RACKETS AND BATS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 260, 24 January 1928, Page 9

RACKETS AND BATS

THE COLONIAL MARKET A MANUFACTURER’S VIEWS “There is only one way to do business overseas and that is to come out and see for yourself what is actually required,” said Mr. E. Stuart Ford, a director of Adams, Montgomery and Co., Ltd., manufacturers of sports goods, while chatting with a Sun man this morning. “For instance,” said Mr. Ford, “I have come out to New Zealand to find that New Zealanders prefer a much more tightly strung tennis racket than we do at Home. Consequently we make a special gut for this market, and so fill all the requirements for a super-strung racket. “Talking of tennis materials, I must say I have noticed a difference since I was here a year or two ago. I notice now that most tennis enthusiasts prefer to buy the frame and then get it strung according to their fancy. Well, this is a good idea,” said Mr. Ford. “Firstly, the purchaser has no idea how long the racket has actually been strung, and secondly, the fact that it is brought through the tropics from England to New Zealand has often very serious effects. STRONGER CRICKET BATS Mr. Ford also mentioned that cricket bats sent out here by his firm had much bigger shoulders and were really stronger than the bats used at Home. This is done in order that they will withstand the harder wickets and good hard driving. First-class willow for the manufacture of bats is becoming scarcer, owing mainly to the increasing popularity of the game, and that during the war no sets were planted. “It is strange that Badminton is not more popular in New Zealand,” said Mr. Ford. “It goes strongly in England, Scotland and Ireland, and it creates as much interest as tennis; that is, the winter season as against the summer season. It is considered there as the king of all indoor games. Then, again, there is table tennis or ping-pong. This game has certainly taken on more in New Zealand and the exportation of materials for this game is very large—much more so than most people would think.”