LAWN TENNIS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 252, 27 November 1914, Page 3

LAWN TENNIS.

ASSOCIATION COURTS.

The subscription lists issued in connection with the Association Courts proposal are to be left open until December 14, by which time it is anticipated that the sum required will be forthcoming. Since the meeting of the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association on Monday evening the amount collected has risen from £279 to £320, and the outlook generally is quite satisfactory.' the' junior competitions. ;

South Christchurch outplayed Avonside in the Canterbury L.T.A. junior competition last Saturday, in both the

singles and the doubles/ For the win-" , n'ers, Berry played one of his best this season. His; placing was g6od, and. his driving accurate. A more , forceful service would improve his at ? tack, and this is a branch of the game /that he might cultivate to advantage. At times he was well beaten by his opponent's "kicking" serve, wifich he failed .to judge. Dickson, the South Christchurch

second player, seemed to have Poison in

trouble till 6-2 was called in his favour. Then the Avonside player attacked

strongly, and by means of vigorous driving took the set to 9-7. Poison deserves every- credit for the uphill game he played, and his exhibition was by far the best giyen by any player of the Avonside team. 'Hawkins.-; (South Christchurch) outplayed Malcolm at every department of the gained His volleying, though not forceful, was accurate, and gave him a big advantage over his opponent, who relied almost -'entirely on base line play. Malcolm drove fairly well, but his other shots were decidedly haphazard. Play in the game between Potter (South Christchurch) and Mc.Gill was of a..disappointiiig nature, hardly Tip to the standard oiie would expect to see eveui lri;; : ju.uior tennis; The South ChrlstchuFch player had his ojijjonent in trouble all round, aud his steadiness was the biggest factor in his win. Linwood failed to put up much of a fight against Addington. In the singles Moore \got on beat, secßri-Hg five games from E. Cooper. Webb put steady fight against F. Cooper, one stage it looked as though he might v> sai|l off the set,'-but it was not to be. The" Linwood pairs improved considerably in the doubles, but they were still somewhat outclassed.

Canterbury College was very badly beaten by Opawa. Bauchop. (College) secured six games from Garland, six out of a total of nine secured in the whole match. College fared very badly. To-morrow, St. Albans meets Opawa on the St. Albans courts. Neither team has yet been defeated, and they should both do battle ivaliantly, although Opawa is generally expected to prove victorious. Avonside will doubtloss defeat Linwood, but the Addington v. South Christchurch game should prove more interesting.

THE YICTOEIAN CAPTAIN. Almost at the last moment, when, hided!,, there was little time left 'for the selectors to choose a substitute, and, when chosen, the. time left for practice in doubles was wholly inadequate, Milt. W. Heath, the present champion of Victoria,. resigned from the Victorian team, giving as his reason that "he having been chosen as first man, he should have been chosen as captain." in commenting on this action, says:—As to the implied claim that the best player should be the captain of the team, I have no hesitation in saying that it is one that is absolutely untenable. There is no precedent for it. It is not so in the team against South Australia. It is in itself wholly ridiculous. Tho best player in New South Wales at the present time is J. O. Anderson, and he is that largely because he is tho youngest and the most vigorous. He is a boy hardly out of his teens. Can it be contended for a moment that, if he were in the New South Wales team he should be its captain? The youth that qualifies him for the One prevents him from having the necessary experience for the other. Be-

'skies, the best player is so because he can hit the ball hardest and oftenest, and with the greatest accuracy. What connection is there between those and the ability to decide on tactics that must be adopted in the matches played by other members of the team? >'■ •■•./:.■

EFFECTIVE SERVICES. M. E. McLoughlin delivers his serve with a lot of energy, ptUting every ounce of strength into the action and throwing his whole body into it. At the start he loosely grips his racquet straight "up and down," with a face exactly perpendicular to the ground. Taking a side-ways, position to the line, with his right foot at a considerable distance from his left and a little behind -it, he commences?-to sway slightly back and forth to insure loosening up and getting a free swing. Just as his racquet comes across in front of his knees, he throws the ball pretty well up into the air and a little in front. His bodytwists way back .with'the right shoulder well down and the racquet is swung behind the back ijn Indian club fashion. Then as he swings his weight forward, he conies way up on his toes, the right leg is drawn irp in back, with a bent knee to prevent it from crossing the line too soon, and his racquet, hesitat-. tng for an instant as if gauging the best moment to meet the ball, sweeps up and out, hitting it with body "all out, "and at .full arm's reach, just at the moment when his whole weight is coming forward. Instead of meeting the ball squarely, he comes out and over, and down at the same time, often swinging his racquet a little from left to right. His wrist is pretty limp at the moment of impact,. which results in a kind of slash* at,the ball which gives it such terrific speed ! and twist. His whole attitude is one of abandon; of throwing everything he has into the action. The long follow-through with the bent-in racquet shows the wrist work which he employs so effectively.

B. N. Williams's serve is in many ways very similar to McLoughlin's. The Philadelphian does not use as much energy, in the process, but gets his weight into the stroke and hits it with his body at full stretch. McLoughlin throws himself at the ball, while Williams snaps his weight iuto the motion, and is more restrained than the Califoruian. To begin with, Williams places his feet sideways to the line, fairly near together, aud gets a good footing on the turf, the' right foot being a little in front of the left. He then starts his racquet, which is held in a "right up and down" grip, from high across his body. His body swing might be termed ■■"rhythmical, for all parts ■work smoothly, together to bring his weight into the blow at the psychological moment. As his racquet swings back, lie throws the ball up a little in front and to quite a height, then', banding his back with the right shoulder depressed to a considerable extent, he snaps his body forward, rising way up on his toes, and meets the ball with a long, full sweep of the racquet. He comes over and out rather than from left to right on most of his service, thus getting the full benefit of all the force of the swing combined with the momentum of his body. . . .

Buudy uses a "reverse twist" variety. The racquet in passing over the ball from right to left administers to it a terrific side twist, which makes the ball float over the net in the shape of an egg, on account of the excessive twist, and on hitting the ground quickly bounce sideways and forward at the same time. To deliver this peculiar serve, Bundy places his feet so that he almost directly faces the net, his right foot being a few inches farther from the line than the left. Then, pausing a moment, with his right shoulder down and the racquet held in the forehand grip, extended down by his right knee, he seems to gauge the exact spot in the court he wishes to hit. He then throws it high in front of him and sweeps the face of the racquet over and across the ball at the same time, finishing the stroke by his loft knee. He seems to put all of his weight into the action and the ball conies into contact with most of the strings in the entire width of the racquet. Buudy throws the ball much higher than most players who use the reverse twist-ser-vice, thus getting more . forward spin on the ball, which results in a long twisting bounce which forces the opponent way back out of court. As one man commented after playing in a doubles match against McLoughlin and, Buudy: "Mac's serve can at least be met solidly, but Bundy's is about ten times as difficult to hit." —"American Lawn Tennis."