THE WORLD OF SPORT

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 69, 1 November 1928, Page 7

THE WORLD OF SPORT

, ITEMS FROM EVERYWHERE. Otho Nothling ,thq tall Queenslander, is a possibility for test match honours this year. Playing in tue trial match Australia v. 'The Rest, ho made 8 and 62 nob out and took two for sf. Nothling is the exNew South Wales Rugby Union fullback, and has represented both New South Wales) and his native State. A hard-hitting batsman rind a good slipfield, he is a right-handed medium spin bowler who can get the best of them out, especially on a wicket showing signs of wear, as his five for 39 against New South Wales at Sydney last season showed. —o— tennis beginner should make up his mind at the commencement of thp season that h,e will practice with the sole end of improving his game. It does not matter in the smallest degree, when you are playing practice games, whether you win them or lose them; the thing to worry about is whether your game, and the strffeies that compose it, are improving from week to week. If you concentrate in improving your gante, you must practise your weak shots, instead of dodging them. This is hard to do, for it will surely result in your playing a poorer and less attrcjatAve game for tn(a. tune being. /I'm thing to remember is that it does pot matter what your game is like (for the moment, if at the end of tfie season your are a definitely improved player. —o — S. Hiddlestone, who did not play (last season owing .to being away from the Dominion for some months, was missed from Wellington’s senior eleven last Saturday. It is to be hoped that tliis fine cricketer will he available for the rest of the season. Players of his class are few and far between (says the “Post”). — o— allowances for test matches ha.ve been decided upon by the .Australian Board of Control as follows: —Players, £3O a match; first class travelling and 30s a day if absent from their own State. Umpires, £lO a match; first-clujis travelling and) 30s a day if .absent from thenown State. —O— Placing for the Wellington "jp.ticket Club this season is J. Robertson, the ex-Australian who was for some time a member) of the Sydenham senior eleven. Against Hutt the other day he made 5-1 in fine style, scoring regularly with shots all round the wicket. Northern critics look upon him as a coming provincial r epres entative. —o— f , There, was some fast j scoring in a cricket match in the Hunter River District (Australia) a fortnight ago. A first grade team made 357 runs in 2hr 35min, one of the ■ batsmen contributing 65 in eighteen' minutes, including 38 runs (five sixes and two fours) off one over. —O— J: Carlton,} 1 the Australian sprint champion is reported to bo retiring from the 'track. It is a great flow to think that such a promising performer should retire at a little, over twenty-one years of age, says a Sydney paper. The vexed question once more arises. What is the good of sending men to the Olympic Carnes who retire upon their return? —o— According to D. P. Lindsay, the well-known New Zealander swimmer, training for swimming should bo equally as extensive as any other branch of sport. The average swimmer requires just as much training work as does the champion, and] until such as he does it he cannot improve. The competitor wiio takes his training as serious as other athletes do cannot help but make progress. Perseverance is all that is wanted, and, once training is started, stick to it whatever the conditions may be. Training is a pleasure, and nut a burden, if entered, into in the right spirit. —a—- “ The association rivas again particularly fortunate, in securing the vices of such capable mid painstaking representatives las Dr. A. E., Porritt (England), Messrs. . C. G. Krogness, sen. and States of America) and Mr.l Ira C. Emery (South Africa) as overseas representatives,".] says the annual?*, report of-the N.Z. Amateur Athletic Association.. - Thanks to these gentlemen are expressed in the, report for the efficient manner in which they carried out. on the -association’s behalf any • negotiations and arrangements entrusted to their care. — o— Auckland cricket coaches, E. H. Bowiey, J. Laugridgo and G. Cox, are expected in-Auckland by -tho Mamma on November? 6.- Cox lias leer, engaged by the .'Auckland! Suburban Association. t -..-WiriiWft.' STYLES IN TENNIS. KILLING THE REAL GAME. | During the Wightman Cup match I was struck 'with the divergence between the views of W. T. Tiklen and those of other noted players who .wore; watcliing the game in progress

(says Stanley N. Doust, a former tenuis international, writing in the “.Daily Mail”). Tiklen had just arrived and judged every stroke made by the two players on the court according to its effective/scoring value. “That was a peach!’’ he would explain, as Miss Bennett made a placement. When Mrs. Mallory missed forehand after forehand ho muttered; “Mol la, you must lift the ball over the net.’’ livery time either player/ scored, it was the value oi the stroke that mattered to Tiklen. Now for the English angle of looking at a match. This same match ■was in progress when I arrived at the members’ stand. All round me I heard comments about “style.” A shot had! just been'played which Tildeu would have called a “peach” but the English'view wits that it was an “ugly” stroke. Tips and other comments led me to think that we sacrifice effect for socalled 1 style. It is assort of tradition (that, unless one is a stylist similar to the Dohertys, ;one is not a champion—or should not be one. When players like Norman Brookes, /■ Shiminzu, Jd Borotra, (Jerald Patterson, and even Trlden himself, first came to England their styles and their grips were condemned! But, they had the laugh on their critics, because they won championships with the socalled had or wrong style, which, after all, is better than,losing with a “pretty” style. Tlie zest with which English playlets in the past have slavishly imitated the perfect stroke production oi ;the Dohertys is one of the reasons why tennis has not progressed; but there is hope for the (future, because youth to-day is breaking away from old traditions and adopting a natural style.

Why is it that .Franco is the loading lawn tennis nation of the world? One has .only to look at the youngsters practising at the Racing Club do Paris —youngsters between fourteen and eighteen—and it is at once noticed that they begin to play in y list the opposite way from that ot most of the British youngsters of tho same age. The young men of France begin to hit hard from the very beginning of their career. J saw two French youngsters of fifteen in Paris hanging, the ball to each other*'from base-line to .base-line. They Heeded not how many j,times they netted'the hall, but continued with ; monotonous ; perseverance to smite the hall “good and proper.” They were not scoring, hut just practising. I was informed that the next step I is to tone down theirl pace, t “It is (much) easier to 'slow 1 d'nwn aftejr (learning to hit hard than to quicken the pace after learning that hit slowly,” was the wise remark made to me. Hence ,hy the time a Frenchman reaches the championship stage/he m able, to vary his shots and control thp fast hall as well as* the slow one. Tt is because the young Frenchman is taught first to hit hard,band, secondly, to tone down his ’pace, that France leads the world in tennis. Frenchwomen have imitated Mile Lenglen's,east and slower way of biting. hut/' without bor‘ genius, and (therefore' are slipping' behind other [nations. Britain nossesses young wiP men who strive for pace, and T am glad' that onr young men are beginning to clo likewise.