LAWN TENNIS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 19093, 27 January 1932, Page 3

LAWN TENNIS

SNAPSHOTS ON PLAY AND PLAYERS. (By “Umpire.”) The past week marked the opening of what might be termed the high water level period of lawn tennis this season in New Zealand, and Auckland in particular has been the venue of some exciting and entertaining displays. The test match between the Australian and New Zealand ladies’ teams resulted, as anticipated, in a victory for the visitors, though the Dominion representatives put up no mean opposition against their redoubtable opponents. Miss Nicholls took one match against. Mrs. Molesworth, and along with Miss MacFarlane stayed a twohour marathon and victory by 15-13, 7-5, against Mrs. Molesworth and Miss Hartigan in the doubles. Miss Valkenburg, whose coolness and steadiness were very noticeable in her games in the South Island, again proved that she is a formidable opponent in the singles, whilst in partnership with Miss Hall she completes a doubles combine that has so far proved very sparkling and successful. u * * * The Canterbury team in the Wilding Shield challenges have given a great display, and H. Barnett, in particular, has enhanced his reputation In the course of the two matches against Auckland and Wellington he met four of the first players in the Dominion, and accounted for three of them, including the present champion, A. Steel - man; the 1928 champion, Bartleet; and the Wellington champion, N. R. Wilson; while his only defeat was a narrow one by D. G. France, who on his day, has the beating of most players in his racquet. It will be interesting to watch the progress of Barnett m the championships this week. He was not considered good enough to be seeded early, in spite of his reaching last year’s final. His play has been marked by a clever control of length and spin, and that spirit which never gives in, either to seemingly impossible returns or matches which are all over by shouting. C. Angas also has produced seme of his best tennis and but for being seized by sickness on Monday might have been the means of wresting the Wilding Shield from the holders. In any case, honours go to the challengers from Canterbury for the great fight they have put up. On the other side of the Tasman, the Japanese visitors proved themselves just too clever for the Australian team in a three days’ test match, winning by seven rubbers to five. Satoh, the star artist, won all his three singles matches, being the only one to get the better of Crawford, though the latter carried the game to 8-6 in the third set before receiving his quietus. The Japs, are all brainy players, and believe in getting everything back, to which end physical fitness is one of their first considerations. In the Masterton (Wairarapa) tournament last week. Miss M. Gibson, Timaru, accomplished a good feat m annexing the singles championship and also the doubles, in partnership with Miss M. White, of Wellington. The players in Saturday’s grade matches at Maori Park, encountered weather conditions which could only be termed atrocious. The howling nor’wester caused the ball to perform antics which nothing short of a circus acrobat could have adequately dealt with, at least during the early part of the afternoon. In spite of this, two of the three matches produced exciting results and were only decided by the final bouts in each case. In the A grade match between Timaru B and Wai-iti B, the former had a fairly easy victory. Both teams were minus a number of their usual players. The Timaru ladies were too solid for their opponents, though Miss Young made Miss Bridges fight hard for her victory. A. J. Leslie was the only Wai-iti player to emerge successfully from all his encounters, and he has shown steady improvement all the season. G. Lawson made N. Cramond move around in his singles, and carried the game to 9-7 by dint of his low hit drive and retrieving of all sorts of shots. * * * * The Highfteld—St. John’s match was a very level affair, and the result hung in the balance until the very last shot of the final game. The state of the match was such that whichever side won the last game won the match, and the score in the last game went 4 all, 5 all, 6 all, deuce, before Gamble put a return into the net. St. John’s started off with a rush by winning three doubles matches out of the four. Crowley and Leydon had a long struggle, before beating Booth and McGregor 9-7, Crowley playihg well at the net. Houlihan and Gamble got home 9-6 against Wilson and Tyson in a match where the net players, Gamble and Wilson, showed up.

Mrs. Cotter and Miss Callaghan controlled the ball better in the wind than Miss Sutherland and Mrs. Davies and Mrs. Mantell and Miss Johnston were a better combination than Miss Daly and Miss Mangos. In the singles. Booth was too steady and placed better than M. Crowley, and reached 9 with Crowley still at 4; whilst C. McGregor made a great recovery against B. Leydon and won 9-8 after being down 1-5 and 6-8, Leydon finding the wind disagreeing with his spin service. Houlihan was very steady against Wilson and picked out the wrong ’uns successfully. Gamble was better than Tyson in his excursions to the net and the latter found his drives upset by the wind.

Miss Sutherland hit too hard for Mrs. Cotter, who found the wind too much for her low shot; and Miss Callaghan’s hard driving was too strong for Mrs. Davies. Mrs. Mantell just got the better of Miss Daly, whose service was, for a time, too severe, and Miss Johnston made a great recovery to win 7-5 against Miss Mangos, after being down 1-5, Miss Johnston’s Hartigan service coming to light in the latter stages.

The match stood 6 sets all when the combined eames started, and Mrs Mantell and Wilson won the first against Miss Daly and Houlihan, Pat allowing Wilson to command the net. Crowley and Mrs. Cotter levelled by beating Miss Sutherland and Booth, Crowley getting in some good kills at the net. Mrs. Davies and McGregor came in first against Miss Callaghan and Leydon rather unexpectedly, and put Highfield in front on sets though down on games, so that the final game between Miss Mangos and Gamble against Miss Johnston and Tyson was a real decider. This proved a dour struggle and Miss Johnston’s service and driving pulled off the win. Miss Johnston and C. McGregor both had a day out, winning all their matches.

The B grade match between Timaru and Wai-iti ended with both teams 8 sets each, but Wai-iti had a good margin of games and thus got the verdict. This was chiefly due to the men, who won 5 of the 6 events and Vesty and Dodd had 9-1 wins, which two results practically accounted for the difference in the final total. A. J. Allport and Tonkin staged a 9-8 match, the former just getting home after a very level

contest. The Timaru ladies made a great effort for their side only losing one of the ladies’ events. Recent ranking list matches have resulted as follows: — W. G. Robertson beat W. Renton. 6-3, 6-1. J. McKay captured second place by ousting Renton, 6-1, 2-6, 6-3. J. Satterthwaite stepped above N. Cramond, 6-3, 9-7. A South Canterbury representative side will play North Otago at Oamaru on Saturday.