LAWN TENNIS NOTES

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIX, Issue 21, 23 November 1907, Page 29

LAWN TENNIS NOTES

(By the Man at the Net.) Something in the nature of a “rush" seems to have set in toward the lawn tennis grounds this season. 1 suppose ru is partly due to the awful weather we have had during the winter; lor uow that the summer has really come, every body wants to make the most of it, and to be out in the open air as much as possible. But, leaving the weather out of the question, there is no doubt that the game itself is becoming more popular every year in Auckland. We have, more clubs playing here than in any otlm* town in New Zealand. The new Reinuera Club should help the game along in the eastern suburbs; and the older clubs seem to have more • embers than ever this season. Then there are country clubs starting in all directions; and it only needs a little enterprise on the part of our Association .to secure a genuine “boom” in lawn tennis. Tournaments and inter-club matches and coun try tours for town teams will all help in this direction; and I am very glad to see that arrangements have already beer, made to hold a district championship meeting at New Year, instead of letting the matches straggle along all through the season.

Tlie various club grounds seem to b 3 in fairly good order this season. Auckland certainly looks better than usual; and Devonport is said to lie very fast and true. But Parnell has been kept back by the wet weather, and West End has suffered through delay in cutting and rolling. Eden and Epsom lawns are in splendid condition; in fact, I have never seen vucni look better, and it is not too much to say that therj is nothing to equal them elsewhere in the Dominion. * am afraid that when the tramline is laid right out to the lawns there will be a tremendous influx of new members at the Mt. Eden courts. This is all very well for the club; but is it good for the game? You can’t get satisfactory competitions between the clubs unless several of them are somewhere near the same level in strength. Now, if the majority of the best players —or, what is more important, most of the promising younger players—leave the other clubs, and rush off to Mt. Eden, there is not much chance of working up interest and excitement over inter-club matches. Unfortunately, the tendency toward the premier club is too strong already. Within the last three seasons W. H. Brown, S. Longuet, L. Longuet, S. Upton, Shirriffs, McLean, and several others whom I could mention, have left their own clubs for Eden and Epsom. Almost the only important instance in the other direction is Dr. Keith; and his presence at West rmd has certainly done a great deal to raise the average level of Ponsonby play. It is a pity that the best tennis talent can’t be more widely distributed between the clubs; for it is only by meeting players better than themselves that the younger members can hope to improve.

The inter-club matches start next Saturday. Eden and Epsom play Auck land, Devonport plays Parnell, West End plays Onehunga. Without risking much in the way of prophecy, 1 think that Eden and Epsom and West End ought to win their rounds easily enough, and there should be a good fight between Devon port and Parnell. The premier club is stronger than ever this year. W. 11. Brown, A. Brown, Heather, Mair, the two Ixmguets, Grossmann, and Billing are a formidable team; and if J. U. Collins gets into form again he will lie at least equal to the lx»st of them. As to the ladies. Miss Udy, Miss P. Gorrie, Miss G. Gorrie. ami Miss S. Rice should all lx* available, to say nothing of Mrs. Buttle, Mrs. Mair. Miss N. Brown, and Miss Martin. West Eml cannot depend upon getting Dr Keith very regularly. Paterson is still to the fore, and seems to In l playing as well as ever, and S. Upton will probably play for his old club in the comjwt it ions. Baker has made a good beginning, but Hickson has not struck form yet. Morpeth has not started. Walker is still an absentee, and Shirriffs has left the club, so that West End will certainly not lie so strong as in previous seasons on the men’s side. Devonport has several rapidly improving players. notably the two Howarths; and in Mowbray Parnell has one of the most promising junior- turned

out by any of our clubs for a long time past. As to Auckland and Onehunga, I am not yet in a position to speak; but it is pretty clear that the members of nearly all our clubs are sadly in need of steady practice against players a class or two ahead of themselves, and this, with most of our best men crowded into one club, they are not .very likely to get just now.

(It course, the only way to raise the standard of play is to encourage practice; but this means a great deal more than most people think. Lots of our players get through a good many games in the wek. But how many of them ever watch other players carefully to see if tney can pick up hints in strokes or tactics’ How many of them ever systematically try to impiove a weak backhand or to learn how to volley a smash, or co take a ball at the top of the bound? Yet those things are only the beginning of the game. How many players start a double game with the determination to work on a fixed plan of action and to beat their opponents by out-gencra'ling them, and not simply hitting as hard as they can? Anybody who watched Dr. Keith and A. Brown win their matches against Paterson and Upton or Grossmann and Vaile last year should b? prepared to admit that in a double game more particularly, strategy goes for more than individual skill. When Turner and H. R. Cooke won the doubles championship some seasons ago, they beat'several pairs who individually were better players than either of them. But they won by good combination and good judgment, and b.y persistently playing on the weaknesses of their opponents. In the double game even secondrate players may easily beat men separately superior to themselves, by keeping {heir heads, and playing according to a fixed plan. In singles, of course, the better man should win; but he is not always the man who hits hardest or has the most “killing'’ strokes. And as I said before, if you play men better than yourself as often as you can, and watch their strokes and methods of play when you Can’t get a chance of testing them yourself, you can’t help improving. Only you have got to give up the idea that there is nothing in lawn tennis but “blazing away,” or that you can learn much about the game without spending a lot of tithe arid trouble over it.