ENGLISH TENNIS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19626, 21 October 1933, Page 16

ENGLISH TENNIS

WHERE ARE NEW CHAMPIONS?

Great Britain, by winning the Davis Cup competition, becomes the champion lawn tennis nation of the world.

The Davis Cup, everyone assumes, is a competition for men, but there is nothing in the rules that precludes women, if they are good enough, from playing for their country. Up to the present, however, only men have played writes Stanley N. Doust, in the “Daily Mail.”

The women’s national trophy is the Wightman Cup, at present played for only between the United States and Great Britain, as was the Davis Cup when it was first offered by Dwight Davis.

We lost the Wightman Cup last week, yet there is much more promising prospects for our women in the realm of world lawn tennis than there is for our

Why? Because there is no man on the horizon to take the place of either P. J. Perry or H. W. Austin, who were the heroes of our victory over America and France.

True, both these men are young enough enough to do battle for Britain for several years yet, but is it fair to ask them to bear the physical, to say nothing about the nervous, strain without support for even one more year?

We must build up a doubles pair, a pair that the selectors will have faith in even against the best opposition. My chief criticism about our selectors is this: They have realised for some time —certainly more than a year—that Perry and G. P. Hughes were not equal to beating a pair such as G. M. Lott and J. Van Ryn, but instead of trying to find a better combination they complacently said, in effect: “This is our best pair, and we must be prepared to lose the doubles and rely on our singles.”

Now they realise the necessity of building up a doubles pair to consolidate our two singles players, but who is there to choose from?

I admit the proposition is disquieting. The selectors cannot be expected to produce players from a hat like a conjurer does a rabbit. The men players to take the place of Perry and Hughes in the doubles with a semblance of a chance of winning against the world's best do not exist.

What are we going to do about it? I know the selectors are not going to rest on their laurels. They are alive to the situation.- The danger is that they will probably leave the question till next year instead of starting at once to seek a solution. There are five selectors, and they are all immersed in business and cannot be expected to sacrifice their own affairs, even to such a good cause as trying to find players who will help us to keep the Davis Cup in this country But they might relegate this job to someone with time and ability who would, If necessary, tour the countries and visit the clubs to unearth the players who have not the time to play in tournaments, whence in the past we have drawn all our players. There is no person belter suited for this purpose than U. Maskell, the L.T.A professional coach. Give him a free hand, and when he has unearthed players whom he thinks good enough, the selection committee can watch them and give their final Judgment. Widen the source from which we select our players and I am certain we shall find some good enough to please the most critical.

“In the course of my wanderings I landed on a 100,000-acre cattle and sheep ranch. The owner, an Englishman, had brought his golf clubs ‘down under’ with him. He pounded a golf ball all around that ranch, and had the most uncanny knack of finding a ball in bad rough of anyone I’ve ever known. A Real Friend. “He was a real friend of mine, and used to loan me his clubs. I'd fool around with them and experiment and go over the golf articles in the mazazines he got like a careful old lady reading the directions on the label. I've since made up my mind that a fellow has to be marooned on some far-away, lonely ranch before he will spend much time reading golf instruction stuff; but as dull as this was, I managed to get started, although jt was along playing lines that I later had to correct and work out for myself. Some day I'm going to write a book about golf, and prove it is not the serious, mystifying study the usual books and articles try to make you believe, and I’ll bet I’ll bring a lot more people to the enjoyment of something that, after all, is just a great game, and not a cross between the Einstein theory and the problem of settling international debts. His Trick Golf. “Well, after a few years, I got pretty good with the golf clubs out on the ranch. I fooled around with them for entertainment, because there wasn’t any competitive golf handy. That’s how I got started on the trick golf stuff. Eventually I figured I had stayed in one place long enough, and moved on. I was offered a chance to become a golf pro. at a small Australian club. I thought I knew some of the golf articles. Other people have made the same mistake. “But with the practice I’d had at the ranch, I managed to hold on to my job and practise and pick up enough, so I developed into a first-class plaver in that part of the world. I thought no harm of myself or of my game, so I saw no reason why I shouldn't continue my wandering and display my golf to more crowded parts of the world. So I picked up and departed, heading for the British and American open championships."

—unanimous in their condemnation. They even regard with disfavour the latest innovation of the promoters—which was hailed by at least one daily newspaper as a ‘blow at snobbery 7 ’ —to allow caddies to compete. ‘Greenhouse’ Golf. “Supporters of the championship, when challenged to justify its existence, are accustomed to reiterate the old parrot-cry of ‘improving the standard of British golf.’ I hold the view that this is no justification whatever for an amateur event, if it is not also desirable in all its other aspects, whereas it is every justification for an event such as the Assistant Professionaly Championship. "If British amateur golf must be forced in a greenhouse, it is no longer worthy of the name. “Golf should be played by amateurs for enjoyment, not purely as a test of competitive efficiency. If the Boys' Championship taught the campetitors not so much to be better at their golf, but to enjoy it more, I should be happy to offer it my humble support; but from what I have seen of it, its effect is manifestly in the opposite direction.”