THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1926. CENTRALISING TENNIS.

Wairarapa Age, 26 October 1926, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1926. CENTRALISING TENNIS.

Has the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association adopted the policy of doing what it can to suppress tournaments -in country centres in order to make these contests as nearly as possible a metropolitan monopoly? If this is. the position, the association, and its management committee ought without loss of time to acknowledge it frankly, and accept responsibility for the inevitable consequences. The circumstances in which the dates of not one only, but two Wairarapa tournaments have been allotted to Wellington speak for themselves. These circumstances demonstrate that the management committee of the New Zealand Association has fallen a prey to that form of parochialism which expresses itself in an attempt to concentrate everything in a single centre without regard to the larger interests, at stake. In the present case, these interests are those of tennis as a deservedly popular national sport. That injustice is being done to the Wairarapa Association and to the Martinborough Club is only part of the truth, and perhaps not the more’ important part. Setting aside all local considerations, it is plainly in the interests, of tennis and of tennis players that the game should be fostered over the widest possible area. In particular, it is most desirable that young players in as many districts as possible should have opportunities of seeing first-class players in action. This 'will be self-evident to all who are genuinely intent on making the most of tennis as a pleasant and invigorating pastime. To exercise national control merely from the standpoint of assembling as many crack players as possible on a given court is little better than a degradation of tht sport. It is not easy to see how the management committee of the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association can

escape the charge of having acted solely from this standpoint in its alloca tion of tournament dates, or of having taken a step in the direction of the commercialisation of sport, particularly in international contests, against which there is happily a strong tide of opinion in this country. There are other aspects of the case, notably the apparent anxiety of the New Zealand body to bolster up the finances of a single association, which may be dealt with at a later opportunity. The point to be made primarily is that in adopting a policy calculated to rob popular country tournaments of much of their interest, the ’New Zealand Association is casting overboard the principles that must rule in an enlightened and efficient control of any truly national sport. It is plainly in the interest of the oncoming generation of young players, and therefore of the game in the largest sense, that there should be a reasonably wide distribution of tournaments. The New Zealand body is adopting such a policy as all who desire to see a splendid game developed from the broadest standpoint and with the greatest benefit to all concerned are bound to condemn.