The practice they would get there would be invaluable. The Rugby Park courts open to-day. They have been very well constructed and it should not be long before the club takes a prominent part in Invercargill tennis. SOUTHEND NOTES. Matches over the week-end have had an important bearing on the position of teams in the B grade competition, both Southend teams being involved. Previously there had been four unbeaten teams, but on Friday evening Southend A decided their match with Georgetown, inflicting Georegtown’s first defeat; and on Saturday the same team beat Kennington 9 —7, while the B’s had a surprise victory over Invercargill. This latter match is important, not so much because it happened to be unexpected but because it leaves Southend A alone with an unbroken record, and quite a good prospect of winning the shield. Invercargill has been criticized for playing a team less than full strength, but it is a tribute to the sporting spirit of a club when an effort is made to give other members a chance, and also to avoid overwhelming victories against weaker teams of the smaller clubs. Southend B were apparently underestimated.

It is only fair to explain Southend’s present strong position. At the beginning of the season we were without the services of most of the best of last year’s players: Deakcr, Gordon Cate, Jack Latta, Mrs Latta, Dot Chism and others, and it appeared quite impossible to enter an A grade team —even doubtful for two B grade ones. Since then, the club has been strengthened by the addition of new members and the decided improvement of many of the younger players. For next year an A grade would seem to be quite assured. Cullen and Barnes had a number of spectators when they played off their singles of the Georgetown-Southend match on Friday evening.

It was a good game to watch, Cullen playing steadily and persistently to an unexpected conclusion of 9-4 in his favour. On Saturday afternoon a junior team played a friendly and greatly appreciated match with the Southern Club on their courts at South Invercargill. Occasional matches of this kind are valuable because they give experience and encouragement to those junior members who miss the opportunities of match players. Saturday is being set aside at Southend entirely for the purpose of deciding as many matches anti as many rounds of the club competitions as possible. Those competitors who have been lax so far will be afforded this opportunity to avoid losing their matches by defaulting. There were only four entries for the ladies’ championship doubles, and with the first round decided Mrs McGoldrick and Miss McCallum play Misses Bamford and Holdsworth in the final.

Ladder challenges, challengers’ names first: Miss J. Lamont lost to Miss G. Bamford 5—7; Miss A. Raines beat Miss Le Petit 7—2; Miss M. Pollok beat Mrs Lamont 7—2 and Mrs McGoldrick 7—4 Miss Pollok has been showing good form recently. L. Raines lost to A. Barr B—9;8 —9; and C. Hodgson beat N. Mitchell 9—7.

The Rugby Park Tennis Club, Southend's nearest neighbour is to open on Saturday. Southend extends best wishes for the success and prosperity of the new club.