COUNTRY TEAM BEATEN

Southland Times, Issue 23735, 6 February 1939, Page 4

COUNTRY TEAM BEATEN

TOWN WINS BY THREE

SETS

MEN’S SINGLES EVENLY

DIVIDED

The tennis match between Town and Country was played on the Invercargill club’s courts on Saturday afternoon, the Town team winning narrowly by 12 matches and 19 sets to 12 matches and 16 sets.

In the women’s singles the Country players' showed superiority, winning four of the six matches. The mens singles were evenly divided, each side gaining three wins. The Town players won all but one of the mens and women’s doubles, but . the Country players were successful in the majority of the mixed doubles. ' The results are as follows (Town players being mentioned first): WOMEN’S SINGLES

Miss K. Cutt lost to Miss R. Wilson, 5Miss L. Mehaffey beat Miss J. Wilson, 9-8. Miss I. Henderson beat Mrs D. S. McLeod, by default. Miss M. Woods lost to Mrs W. Irvine, 7-9. Miss M. Shand lost to Miss D. McDonald, 5-9. Mrs I. McGrath lost to Miss M. Sanson, 7-9. MEN’S SINGLES R. Howe beat L. Whelan, 6-4, 7-5. A. T. Baird lost to L. Cockerill, 4-6, 2R. McCallum beat A. Sharp, 16-14, 3- 6-0. I. Shand lost to C. Baird, 0-6, 1-6. D. Perrin beat D. S. McLeod, 6-3, 6J. Collis lost to J. J. Banks, 5-7, 7-5, 4WOMEN’S DOUBLES Misses Cutt and Mehaffey lost to Misses R. and J. Wilson, 5-9. Misses Henderson and Woods beat Mesdames McLeod and Irvine, 9-5. Miss Shand and Mrs McGrath beat Misses McDonald and Sanson, 9-7. MEN’S DOUBLES Howe and Baird beat McLeod and Cockerill, 6-4, 6-2. McCallum and Shand beat Sharp and Baird, 6-1, 6-3. Perrin and Collis beat Whelan and Banks, 6-4, 6-4. MIXED DOUBLES Howe and Miss Cutt beat Cockerill and Miss R. Wilson, 9-5. Baird and Miss Henderson beat Sharp and Miss J. Wilson, 9-5. McCallum and Miss Mehaffey lost to Whelan and Mrs Irvine, 7-9. Shand and Miss Shand lost to Baird and Miss McDonald, 6-9. Perrin and Mrs McGrath lost to McLeod and Mrs McLeod, 3-9. Collis and Miss Woods lost to Banks and Miss Sanson, 5-9.

CHANCE TO WIN

TOWN GAINS EARLY LEAD By TOPSPIN With a team of six strong men players and the women headed by Misses R. and J. Wilson, of Balfour, Country had every chance of a win against Town on Saturday. Town, however, gained an early lead in the singles and doubles, and it was only when Country came with a run of successes in the mixed doubles that it was realized the final would be close. Town was leading by 12 matches to 11 when Collis and Miss Woods, of Town, went on to play the last mixed doubles against Banks and Miss Sanson. The country pair had a comfortable win to make matches all square, but Town won by a margin of three sets.

The weather was anything but promising in the morning, but during the afternoon conditions were ideal tor play, with bright sunshine, a cool temperature, and an absence of wind. Considerable interest was taken on the first appearance of Miss R. Wilson after her very creditable performance ir the New Zealand championships at Christchurch, where she reached the semi-final of the singles, and the final of the women’s doubles. Although superior to the opposition it could not be said that Miss Wilson played really well; she gave the impression that she felt something big was expected of her and always appeared to be forcing the pace to the detriment of the fluent driving of which she is capable. Two of the men’s matches were also made challenges for positions on the Southland ladder, and both proved long and dour struggles, with victory going to the challenger in each case. Cliff Baird’s successful challenge against I. Shand puts him in seventh place. It was a remarkable match that took two hours and a-quarter to play. During that time the loser gained but a single game. McCallum’s win against Sharp was also a ladder challenge, and puts him in third place. This was also a long tussle lasting two hours. Considering the limited opportunities for practice players have had because of the weather during the whole of January it is evident that on Saturday’s form Southland should be able to produce a team well able to do credit to the province, and meet early- engagements against North Otago and Otago with a certain amount of confidence. The match was played on the Invercargill Club courts. Deaker and Miss J. Kelly were not available for the Town side and J. Collis and Mrs McGrath filled the vacancies. Of the individual matches the first men’s single between Howe and Whelan was outstanding and Whelan deserves credit for a very creditable performance against his formidable opponent. Howe attacked strongly from the outset, forcing the pace and taking the net at every opportunity. Whelan was stroking more quietly. He made many remarkable recoveries, often when it seemed that the town man had the point won with a fast forehand on a volley, and he frequently won points with passing shots when Howe moved in on the wrong' ball. However, he could not cope with sustained speed and aggressive tactics, and Howe won in two bright sets of sparkling singles play. So, too, the top singles between Miss R. Wilson and Miss Cutt was easily the best of the women’s matches. Miss Cutt was swinging into her ground strokes with beautifully produced backhands and forehands, and gained so much pace that many times Miss Wilson was left standing. Miss Wilson was down love two, and two four, but she was hitting tremendously hard throughout. She did not vary her game as much as usual and relied on the speed of her drives to carry her through. Cockerill had a surprising straight set win over A. Baird. Cockerill concentrated on Baird’s backhand, and Baird had difficulty in handling Cockerill’s heavily-chopped shots. McCallum had Sharp running from side to side with fast drives to the corners during their marathon. Sharp accepted the challenge and made many fine recoveries when it appeared he had

been angled out of position. He won a number of points with fast passing shots to the backhand corner as McCallum was coming in to net. Both tired somewhat after the long first set of 30 games. Sharp gained the second, but he had no reserve to contest the third, which McCallum won to love. McCallum had the advantage of superior net attack and as a result of his ability to pick up shots in the air from any court position he had considerably less running about to do than his opponent. Shand could not have gained more than about six points in the first set of his singles with C. Baird, yet the set took an hour to play. It was an uninterestng game of interminable rallies. On a number of occasions the ball passed the net a big number of times before the point was decided. The record was declared to be 215 times by one spectator. Cliff Baird did not play the type of tennis that could be expected of the holder of the provincial singles title, although it must be admitted that the score vindicated his tactics. . .

Perrin played good, enterprising tennis in all his matches, and ganed a surprising straight set win over McLeod. There was another very protracted match in the sixth men’s singles and Collis and Banks seemed to be playing for hours before the decision went to the Riverton man in the third set. Banks played aggressively, both at back court and at the net, while Collis appeared to be driving strongly, although he did not gain his usual percentage of winners with his powerful forehand. Miss J. Wilson’s shots seemed to lack some of their usual sting in her singles and Miss Mehaffey .maintained her sweeping drives to gain a narrow, but creditable win against Southland’s second ranked woman player. After playing brilliantly in the women’s doubles Miss Woods slumped somewhat in the singles. Mrs Irvine played accurately from the base-line and produced a good cross-court backhand. She persevered to keep the ball in play until Miss Woods made errors. The young northern players, Misses D. McDonald and Miss M. Sanson, noted hockey player, produced good tennis to beat two experienced players in Miss Shand and Mrs McGrath. Miss D. McDonald played steadily, while Miss Sanson used her strong fore-

hand to advantage. Town won all the three men’s doubles in straight sets. Howe was often brilliant against McLeod and Cockerill. Baird gave good backing up, although he made rather more errors than usual. McCallum and Shand would not be accounted a good doubles pair, but actually they played surprisingly well together and the Wyndham players, Sharp and Baird, never appeared confident against them. McCallum was very forceful overhead, while Shand created some amazement with his success at net.

. Perrin, and. Collis, too, had. an unexpected win against the strong Riverton pair, Whelan and Banks. Collis was the outstanding player with his fast forehand and his numerous “kills” at net.

Misses Cutt and Mehaffey began full of confidence against the Wilson sisters " with both trading drives and volley on even terms, but after five all was called the Balfour players forged ahead. Backed by Miss Henderson’s steady support Miss Woods gave a brilliant doubles display that broke up the defensive tactics of Mrs Irvine and Mrs McLeod.

Town also won the third women’s double and the first and second mixed doubles. Country came with a late run to win the remaining mixed doubles and make a very even finish.