LAWN TENNIS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1002, 17 December 1910, Page 12

LAWN TENNIS.

(Bj SIPE-LINE.) Tournament Fixtures. New Zealand Championships at Blenheim, December 26, 21, and 28. Entries close December 19. Marlborough championships at Blenheim, December 29, 30, 31, and January Wellington Provincial Handicap Tournament at Day's' Bay, December 26 ana 27. Entries close December 19. Pahiatua Championship and Handicap Tournament, January 2 and 3. Entries closo Wednesday, December 28. Hastings Handicap Tournament, December 26, 27, and 28. Entries close December 21. Hawko's Bay' Championship and Handicap Tournament, at Napier, December' 31, January 2 and 3. Entries close December 21. Rangitikei Championships, at -Marton, December 26 and 27. Wellington Provincial Championship and Masterton Handicap Tournament, at Masterton, January 21, 23, and 2-4. Entries closo January 20. Southland Championship and Handicap, December 20, 27, and 28. South Canterbury Championship, at. Ashburton, December 26, 27, and 28. Entries close—Handicap events, December 17; championships, December 19. Intcrclub Competition. The inteiclub matches under the auspices of the association are now shelved till after the New Year, being timed to start on January' 28, the week after the Provincial Championship at Masterton. Last Saturday should have seen the end of the A grade matches, which are, however, destined to linger yet awhile. The lower grades are all left m an interesting condition, and players will re-enter into the competitions with renewed zeal.

The Schools Tournoy. ■The Public' School tournament was finished on Monday, Petone winning the senior championship, and Kilbirnie the iuliior. Miss N. Curtis, of I'otone, showed herself to be the making of a very good player, and, with some good coaching and some care on lior own part, she should becomo an acquisition to Petone. The representatives of the winning schools won by good driving and placin", while, in the ease of one school—Clyde Quay—most of tho boys seemed to be obsessed of the • idea that. there is only one way to hold a racket, and that is half-way to the head. Of course they get au immense amount of work.on, but at the cost of everything else. An interesting point came up in the match between Kilbirnie and Clyde Quay in the junior girls' doubles. Tho umpire, under a misapprehension that ,-the match was a final, allowed vantage points to be played, Kilbirnie finally winning at 40-38; but, seeing that the match was only ■ a semi-final, . and that 30 up was the condition of play, the Clyde Quay girls were rightly given the match, because they held tho game at 30 —29.

Tennis Control. Once, more the question of the control of New Zealand tennis and the representation of associations in the controlling body has been brought up, Auckland having crystallised a notice of motion to. amend the rules as follows:— 1. Each affiliated association shall be entitled to one vote for every 300 members, provided that each association shall, be entitled to at least om vote, and each association shall be represented by ono delegate only upon the'council. 2. That the Management Committee bo abolished,. and its functions vested • in tho council. • Should this change from the present regime be made, there will in some ways 1)0 improvement . and. progress, but in more ways there will be a distinct retrogression. Dealing first with tho matter of representation: The proposal is.highly reasonable and logical. It certainly involves a great reduction in the powers held by the-smaller associations, but so did ■ the' motion carried at the October i For this reason those' associations will no douht opposo the further change, even' though they know that they are, on the basis of membership, largely over-represented. So, seeing that there must-. sometime be a scheme for proper redistribution, whyshould that time not bo now, when so much is being consigned to tho melting pot ? So far, good only can accrue from the proposal, although there may bo other ways out of the difficulty. The second part-of the first clause in the motion is by no means progressive. This is really part <jf the succeeding clause. Should, this be allowed to becomo a xule, there will be, first of all, a certainty of a difficulty regarding the attendance of members; secondly, file resultant danger of the lack of discussion which is absent when a large number of really interested delegates aro present; finally, there will bo an increased and increasing danger of tho (tarnation of the thusformed council by a strong member or a cliquo. The Sign of the Cloven Hoof. In this last may- be seen tho sign of the cloven hoof. Should the reader, care to cast his mind back over the many intervening months to when tho Davis Cup was under discussion, he cannot fail to rcaliso that tho three principal centres outside Wellington have been - smarting under what they consider to have been the wrong treatment of one of them by their delegates, who ' were Wellington men. Practically Wellington has been accused of "working tho oracle" for its own ends, and,' therefore, of a high degree of unsportsmanlike action. These three centres, then,, put their heads together and decide that, whatever Happens, and by whatever means, Wellington must be Ousted from the helmnot at all a desirable position, seeing that_an honorary officers job is always a thankless ono at the best. Theso motions are a means to that end. Under tho covcr of an admittedly useful . and rightful alteration to present procedure, they proposo to give the control of tho sport into the hands of a few who will be answerable to no one. Could such a position be endured, and would tho sport receive any assistance from such a body? It is much to. be feared that tho result would be 'the setting of province against province, "much more so than now, for, unfortunately, feeling is fairly strong. It would also mean party feeling in a sport where ' there must be no split. Why should thero be a wearying cry for "roads and bridges" in a game? It will have been noticed that at a meeting of tho Canterbury Association, hold at the end of last month, the fact of collusion between Auckland, Otago, and Christchurch was admitted publicly, and, further, that the three bodies concerned wero referred to at the meeting as revolting bodies. Truly revolting! The Wellington Association has not' yet dealt with the matter, but we may be sure that it will help the sport on, as it always has done, and we also know that there arc many wide r awake. men in it who will not fail to see the weakness in this proposal, as they did not fail before.

How can we Heal Matters? There is a proposal that. tho present writer would make that might well be a J" a J' out of tho difficulties. It is that tho r<orth Island and South Island should form two separato bodies, each- having a council, managed in much tho same fashion as the present New Zealand body— of course, under similar systems of proportionate ;representation—and having tho powers at present exercised by the New Zealand Council (after some curtailment) vested in a central body. This central body should'be composed of delegates from each council in a proportion, sny, of one to each thousand members of clubs affiliated "to those councils. This centre would be to the two bodies as is the Australasian Council to tho several States in it, and would have tho complete management of all J?ew Zealaud matters. Tho management for each island would control all tournaments under its jurisdiction, and so Telieva the oentrc. This method would be distinctly revolutionary, it must bo admitted, but there are many reasons why it should bo carefully considered. Day's Bay. To-day, on account of the suspension of competition matches, all tho courts at Day s Bay aro available for practice, and now that our own anr.usl provincial handicaps are approaching it is certain that there will bo many players of all grades occupying them.