TENNIS

Southland Times, Issue 22158, 28 October 1933, Page 14

TENNIS

(By

“Chop.”)

A and C grade matches to-day. The A grade draw is: St. Mary’s v Invercargill B at St. Mary’s; Central v. Southend at Central; Georgetown v Invercargill A at Invercargill; Waihopai v Winton at Waihopai; Gladstone a bye.

The C grade draw is: St. Mary’s v Georgetown at Georgetown; Southend v Makarevza B at Southend; Bluff v Makarewa A at Makarewa; Invercargill v Waikiwi at Waikiwi; Waihopai v Tisbury at Tisbury; Moana a bye. Kennington have withdrawn from the C grade competition and Tisbury have been substituted for them. It was noticeable in the doubles matches at Dunedin on Monday and Wednesday that the visitors were often content when coming in on their service to remain near the service line and half-volley the returns. Probably the fact that the receiver so frequently hits the ball on the rise precludes the server from getting right into the net. The half-volley has therefore been cultivated almost as a stable stroke. The tourists did not send overa slow defensive half-volley. They placed it and put pace into it. Strang exploits the half-volley fairly successfully; but all experienced writers on tennis declare it a dangerous stroke and one to be used only when the necessity arises. For most players this is sound advice; but those who can use it to advantage should carry on. Why are line-umpires afraid to call out promptly and loudly? At Dunedin most of the linesmen had voices like superannuated monkeys and were either somnolent or slow in ratiocinating. It would seem that before a big match is played umpires and linesmen should receive a few hours’ schooling from someone who knows exactly what are their respective duties. The entries for the doubles ladders have not been as numerous as last year, but some excellent games should be witnesed for there are many wellmatched pairs. The ladders have been drawn up as follows: —

Men. Ladies. Deaker & Cockerill Misses Melvin and Wade. Sumpter & Baird Misses Guest and Wesney. Strang & Barnes Miss Rein and Mrs Clark. Stephens & Paterson Misses Whyte and Lockwood. McCallum <Sc Rigby Misses Ronald and Woods. Clarkson Davidson Misses Murdock Rout St Hannay and Cutt. Mrs McEachran Manson & Smith and Miss Price. Misses Lamont. Wood & Hodgson Misses Shand and Basstian. All challenges must be previously notified to the ladder secretary (Mr I. D. Jack) to whom the results must be communicated on completion of games. The matches are to be the best of three advantage sets, while the locale of the match and the provision of balls are to be the subject of mutual arrangement. The matches must be played within seven days after the notification to the ladder secretary. It has been decided that the losing pair has not been entitled to challenge the winning pair until a period of seven days has elapsed. It is obvious, however, that if broken weather is experienced, difficulties will arise by reason of the non-completion of the matches in the prescribed time through the bad weather or the inability of one or more of the players to be available on any particular occasion. In the event of the challenge not being played within the seven days, it has been decided that the placings on the ladders will remain unaltered. It is realized that this may react harshly in some cases, but equally so would a general rule that no results obtainable, the challengers be placed above the challenged pair. The main danger in the above lies in the fact that the challenged pair may endeavour to evade the match, but in such a case (surely only hypothetical) representations can be made through the ladder secretary. In the event or weather conditions precluding any chance of play the ladder secretary may in his discretion, enlarge the time for playing of the matches on the application of the challengers.

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Most Southland players preferred to wield a racquet on Labour Day rather than travel to Dunedin to see Quist and Turnbull. Winton was invaded by town players vzho met with considerable success. It was a highly successful tournament and a happy fraternizing of’players from many parts of the province. Those promising young players from Balfour, the Wilson sisters, carried off the ladies’ doubles, Misses Russell and Lush, of the Gladstone Club, being runners-up. Some really good tennis was seen in the final. Lindsay has a good many successes to his credit at the Labour Day tournaments. With Allan Baird as his partner he again ran into first place. Deaker and Cockerill proved the hardest nuts Lindsay and Baird had to crack. The final against Stephens and Strang was a one-sided affair, the Waihopai players making too many errors. The mixed doubles final still has to be played. Barnes, and Miss Payne, considering their severe handicap, did well to come through. If Paterson is on his game he and Miss Wade should just about win in the play-off. It is rather surprising that town players gave Gore such a wide berth on Monday. The Gore players are popular hosts and the trophies were most generous. Possibly the idea of playing singles did not appeal so early in the season. Those friendly rivals, D. S. McLeod and Chapman, met in the final of the men’s singles and when McLeod ran to a 5-1 lead it looked as if it was all over bar shouting. But Chapman suddenly found touch and by excellent work at close quarters took four games on end. McLeod rallied his forces and captured the eleventh game but he could not withstand Chapman’s fierce finish, the latter winning a fine contest 7-6. Mrs Martin (nee Miss L. Lawrence) is rapidly returning to the form which won her the Southland singles title. When she stepped on the court to play the final she was a strong favourite, but Miss Jopp played a game out of the box and won convincingly.

If the New Zealand Association had been seriously studying Southland interests it could easily have arranged for the Australians to play at Invercargill on Labour Day. It would have meant a long journey for Quist and Turnbull, but from all accounts they

would not have minded. They reached Dunedin about six o’clock on Monday morning from Christchurch travelling by the midnight express. A few hours later they were having a knockup at Logan Park. Had they come on to Invercargill by the morning express they could have played that afternoon and returned next morning—admittedly a strenuous two days but not by any means beyond the powers of these very fit and cheerful young players. With Perry, Lee and Wilde also in Dunedin on Tuesday the Otago Association could have staged a test match. Thus both Southland and Otago would have benefited. But the management committee in Wellington gives us an assurance that it went very carefully into all these possibilities, and with that we shall have to be content to be dissatisfied.

One lesson taught by Turnbull was the necessity of standing side-on to the base-line when preparing to deliver the serve. Far too many players face the net when serving, with the result that their body is not behind the stroke, the power of the arm being the only method of propulsion. But the indianclub swing of the racquet, the corresponding body movement and the transference of weight from the back to the front foot just at the moment of impact are all necessary for a really fast service. Turnbull had these operations co-ordinated beautifully. Both Wilson and Pearce served well, the former sometimes getting almost as much pace on the ball as Turnbull, though he had nothing like the same control of direction.

Turnbull bears a marked physical resemblance to Reg. Baird. They are also alike in that each hits hard. But Turnbull’s shots nearly always go in. The sliced backhand seems to be favoured by most of the leading players. The fact that most of their matches are played on grass will partly account for this, since the work on the ball is much more effective on grass than on asphalt. Those who saw Andrews play in Invercargill will remember the drag he put on his backhand. The Australians showed convincingly that any ball which bounces high, particularly if it is of poor length, should be slammed down unmercifully. If a lob sailed over Quist’s head he went back, waited for it to bounce and smote the ball as for a serve. Time and again he scored this way. Turnbull was inclined to hurry his stroke when he attempted the same shot. It is really by no means a difficult shot provided one can get in position. It is merely serving with the whole court, not a quarter of it, as a target. Both the Australians played with the flat-topped racquet favoured by Crawford. I should say it would help considerably in half-volleying at which they showed rare skill. After watching both the Australians and the Englishmen play at Dunedin I am satisfied that nearly all players in this part of the world are not murderous enough in dealing with highbouncing balls. It is self-evident that the higher the ball bounces the easier it is to hit over the net and into court. Why then treat it gently. Hit it down as hard as you can. If it is high enough smite the ball as for a service. Otherwise crouch over it and slam it over the net. We are all a bit inclined to overdo safety first tactics.

The greatest lesson to be learned from the lawn tennis tournament is that the Christchurch public will not pay fancy prices for admission (states the Christchurch Star). As for the tennis, the performances of the famous English and Australian players will have a stimulating rather than moulding influence on the style of local play, although they will also drive home the lesson that speed makes the quick decisive rally the hall-mark of first-class tennis. It is hardly possible to imitate a great player like Perry, for men of his calibre are thrown up not once in a decade over the whole tennis world. In fact, if New Zealand had to engage overseas instructors, it would be difficult to say where she would get them, and what, actually, they could teach that the local players, by persistent stroke practice and study, could not teach themselves. The best finishing school, of course, is to be found overseas, but the next best thing is visits from famous players, and it would be well worth while importing a professional “circus” if open tournaments were only permitted.