HUMOUR AT WIMBLEDON

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20036, 7 September 1939, Page 16

HUMOUR AT WIMBLEDON

FOREIGN PLAYERS’ NAMES TONGUE-TWISTERS One of the minor delights of the Wimbledon tennis tournament is to hear the unlucky umpires whose tongues do not take kindly to foreign words get tied up with the pronunciation of Continental names, states an English writer. This year’s entry provides some 1 teasers, such as Jedrzejowska—although most people know by now that it is sounded, roughly, as Yendre- . yovska—Tloczynski, de Meulemeester, Weiwers, Canepele ahcl; Kukuljevic. There is always a way out for the timid umpire, who may, call “advantage server” or “receiver” and thus limit possible errors to the ends of games; even then he may, and sometimes does, mumble the name, but the bolder ones produce thorough John Bull manglings such as “Boozes” for Boussus. Once there was, so it is said, a deliberate plot to extract the best fun out of umpires’ difficulties. This was shortly ' after - Senorlta E. de Alvarez had been married and she was playing in the •French"- championships, during which she paired up for the Wimbledon mixed doubles and presented umpires with the formidable task of singing out “Advantage Kukuljevic and Comtesse de la Valdene.” A sigh of relief went up in {he umpires’ rooms when it was heard that they had been knocked out.