TOWN TENNIS TEAM BEATS EASTERN SOUTHLAND

Southland Times, Issue 23377, 8 December 1937, Page 11

TOWN TENNIS TEAM BEATS EASTERN SOUTHLAND

Hard-Fought Match Between Baird And McLeod

(By

ROY HOWE)

The New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association has approved of the following tournament dates:— Southland—December 25 to 28. North Otago—December’ 25 to 28. Wellington—December 28 to January 1. Riverton Centenary—January 1,3, 4 and 8. South Canterbury—January 1 to 5. Marlborough—December 25 to 28. Auckland, Handicaps—December 27 to January 3. ■Wanganui—January 1 to 5.

Those players who are staying in Southland over Christmas and the New Year should patronize the Southland and Riverton tournaments as, if these prove successful, the New Year tournament may become a permanent fixture and as such will be beneficial for tennis in Southland. Entry forms may be obtained from club secretaries. Under ideal conditions the match between Town and Eastern Southland was played at Gore on Saturday. Town had an easy win by 22 matches to two. A. Baird (Town) beat D. S. McLeod (Eastern) after a hard-fought three set match. Baird played with plenty of confidence throughout, his groundstrokes being very accurate while overhead he was playing very well. Although McLeod fought all the way he appeared to be having some difficulty in placing his backhand and he fell down quite often in this department.

A. Sharp (Eastern) defeated A. Deaker after a marathon two set match. Both players were affected by the sun, especially when it came to serving. Sharp’s forehand was going very well but his serving and backhand play was weak. _ Cockerill started off well against R. McCallum (Town) and won the first set 6-1. McCallum settled down to his usual attacking game and Cockerill’s defensive chop forehand was falling down repeatedly. Cockerill was handicapped by a leg injury which prevented him from playing shots to which he had to run fast. This leg injury later caused Cockerill to default in his mixed doubles match. McCallum was making more mistakes than usual at the start but he was playing well at the finish. GOOD RECOVERIES Welsh played a remarkable retrieving game and he recovered smashes and hard volleys from the most difficult positions. He was not maintaining a good length when lobbing and his backhand was not strong. C. Baird (Eastern) had a very interesting match with I. Shand (Town) both playing steady tennis. Baird has a very pretty style but he was not as accurate as Shand. Perrin (Town) and Strang (Eastern) had a prolonged struggle which went the full three sets. Perrin’s hard hitting was a bit erratic in the first set but became more controlled, enabling him to win the match by two sets to one. All the women’s singles were won quite comfortably by Town but the first women’s doubles match was won by the Eastern pair after a long match in which the steadiness of the winners was too much for the Town combination.

A very interesting game was the mixed doubles match between Shand and Mrs Salisbury and C. Baird and Mrs Townsend. Shand and Mrs Salisbury had match point at 8-5 but this they lost and the Eastern pair fought hard to equalize at 8-8. Shand was volleying well and Baird was playing well but Mrs Townsend’s backhand was failing her, so Baird, when his partner was serving from the left hand court stood on the same side to protect her backhand. The result of these tactics was the evening at 8-all and the Eastern pair was unfortunate in losing. Mrs Salisbury was playing fell from the baseline, her ground strokes carrying plenty of speed. At the net, however, she was too far away from the correct volleying position and she was many times caught with the ball at her feet. At times she made some brilliant half-volleys but she also missed many.

The other inter-district match was played against the Western Sub-As-sociation at Riverton under perfect conditions. This was a very closely-con-tested match which resulted in a win for Town by 13 sets to 11. The outstanding player was B. Whelan who had no difficulty in winning his three matches. J. Banks and J. Davidson had a good game and Davidson when leading 8-5 made the mistake of easing up and his opponent went on to attack and win 9-8. Collis (Town) played well to win all his matches. Town was without the services of W. Strang who would have had to play Whelan again. If Whelan can maintain his present form he should stand a good chance of playing representative tennis this season.

In the senior B inter-club matches many good games were played under good conditions. A weakened Waihopai No. 2 team caused the Invercargill Club’s first loss in any grade so far this season. The weakness in Invercargill’s senior B team was to be found in the women’s singles and in the men’s doubles.

Makarewa had a good win over St. Mary’s. Gladstone will now lead in the competition as it had a good win over Central. The northern associations are exercisingfirmness about the foot-fault rule and it is the duty of every player in inter-club matches to become thoroughly familiar with this rule and to avoid breaking it. There is no advantage to be gained in footfaulting. Another rule with which many players are not familiar is that of receiving the service in doubles. Rule 32 states: “The pair who have to receive the service in the first game of each set shall decide which partner shall receive the first service and the opposing pair shall decide similarly in the second game of each set. Partners shall receive the service alternately throughout each game and the order of receiving the service having been decided shall not be altered during the set, but it may be changed at the beginning of a new set.” So remember if you start receiving in the left court you must keep in that court until one set has been played. Many players chance the order of receiving every two games. VISITORS TO AUSTRALIA Australia is to have a feast of good tennis this summer. D. Budge and G. Mako, the acknowledged doubles champions of the world, have arrived in Sydney and the great German players Von Cramm and Henkel will arrive next month. Budge, undisputed amateur tennis champion of the world is a tall, red headed, Californian, typical of the thousands of youngsters who have taken tennis away from the sole charge of society to make it a game truly representative of the people. Budge hits the ball hard from service to volley. His is a blasting game, so different from his character. On the court he plays powerful services, dynamic drives and mighty smashes. Off the courts he is a quiet, soft-spoken young man who endeavours to avoid back-slappers. His first visit to Wimbledon found him in a typical incident when he waved his racket genially to Queen Mary as she entered the Royal Box of the centre court, while his opponent von Cramm, greeted the queen with the courtliest of bows. But no one took that gesture amiss for Budge is so modest and unaffected that he could never be honestly accused of lack of respect. Budge is famous for his terrific backhand. When Quist first played Budge he attacked the latter’s backhand and went into the net to volley. Slap! was Budge’s backhand reply and the ball would pass Quist like a cannon-ball service straight down the line—a perfect passing shot. Budge should appeal to Australians just as surely as the frank, open handsome smiling face of 28-year-old von Cramm will go to all hearts. Van Cramm is an excellent example for young players to copy and there are few players more pleasing to watch. His flowing strokes are no less pleasing than his appearance and demeanour on the court. His service, with its speedy kick, is devastating, his ground strokes are severe and accurate and his overhead work and volleying usually decisive. He is a great character and a perfect champion.