DAVIS CUP CONTEST

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1613, 3 December 1912, Page 5

DAVIS CUP CONTEST

»_— VICTOR AND VANQUISHED, BROOKES TO HELP TO REGAIN TROPHY, NEW CONDITIONS SUGGESTED. By Telegraph.—Press Association—CoDyrijlit (Eec. December 2, 8.5 p.m.) Melbourne, December 2. The Governor-General, Lord Denman, and the State Governor, Sir John Fuller, were present at the dinner given by the Australasian Lawn Tennis Association for the competitors in tho Davis Cup contest. Mr. Weigall, president of the associar tion, in congratulating the members of tho British team, said Parke had given Australia almost too much of himself to remember. That drive of his was reminiscent of a Scriptural hero, the late Mr. Jehu. No doubt the visit of tho British team would provide the necessary funds to enable the association to fit out an invading expedition In pursuit of the cup. Mr. C. P. Dixon, captain of the British team, paid a tribute to the treatment the team had received and the fine sporting spirit of the Australians. Ho said Parke's victory had absolutely won the cup. It was hardly fair that the challenge round for the cup should be hold in the country of the holders yoar after year, and he suggested that it should be held in different countries alternately. If that were impossible, let it be the country of the challenger, not the holder. Such an arrangement would increase the interest. Mr. Lowe (England) claimed that he had helped to win by standing down. Unless he had done so, the British team would not now be the holders of the cup. Mr. Parke (England), in proposing the toast/ "The Australasian Team," said at Home it had always been thought that so long as Brookes was playing, it was useless sending a team to Australia. The British team had been horribly lucky. Brookes had been defeated on an off day, and as for himself, he had never played such a game in his life, and never hoped to play another like it. Mr. Brookes (Victoria),' in replying, said tho loss of tho cup was deeply felt, but the visitors deserved sincere congratulations on their eplendid performance. Australasia had played its best team, and that team had done its best. The visiters were really a British Isles team, and had it not been for good old Ireland, the cup would still be safe in Australia's hands. He would be enly too willing to make one of a team to try to recover it. Mr. Dunlop (Victoria) gaid the Australians were well beaten, and the British team undoubtedly deserved its t\ in. Mr. Heath (New South Wales), amid cries of dissent, expressed regret that he had not supported his captain as he should have done. Mr. Jones (New South Wales) claimed that though he had) not played, he had done his best to pull his side through by barracking , . A KEEN DISAPPOINTMENT, AUSTRALIAN COMMENT. (Reo. December 2, 8.5 p.m.) Sydney, December 8. The "Herald" says it would be absurd for Australians to deny that the result of the Davis Cup contest has been a,keen, disappointment to them. "We regret the loss for sentimental reasons, and far more for a practical reason: that Australia for a time at least has lost the right to expect a visit from the best players of Europe and America. No doubt the epinion of the British experts should have warned us that our supremacy was in serious danger. Experience has taught Us to be on our guard. We should have .perhaps anticipated that the English habit of refusing to recognise when they ought to be beaten, which has appeared more, than once in cricket, would appear in tennis also." In describing the play, the "Herald" says it was due fa Parke'e magnificent play alone, that the cup ig being taken back to the British Isles. The "Telegraph" declares that, everything depended on Heath, and he was unequal to the task. Hβ had the misfortune to strike a player at the top of his magnificent form. The honours of the contest unquestionably rest with Parke, who returns to his native land covered with glory.