SOUTHLAND’S TENNIS TEAM PLAYS OTAGO ON SATURDAY IN INVERCARGILL

Southland Times, Issue 23767, 15 March 1939, Page 11

SOUTHLAND’S TENNIS TEAM PLAYS OTAGO ON SATURDAY IN INVERCARGILL

By

TOPSPIN

Fixtures for Saturday:— Otago v. Southland at Waihopai courts. r Senior B.—Waihopai v. Invercargill, at Invercargill; St. Mary’s v. Southend, at Southend. Intermediate. —Kennington v. Rugby Park, at Rugby Park; Bluff v. Southern, at Southern; Georgetown v. Central, at Central; Invercargill v. Waikiwi at Waikiwi; Clifton v. Moana, at Moana. C Grade.—Southend v. St. Mary’s, at St. Mary’s; Waikiwi v. Makarewa, at Makarewa; Southern v. Tisbury, at Tisbury; Waihopai v. Clifton, at Clifton. Because of the representative match being played on the Waihopai courts it has been found necessary to alter the venue of three matches. The senior B match between Waihopai and Invercargill will now be played at Invercargill courts, while the intermediate matches, Waikiwi v. Invercargill and Moana v. Clifton, have been altered to Waikiwi and Moana respectively. The domestic struggle between Waihopai I and Waihopai II in the intermediate grade has been postponed. The completion of the two semor B matches will complete this grade. Invercargill has gone through the season with an unbeaten record, and should be able to account for Waihopai to win the grade. Tisbury has only one loss, to Invercargill and, should Waihopai bring off a surprise on Saturday, it would necessitate a play off between Invercargill and Tisbury. GALLOWAY CUP ENTRIES At a meeting of the management committee of the Southland Lawn Tennis Association, on Monday evening, it was reported that entries for the Galloway Cup competition had been received from 10 town clubs and three sub-associations as follows:— Moana.—L. Marshall, Miss M. Mowatt. Invercargill.—J. Collis, Miss K. Cutt. Southern. —J. Gordon, Miss C. O’Halloran. Georgetown.—G. Barnes, Mrs J. Croad. Rugby Park.—J. Hughes, Miss R. Henry. Central.—S. O. Merlo, Miss I. Henderson. Southend.—R. McCallum, Miss L. Mehaffey. St. Mary’s.—D. Perrin, Miss M. Mahoney. . „ Makarewa. —J. McLean, Miss V. Mortimer. Waihopai.—A. Alcorn, Miss Farmer. Eastern District.—B. Whelan, Mrs D. S. McLeod. Central District.—L. Whitaker, Miss E. Tippett. Northern District.—D. Bruce, Misses R. and J. Wilson. No entries were received from the Western Southland and Western Otago Sub-Associations. Had Banks, of Riverton, been nominated by Western District there is no doubt he would have made his presence felt. Northern District nominated two women players, but this has been referred back as only one man and one woman may be nominated by each sub-association. The first round of matches, which will reduce the town entrants to five, is to be completed by Monday, March 20, The quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals will be played on April 1. This will mean some strenuous tennis for the ultimate winners, since it will necessitate three matches for them in the one day, but at such a late stage of the season it was deemed advisable to spread the concluding rounds over two Saturdays. Two complete rounds of matches, postponed from earlier in the season have yet to be played in the senior A competition, and with the SouthlandOtago match this Saturday and the Galloway Cup on April 1 there remains only one playing Saturday before Easter, which is generally regarded as the closing of the tennis season. Rumour had it that some of the competitions would be closed soon, regardless of unplayed matches, but no mention of closing the competitions was made at the last meeting of the executive. HANDICAP TOURNAMENT The Invercargill Club was granted permission to hold a handicap tournament on Thursday, March 23, Anniversary Day for Otago and Southland. Although not a general holiday, the banks and many offices close on that day and entries from members of all affiliated clubs would be welcome. When the matter was brought up a member suggested that it would be a good idea for the association to use this day in future years to run some kind of a tournament to cater for tennis players, especially those not playing in the senior grades. . Another matter which might be of interest to club officials was revealed when the need of having the Waihopai courts lined for Saturday was being discussed. A member mentioned that his club, Georgetown, had used aluminium paint instead of white marking at the beginning of the season, and the lines were still clearly defined, which would not have been the case if white paint had been used. At the conclusion of the meeting on Monday the president of the association, Mr P. F. de la Perrelle, mentioned the impending departure for Wellington of a member of the executive, Mr C. A. Sharp, of Wyndham. Mr Sharp, he said, was a very good player who had been an acquisition to Southland tennis for some years; they all regretted his going, but wished him good fortune in his new sphere, and hoped that he might consent to help Southland still further by acting as an associate delegate for the province when in Wellington.

During the four years that Andrew Sharp has resided in Southland he has done much for the Wyndham Club, for Eastern District, and for Southland. He has proved an able administrator on the executive, and by far the most active of country delegates. Sharp is a Rhodes Scholar and held a post in the Indian Civil Service before a break-down in health necessitated his return to New Zealand. While at Oxford he played with success ma number of English tournaments. He has represented Southland at tennis on several occasions, he is on a nine handicap at golf, he is an accomplished polo player, and last year was captain of the Southland men’s hockey team. He will be captain of Southlands tennis team this Saturday. These accomplishments, combined with his outstanding academic qualifications make him the ideal type for the post to which he has been appointed in Wellington by the National Council of Physical Welfare and Recreation. In a recent challenge for top place on the Wyndham Club ladder B. Whelan, third ranked player in the province, was unsuccessful against Sharp. Whelan gained the first set 6-3 and led 5-3 in the second. Sharp then changed his tactics to take the net on lobs to his opponent’s backhand and gain 10 games in a row for the match. In the Eastern District A grade competition Citizens, of Gore, is leading, followed by Wyndham. These teams meet on March 25 and if Wyndham wins, both teams will be level. Citizens beat Wyndham in an earlier round this season. SOUTHLAND’S CHANCES North Otago beat Southland at Oamaru last month, but could gain only four matches at Logan Park on Saturday last. North Otago gained two of the women’s doubles and the top two singles. McKenzie, of North Otago, who played well against Howe in Oamaru, beat J. C. Robertson in three sets, and Miss D. Miller is reported to have played brilliantly against Mrs Rawlinson, and allowed her only one game. W. Smith won well from Griffin, and K. Bryan overwhelmed the former Dunedin player S. McDougall 6-0, 6-2. The other Otago men, Falconer, Sincock and Jolly, also recorded good wins. These results do not enhance Southland’s chances, and rather point to a hollow victory for Otago. However, Southland may rise to the occasion on its home territory, while possibly Otago may not have its strongest team available for travelling. The Southland team is:—A. Baird, R. McCallum, B. Whelan, C. Sharp (captain), L. Cockerill, J. Banks; Misses R. Wilson, J. Wilson, K. Cutt, L. Mehaffey, I. Henderson and J. Kelly. D. Perrin and Miss L. Barrett are emergencies for the team. Mr A. Deaker has been appointed at the head of a committee to organize the umpiring for the match, and would no doubt be pleased to accept assistance from any enthusiasts willing to act as umpires. For the fourth year in succession the Otago Club has won the A grade competition in Dunedin. Otago has some strong players in Robertson, Boddy, Kaye and Pollock. St. Clair was run-ner-up. In the semi-final of the women’s A grade competition Kaituna narrowly defeated St. Clair and meets Roslyn in the final. INVERCARGILL, COMPETITIONS Unfortunately the senior competition is not so far advanced in Invercargill, but with a clear-cut win over Bluff on Saturday Central now leads Invercargill by two points in the senior A grade and has yet to play St. Mary’s and Rugby Park. Bluff gained three sets from Central, the first men’s doubles and the second and fourth men’s singles. The Central women made a clean sweep of their matches, but the Bluff women were not disgraced. Miss Crockett contested

every point with Miss Henderson and actually had a lead at 4-3. In the second singles Miss Deegan was often forced into long rallies, but outplayed the Bluff girl at the net. Miss Woods and Miss Reid were too experienced for Miss Mitchell and Miss Hamilton. There was an excellent game of tactics in the first men’s doubles between the Hamilton brothers and McKay and Merlo. The Central pair led 40-love at 8-all, but the Bluff pair showed a good understanding to survive the critical set points. McKay drove and served well to beat Jack Hamilton in a' close and wellcontested singles. Merlo led 3-love, but Jim Hamilton Was producing his backhand fluently and recovered well to win by two games. Doyle plays many brilliant shots, but he lacked a passing shot to worry Stubbs in his many rallies to the net. Bluff’s fourth man was definitely superior to Hodgson in the other singles. Waihopai appeared to have the match in hand when it led by seven matches to two against Winton, but the country players pulled the game out of the fire to gain a narrow win. A feature of the match was the excellent form of Alcorn, of Waihopai, who beat F. Lindsay with the loss of only three games, and won the first men’s doubles with Lumsden, and the first mixed doubles with Miss M. Farmer. The other Winton men, Hamilton, Horsburgh and G. Lindsay, had good wins, but Miss M. Lindsay was the only successful Winton woman, and gave further evidence of improvement by defeating Mrs Clements after a long game. A feature of the St. Mary’s-George-town match was Perrin’s consistent form in winning his three matches. By winning six sets Georgetown gained a closer finish than was expected. Rugby Park also put up a creditable performance to take five sets from the strong Southend side. Invercargill had a bye. ; Tisbury’s good win over St. Marys in the senior B put it in second place in this competition. There are still two rounds to play in both the intermediate and C grades, besides several odd matches which have been postponed from earlier in the season because of the weather. A town team, consisting mostly of senior B players, fared rather badly when it met the Central District representative team at Winton on Saturday. Town gained only six sets, three women’s singles and three mixed doubles. Town was strengthened by one A grade player, Miss L. Barrett, who gained a good win in the top singles, but McLean, of Makarewa, and leading Tisbury players, who would have strengthened the team, were not available. The two young town girls, Miss Moir and Miss Mortimer, performed well to win their singles. Leading the Central men, Whitaker and D. Shand, both of Dipton, were too severe for Colbert and Larcombe respectively in the singles, but the first men’s doubles was more even. The former representative player, Mrs Hazlett, showed something of her old form when she allowed Mrs Cockroft only a single game. There was little between the players but in the long rallies which characterized the match the Central player was more accurate.