LAWN TENNIS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18817, 4 March 1931, Page 4

LAWN TENNIS.

SNAPSHOTS. (By “Umpire.”) Last Saturday’s representative match on Maori Park provided Timaruvians with excellent fare during the earlier part of the day, when the weather was on its best behaviour, but the sudden change to a cold blustery wind later on rendered conditions far from ideal, and play suffered in consequence. The Canterbury players proved far too good for the home side, and the final result 18 matches to 6 matches in the visitors’ favour was a fair reflection of the relative strengths of the teams. The Canterbury women’s side was a strong one, and made a clean sweep of the singles. Miss Wake and Mrs W. A. Scott had a good tussle, but the former was the better at getting up to the net in which, by the way, all the Canterbury women showed marked superiority over the local side.

Misses Gibson and Sherris provided a very tight tussle and incidentally some excellent forehand driving, Miss Sherris having just the better of the exchanges, and winning 6-5, 6-5, thus avenging her defeat in the South Canterbury tournament of 1930.

The first women’s doubles match between Mrs Scott and Miss Gibson and Misses Wake and Sherris was an excellent one to watch, and was anybody’s game to the end of the third set, the score at one time being five all and five deuces. Features of this game were Mrs Scott’s kills at the net, and the forehand drives of Miss Sherris, some of the latter’s drives being really fierce. Miss Gibson replied to these in kind, and the two had many good diagonal driving contests in the course of the match. Miss Hart, as usual, held a heavy mortgage on the occupancy of the courts, and with a three set singles following a three set doubles, the final set of the latter running to 14-12, must easily hold the long distance record. In the doubles, however, she was not at her best, missing many easy shots. This doubles match was conspicuous by the long rallies of backhand shots, especially between Miss Pearse and Mrs Miles.

Miss Hart lost to Miss Bloor in the singles, but in partnership with J. Mackay had a very meritorious win against Miss Sherris and H. Barnett in the combined doubles, beating them in two straight sets. The tussle between the No. 1 men saw H. A. Barnett at his best, and once he had found a weakness in Robertson’s armour, the result was never in doubt. A feature of Barnett’s game is his very accurate lobbing, but this was excelled by his exploitation of the backhand cross-court drive, this shot getting Robertson on his way to the net time and time again. The local player was very good with his forehand and also overhead, and with some of Barnett’s steadiness the result be reversed.

In the first doubles Robertson and Renton played excellently to beat Barnett and A’Court 8-6, 9-7, and the two local players were at their best, especially overhead. Renton had a day out, being the only local player to capture three scalps. J. Mackay went off at a great pace in the first set of the men’s doubles, and he and W. Pearse took the set against Browning and Cant. As the game progressed, however, J. Mackay faded away, and the Canterbury players won the match in the third set. Mackay seemed obsessed with the idea that the easiest way past a stone wall is to drive through it, but the more fierce the drive the more deadly was the kill of his opponent. A few of Barnett’s lobs would overcome the difficulty with little waste of energy. Wame played well in the doubles, but finds it hard work against the fleetness of foot of the younger brigade, and against Cant (of Canterbury College), in the singles he could not cope with the pace, and his opponent cantered in 6-4, 6-2.

Cramond and Innes-Jones in their doubles match actually had hold of the last curl in the “Y” of victory,, leading 5-0, and 40-love in the second set, having won the first set, but from that point they went into reverse gear and never got on the right road again.

G. Innes-Jones played well, and though he had no outright win, all his matches went the full three sets, he being the only one to get the length of 9 sets in the match.

On the whole the South Canterbury side did as well as expected in the

women’s events, as their opponents were admittedly a better team on paper, but the men rather failed to come up to expectations. • • * *

Recent matches on the ranking list have seen Robertson stave off Renton’s challenge by 6-3, 6-3, and J. Mackay go nearer the top by beating G. Innes-Jones 6-4, 7-5. He is challenging Renton for second rung, and Cramond is to have a tilt at InnesJones.

G. Gamble’s meteoric career came to an end when he engaged in his first real fight against E. McPhail, 8-6. 6-4, being the extent by which Mac did not fail.

The limelight has at last appeared on the women’s ladder, and Miss Gibson replaces Miss Hart on the second rung, the score being 7-5, 6-4.

In the Timaru Club championships, G. Innes-Jones got the better of J. Mackay in the semi-final, after a stiff fight, 6-3, 4-6, 8-6, and will meet Robertson in the final. At Wai-iti the final of* the women’s doubles championship resulted in a victory for Misses Fraser and Cowie, against, the Misses Methven. In the men’s doubles semi-final Moore and Leslie got the verdict over Joyce and Lawson 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. In the women’s singles championship, Misses Fraser, D. Methven, and G. Cowie are in the semi-final and the only one as yet in the men’s semi-final is W. Tweedy, who put out A. Leslie by 6-3, 6-5. In the handicap events the women’s singles semi-finalists are Misses Whitehouse (scr), Macintosh (owe 30), and Young (owe 15 2-6), and in the men’s section Moore (owe 30), Lawson (owe 30), and Kelman (owe 3-6). At Highfield, S. Tyson has reached the final of the men’s championships, getting a close verdict over C. Howarth, and the final of the men’s singles handicap found C. MacGregor on the right side against R. Seward. The Australian championships are being held this week. That there is plenty of money for sport is evidenced by the news that there is a tremendous demand for seats for this year’s Wimbledon, over £27,000 having been returned to unsuccessful applicants. {** * * South Canterbury boys’ and girls’

championships will be commenced on March 7th on Maori Park, play commencing at 9 o’clock. About 100 entries have been received. A Yankee tournament will be held next Saturday on the Highfield Club courts. * * * * Programmes for the South Island Hard Court Championships and handicaps at Dunedin during the first week of April have been issued.