SUNDAY TENNIS AT AVONSIDE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17181, 26 October 1923, Page 6

SUNDAY TENNIS AT AVONSIDE.

The one substantial point against Sunday tennis, the possibility of its being overdone by young players, with consequent exhaustion at the beginning of each new week, was not touched on by any of the speakers at the Avonside Club last night, but that is where the danger lies. Undoubtedly Sunday was given to man as a day of rest, but Puritanical views on the niceties of its observance have had to go by the board, and the exigencies of modern life have put a new aspect on week-end methods of rest and recuperation. Rest in idleness has little real value for many persons nowadays, and motoring and golf have become the Sunday pastime of the well-to-do, while surf bathing, rowing, hill walking or trips to the beach have attracted the rank and file. Tennis has come last in the category of Sunday recreation possibly because it is a strenuous game and is not capable of being played “ furtively,” to borrow a word from last night’s meeting. But logically there is no reason for barring Sunday tennis and winking at Sunday golf—and everybody knows that golf clubs, with few exceptions, simply could not exist without Sunday play. But Sunday tennis is not going to make men and women worse than they are, or have a demoralising effect on the community. It would be interesting, indeed, to hear the views of the Anglican Synod on this subject, for we are convinced that broad-minded churchmen are not opposed to reasonable recreative sport on Sundays.