LAWN TENNIS

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19035, 2 April 1930, Page 3

LAWN TENNIS

NEWS FROM ALL THE COURTS.

By

H. TILLMAN -

A Good Final. A splendid match marked the final of the United women’s singles championships on Monday afternoon, when Miss Wake defeated Miss Andrew, but not until the game had gone to three sets. In the provincial championships Miss Andrew won the third set and the title in a game full of attractive tennis. Monday s match was every bit as interesting and the tennis was of an even higher standard. Miss Andrew may not have been quite as good overhead as usual, but her driving was as hard, if not harder. She was passed several times at the net, but it was more the accuracy of Miss Wake's placing than any lack of skill on Miss Andrew’s part. At the commencement of the third set, two strings in Miss Andrew’s racquet went and this no doubt affected the score, but Miss Wake’s play in the last set was masterful. It was one of the best sets she has played. The game lasted two hours and some long rallies were witnessed, but the play never lost interest. Miss Wake had set point at 54 and again at 6-5 in the second set, only to lose it 8-6. The final score was 6-3, 6-8, 6-1. Maybe these two ladies will meet in the final of the championships at Easter• They probably will if Mrs Scott does not come up to defend her titles. The Timaru lady is the holder of the singles title and of the combined championship with Boddv. Miss Andrew and Miss Wake are pairing in the ladies doubles if Miss Andrew is able to play. This wdll not be certain for a few days. The New Zealand champions should be able to defeat the holders of the ladies’ doubles title who are Miss White and Miss Pattison of Dunedin. Miss Wake is playing with T. W. Patterson in the combined doubles at Easter. The South Island champions are Boddv and Mrs Scott. ’Varsity Championships. . While Miss Sherris appears to dominate the 'Varsity ladies’ singles championship, among the men the position is quite open with C. E. Beatsori. B. A.

Barrer, R. L. Sowden and H. C. Hill or F. J. Dart in semifinals. The matches have produced some surprises. A. R. Cant made enough mistakes to allow Beatson to beat him. The winner played a heady game and'got everything back. Ilis strokes are sound with plenty of control. He has played for ’Varsity for some years and he and Dart should get to the final of the men’s doubles. Barrer, who beat H. S. P. Andrews, will probably win the title. It was lie who put up such a good performance last winter in the , Linwood championships, taking the first set off Rhodes-Williams and run ning to 10-all in the second set Barrer took part in a number of North Island championship meetings in January and came back with a much improved game. Andrews, who lost to Barrer, put out E. E. England in the previous round. England is on the Canterbury ranking list. R. L. Sowden won a junior championship a couple of years ago. Hill, a greatly improved player, plays for Woolston and Linwood. Last year he won the ’Varsity doub’es championship. Of the last eight left in. Cant, Andrews, Barrer, Hill and Sowden play at Linwood. Notes. The Beckenham Club will hold a piogress tournament to-morrow. Thirty-two entries have been received and ihe success of the tourney is assured. The funds raised are to go towards topdressing the courts. On Saturday Fendalton played Elmwood, and a strange thing about the game was that though Elmwood won by 8 matches to 4 the games were almost the same, 144 to 138. The last ranking list match of the i 929-1930 season was that between D. F. Glanville and J. H. W. Sheppard Glanville won 8-6, 8-6, but several times he did not look like doing it. Sheppard led 6-5 in the first set and 5-2 in the second. It was a ding-dong go, i with plenty of bright rallies.

Mr R. Wilson, who is endeavouring to introduce Badminton to Christchurch, has had further offers of membership. The hall with sufficient headroom is the problem. However, negotiations are in hand for a room in Cashel Street in a central position. Another possibility is the use of a hall that is planned for indoor tennis and bowls. A racquet built entirely of New Zealand wood is a novelty owned by Mr Vincent Major. Mr Major built the racquet from the timber of an ash tree grown in Fendalton. The neck piece is of Southland birch. The racquet would hardly stand up to hard play. The grain in the wood is curly. Mr Major is of the opinion that the New Zealand climate is too mild or too changeable for the growing of ash. He considers that £IOO spent in suitable machinery would see racquet-making introduced into New Zealand. Last Saturday, at Linwood, an enjoyable Yankee tournament was held. The winner of the ladies’ prize was Miss Clark and the men’s winner was J. Sloan. In the ladies’ singles, Miss Fraser (scr) beat Miss Spraft (owe 30), 9-8. The winner meets Mrs Epps in the semi-final. In the men’s singles, H. C. Hill (owe 15) beat Bennett (owe 15 4-6), 9-4. In the combined doubles, Escott and Miss Dickson (owe 15) beat Griffiths and Miss Bloor (owe 30 2-6), 9-4. The North Linwood Club, after some years of hiding their light under a bushel, are out to prove that they are a live club. The membership this year has reached the highest total since the club was formed. It numbers 77. The club has played a few friendly games with other clubs, and next year teams are to be entered in the association’s competitions. The club events, the Gilbert Rose Bowl and the Purchas Cup are being contested. The first annual ball is to be held early in May. All tennis players are invited. A Dunedin reader of the "Star” forwards the following for insertion in this column:—“The finals of the champion of champions competition were played recently, and Miss Partridge, the exOpawa player, won it, with Miss Ballantvne runner-up. The other semifjfiqjLt c- Witr# Pattison and Miss

White. Guy won the men’s event and Dr Moody was runner-up.” In the secondary schools’ tournament, good progress has been made. In the boys’ championship singles, the last three left in are from Boys’ High School. Rickard, who is in the final, played for Linwood in the last junior B matches. He has developed good strokes and his drives carry fair pace. Walls, who is in the semi-final with Climie, went to Wellington as Canterbury representative in the junior championships last May. Among the girls, C. Dickson is in the final. She has a wonderful forehand. F. Cowper, who is in the other semi-final, is first on the ladder at the Avonside G.H.S. At Addington in the championships: Men’s Singles—J. Poison beat J. Andrews, 6-2, 6-1; N. E. Taylor beat S. G. Smith, 6-4, 64; S. Robbins beat F. Potter, 6-1, 6-1; G. Chambers beat A. Cameron, 6-1, 6-2. Women’s Singles—Miss I. Steel beat Miss P. Iloggan, 6-2, 6-3. Men’s Junior Singles—H. Hore beat R. Ware, 6-1, 6-0; L. Brightling beat L. Templeton, 6-3, 3-6, 8-6. Women’s Junior Singles—Miss Evans beat Miss H. Pearee, 6-0, 6-3. In the handicaps:— Men’s Singles (semi-final)—E. Holland (rec. 30) beat M. Walls (owe 15), 9-3. Women’s Singles—Miss Kent (owe 15) beat Miss Beecroft (owe 15 3-6), 9-8; Miss Jack (owe 30 4-6) beat Mrs Lisle (owe 40), 9-3; Miss Steel (owe 15 3-6) beat Mrs Middleton (rec. 15 3-6), 9-1. Women’s Doubles—Mrs Lisle and Miss Jack (owe 40), beat Mesdames Clemens and Foster, 9-4. The semi-final of the United men’s singles championship between B. B. Loughnan and C. Angas was a much better game than the final between T. W. Patterson and the winner. The semi-final lasted two hours, and the final was over well under an hour. Loughnan started the season poorly, but in the last few weeks has struck form. Against Angas, he was down 5-1 and came to light by capturing all but one of the ten games. He won the first set 8-6 and led “ 3-love ” in the next. At this stage Angas got control and took that and the next three sets. The final can be best described by

the score. Angas beat T. W. Patterson 6-2, 6-1, 6-2, though Patterson was entitled to a few more games. If he had lobbed more he might have done better. All his attempts to pass Angas were failures. A surprisingly good game was that between B. B. Loughnan and Miss B. Macdonald and Seay and Miss Wake in the United combined doubles championship. Miss Macdonald played up to the company and the only time she failed was in taking some of Seay’s weirdly topped googly serves. The game was good all the way through, Loughnan serving and smashing well, and Seay and Miss Wake, as usual, making difficult shots look easy. They led 5-2 in the last set and lost the next two games. At 5-4, Loughnan and Miss Macdonald led “30-love ’ on Seay’s serve. At this interesting stage, Seay put down a couple of aces and won, 6-3, 6-8, 6-4. The winners meet Rhodes-Williams and Miss Andrew in the final. Suburban Championships. Another glorious day on Saturday saw a fair amount of progress made in the Suburban championships. The men’s singles stopped at the semi-finals and the ladies’ singles made no progress at all. Miss Bloor, who is in the final, had a bad shoulder and could not play. The men’s doubles advanced to the final's when Hawkins and Silvester beat Howard and Silvester, and Mercer and O’Malley beat H. and Q. Ogier. Both games went to three sets. The Ogiers have been producing some of the brightest tennis seen in the tournament. C. Ogier pushed J. O’Malley hard in the third round, keeping a good length and catching O’Malley coming in. H. Ogier beat Schmidt fairly easily in his match. In the semi-final played on Monday night Ogier was erratic, and O’Malley bad only to return the balls to win, 6-5, 6-3. J. Mercer beat J. Mahoney in the other semi-final played the same night. Strange to say, Mercer has beaten all the other three semi-finalists this season; Mahoney and O’Malley in club ladder matches, and H. Ogier in the competition. Mercer did not have an easy win against Mahoney on Monday. Mahoney is wonderfully steady, and it is doubtful if he can be beaten from the backline. To take the net is dangerous on account of Mahoney’s ability

to lob. It is not a high one and cannot be retrieved. Mercer took the first set 6-3, but, although down 5-3 in the next, he made a great effort, but lost 6-5. In the next he was down 4-1. Again he forced the pace and crept up to “ 5-all.” This time, Mercer got the deciding game. The final between O’Malley and Mercer should be a good one. Both will take the net to win. Probably the fact that Mercer has beaten O’Malley this year may influence the result. In the combined doubles Roberts and Mrs Browne beat Howard and Miss Bloor. The latter pair were runnersup last year in the final, and Saturday’s loss was rather a surprise, as Mrs Browne is not even in the Spreydon A team. She plays a good game, however, and won the singles handicap last year. A. Mercer and Miss Vesty beat M’Gregor and Mrs M’Dougall in a threeset game. Two other matches did not get finished on account of the light failing. J. Mercer and Miss T. Poole were set-all against Stewart and Miss Flood, and J. O’Malley and Miss I. Poole were in the same position against Hawkins and Mrs A. B. L. Smith. If Cathedral Club are dominating the men’s championship events, Edgeware have controlled the men’s handicap events. In the singles, Allan and Carpenter fought out the final, and in the doubles Peterson and Clothier played Allan and Kissel in the final, all the four players coming from Edgeware. A curious fact is that last year two Edgeware players, Harold and Allan, played off in the final of the handicap singles. Allan, who won the singles, is a good match player, and is seldom caught out of position. With Kissel he won the doubles. Kissel has some beautiful, free strokes, and his serve and smash are outstanding. The ladies’ doubles and the combined doubles are unfinished. A. Faulls and Mrs Holland hhve reached the final of the combined event.