Personalities in Sport

Southland Times, Issue 24603, 27 November 1941, Page 8

Personalities in Sport

BRILLIANT TENNIS CAREER MRS STURMAN’S RECORD Visitors to a certain private tennis court in Invercargill will sometimes have seen a woman playing in a men s doubles and playing on more than equal terms with her partner and her opponents. They will have been struck by the depth of her drives, by her crisp volleying and the placement of her smashes; and they will have admired the tenacity of her play when things were going badly. She is Mrs W. F. Sturman, probably the best woman player New Zealand has ever produced. Before her marriage, as Miss Nancy Curtis, she had established herself as the first player in New Zealand and Australia. In singles play in New Zealand she did not lose a set either in national or interprovincial matches, and she beat Australia’s best. It is now 20 years since she won the New Zealand singles championship, but her play still has the sparkle, and shows the qualities, that took her to the top then. And she can still make her male opponents in doubles look as silly as she made some of her rivals for the women’s singles title look 20 years ago. Mrs Sturman won the New Zealand singles championship in 1920 and 1921, the women’s doubles (with Mrs W. J. Melody) in 1921, and the mixed doubles in 1920 (with Dr. Allison) and in 1921 (with G. Ollivier). When she competed in the Wellington public schools’ championships it was seen that she was a natural volleyer. She had no difficulty in winning the public schools’ championship singles for two successive

years. Her first big chance came in 1920, when at the New Zealand championships, played in Auckland, she beat the holder of the singles title, Mrs Hodges, and went on to win the event. She performed an equally noteworthy feat in the mixed doubles, when, with Dr. Allison, she beat Mrs Hodges and Pat O’Hara Wood, the crack Victorian. In this final Miss Curtis showed that she had reached the top rank, for “she stood up to the Victorian at the net, exchanging volleys, and beating him more often than he beat her.” In beating Miss Marjorie Macfarlane in the singles at the 1921 tournament Miss Curtis showed herself to be without a peer in New Zealand. Her short, crisp and clever game of the modern school proved far too effective fol - even a most consistent and accurate base-liner like her opponent. VISIT TO AUSTRALIA After the New Zealand championships in 1921, Miss Curtis, Miss Marjorie Macfarlane, Miss Payton, and Miss Z. Wellwood were sent across to New South Wales as a New Zealand team. Miss Curtis started well, defeating Miss St. George (New South Wales) 6-2, 6-3, and displaying “fine forehand driving and also volleying well.” She beat Miss Lascelles, 6-3, 1-6, 12-10, after Miss Lascelles had match point in the third set at 5-2. “Concealment of the intended direction of her forehand ground strokes was a prominent feature of Miss Curtis's play, as was the excellent judgment in choosing the right ball to approach the net, and her cool, confident overhead work.

“Against Miss Lascelles.” wrote a critic, “Miss Curtis revealed the quality of courage in a crisis, for after losing the first set Miss Lascelles won nine games to one. and seemed to have the match won. Though apparently tired, the New Zealand champion contested every point with the utmost resolution.” USE OF VOLLEY Another Sydney writer said Miss Curtis “is a worthy successor of Miss K. Nunneley and Miss L. Powdrell, both of whom in former years won the New South Wales singles championship. Miss Curtis is, however, a different type of player, as she employs the volley far more than the earlier representatives of New Zealand. She proved herself to be the most versatile exponent of the women’s branch of tennis seen in New South Wales for many years, with the possible exception of Mrs Molesworth, whose methods resemble strongly those of Miss Curtis. She was equally proficient on the volley or with ground strokes, and used both with equal discrimination.”

Against Victoria Miss Curtis was beaten by Miss Esma Boyd, 6-4, 7-5 “on a court which took the sting out of the New Zealander’s drives.” Miss Curtis later beat Mrs Lister, 6-1, 6-4. Other opponents she beat were Miss Fuller, 6-4, 6-4; Miss N. Lloyd, 7-5, 6-1; Miss Gray, 6-2, 6-1. In the championships she turned the tables on Miss Boyd, winning, 6-2. -6, 6-2. Contrasting the styles of Mrs Molesworth, Miss Boyd and Miss Curtis, an Australian critic said: “Mrs Molesworth is versatility personified . . . Miss Boyd plays to win on her own strokes, and plays with charming abandon, the whole of her energetic body and soul being behind the racket. “The lady from New Zealand is also very much in the picture and adds to its beauty. She is the stylist of the three, and seems to do everything easily and in the best form. She has quite the best court demeanour of any player who has graced our courts. She plays the game with a joyousness that is a charm in itself. She is a player who smiles at her own mistakes and losses. There is never a frown if she errs, and she is always smiling when she loses. But, smiling, she mostly wins, and then her pleasant manner makes it easy for her opponent.” BRILLIANT CLIMAX

The climax to Miss Curtis’s career came when she won the final of the New South Wales championship, beating Mrs Molesworth 10-8, 5-7, 7-5, “after a remarkably brilliant exhibition.” The New Zealander’s victory was immensely popular, and she was chaired to the dressing-room. The longest set took 50 minutes to decide. Though the match was for the championship of New South Wales, the Australian States and New Zealand were so thoroughly represented that the match actually decided the championship of Australia and New Zealand. “Some of Miss Curtis’s low volleys could not have been bettered by Nor-

man Brookes himself at his zenith,” said the Australian Referee. “When 40 games had been played,” added the Referee, “the tally was just level at 20 each. Then came the brilliant effort of Brookes-like skill of the tall, lithe, active and smiling lady from across the Tasman. Driving like a fury, she followed drives right in on the net, and then dashed from side to side, so that she seemed absolutely to pervade the whole court and to be three instead of one. She cut off every attempt to pass of the Australian champion and forced her at last to own defeat. “There is no doubt that in Miss Curtis, Mrs Molesworth, and almost equally Mrs Lister and Miss Boyd, Australasia has four players of the world’s firstclass rank.”