LAWN TENNIS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9790, 5 March 1910, Page 5

LAWN TENNIS.

The Canterbury championship meeting will commence on March 25 at the United Club's courts. Eight grass courts will be used, arid consequently there should be no difficulty in getting the tournament through in the advertised time. Entries for handicap events close on Saturday, March 12, and for championship events on Saturday, March 19. The programme consists of the usual events, but an attempt to catch the interest of school children is made by introducing a handicap event for boys and one for girls. It is to be hoped that theso classes will draw a large entry, for the success of Canterbury lawn tennis in the future will depend very largely on the number of young people choosing this sport in preference to all others.

The refusal of the New Zealand Association to allow Otago to hold permanently a South Island men's championship has caused some annoyance to southern enthusiasts. One writer says:—"There would appear to be a sort of ' dog in the manger' policy about some of the arguments used at the meeting. ' We don't want it, but you mustn't have it,' was tho motto." This and other criticisms called forth from a writer in the " Evening Post" the following rejoinder:—The New Zealand Association has called down the wrath of a southern writer by refusing to grant tho men's South Island championship to Otago. Had the We3t Coast Association applied for tho same event to be played for over in Westport, would the same writer have said that the request should be grant-* ed? It might have been of great advantage to tho "West Coast, but surely not to tho South Island. " Huka " plainly contradicts the southern writer's statements that " persistent lobbying and other methods " killed the bill. As to tho sentence, "there is no fear that theso island championships will come." possibly no truer words were ever written, although the opposite was evidently meant, as " and that toon" explains. No good was ever yet done by running down one province's tournaments to boom another's, and the sooner tennis enthusiasts turn a deaf car to all petty matters, and work one with the other for tho good of the game in New Zealand as a whole, the better. Let there be club, association and provincial rival*-, in the true seise of trying to excel, but let the petty jealousy be always rejected. Whv should players have to go to Otago to benefit players in that province? To improve, players must go and seek their betters, and an Otago team should be encouraged to travel to other centres. Ota?o has the material if it would only take the. trouble to bring it out, but it must help itself somewhat, surely, before claiming a full share of assistance from its neighbours. South or North Island championships might draw a gate, but inter-association teams' matches, properly arranged, would do more good to the players; matches where each double would play two different pairs, not as in the Canterbury-Wellington match, where Fisher and Peacock played Goss and Ollivier twice. One wonders if that was tho outcome of the conference between Canterbury and Wellington, held somo time back. Surely not.

Reference has already been made in these columns to the selection of the Wellington team that met Canterbury recently in the representative match, and the following from a Wellington exchange shows that there is somo dissatisfaction there concerning the team. He writes:—"The selection of the Wellington representative team, which was defeated by Canterbury at the beginning of the month, has been a theme of discussion since the team's return from Christchurch. One of the selectors (who is a well-known player) informed the writer that he has written to the Association declining any* responsibility for the final selection. He says he was never consulted after the first six men and the two emergencies were picked, and would only hava, agreed to Beere and Wilson's inclusion had players suoh as H. V. Howe, Watkins, Cornell, Ward, Sheppard and Clarke not been available. From information available there is ample cause for dissatisfaction, and the interests of the sport would have been cotter served had some of the colts been given a chance when the selected players refused the invitation. Rumour also ssys that Hunter and Weir (the latter's double-play should have ensured him a place, seeing that two rounds of doubles were played) were amongst others not invited. Some people have been wondering who picked the team which actually went south, and why the vacancies were not filled from a list arranged 'in order of merit.'"