LAWN TENNIS.

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17748, 11 March 1927, Page 3

LAWN TENNIS.

THE SOUTHLAND MATCH. | SOUTHERN PAPER'S COMMENT. i 'Commenting on the representative match between North sOtago and Southland, played at Dunedin last Saturday, a writer in the Southland Times says: —

The North Otago team without exception played exhilarating tennis and though most of the matches were closely contested victory almost invariably rested with the northerners. It \vas the strongest team that had been sent from Oamaru in recent years, and both the ladies and men gave of their best. Southland, on the other liand, placed by no means its strongest side in j the field, four of the men and two , of the ladies originally selected be- ! ing unable to make the trip. i Nevertheless the team that left Invercargill was a good one, and it was fully expected the match would j be fairly close, though those who j knew the strength 'of the Norith 1 Otago ladies realised that Southland was up against much more formid- j able opposition than in the Otago match. As the day wore on it was clear that the northern team was going to have a sweeping victory, and when the last game was over the score sheet showed that North Otago had won 21 matches. 38 sets, 281 games to Southland's 2 matches, 8 sets, 16R games. While such an overwhelming defeat is far from encouraging to Southland tennis, it must not be considertjd that North Otago's A'ic- ,• tory was due to omissions from tbe Southland team. It is highly probable that had the Team been ,at full strength it would have suffered defeat which, though not so crushing, would yet have been decisive. The vigorous attacking game of the northerners coupled with their thorough understanding in the dou- j bles, made the taslc in most cases i loo hard for them. One or two matches were lost to Southland j through the failure of players to seize victory when it was within J Iheir .grasp, but in most cases the Oamaru representatives clearly es- • tablished their superiority.