SWELLED HEAD

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 196, 12 April 1932, Page 2

SWELLED HEAD

A TENNIS DISEASE YOUNG PLAYERS LOSING THE WIMBLEDON TRADITION.

L.T.A. CRITICISM. At the annual meeting of the British Lawn Tennis Association the chairman of the council, Mr. A. C, Griffiths, made some critical remarks about the manners of young players, Mr. Griffiths said that the general conduct and sportsmanship at tournaments were better than ever, hut unless the germ of doubtful behaviour were eradicated the game would suffer. He summaris'ed questionable conduct under these headings: — Questioning, and chatting with the umpire or linesmen. Losing a point, the temper — and the ball by hitting it^into space. Turning up late for a game without apology, "as if the player owned the earth." , Leaving a tournament without paying entrance fee,

The Wimbledon Trad'ition. "Some of us who legislate for the game," he went on, "may be getting old, but we are not blind or deaf yet, and we know what the Wimbledon tradition is, as applied to lawn, tennis generally — and we know when that tradition is departed from. "This new mentality among younger players must be due to' one cause or another — either ignorance, thoughtlessness, lack of manners, or swollen head. They get fulsome praise in the newspapers — they are budding Tildens or Lenglens— and the results are unfortunate for themselves and, I may add, for their parents!" Points Discussed. A proposal that decisions of the council in regard to players should be final and binding and that there should be no right to appeal to either a court of law or otherwise, was carried. It was said that the highest legal advice had been taken in regard to the proposal. A proposal for the adoption of a hall slightly harder than that at present in use was carried without discussion after it had been pointed out that it was a reversion to the ball formerly in use in England. The election of Mr. F. L. Riseley, the world-famous player and an exr holder with S. H. Smith of the doubles championship at Wimbledon, as vice-president for life, was carried by acclamation. Medals and mementoes were prer sented to the members of the 1931 Davis Cup team — Messrs. Roper Baiv rett (the non-playing captain), H W. Austin, F. J. Perry, G. P. Hughess and C. H. Kingsley. ■ Lord D'Ahernon- and Lord Des borough complimented the team, and Mr Barrett, in reply, said that they were beaten in the final in Paris "hy four of the hest players in the world before the worst-behaved crowd in Europe."

Women the Worst. Comm'enting on Mr. Griffiths' criticisms, Mr. S. N. Doust (Daily Mail) holds that the remarks made do not apply to the majority of tournament players, who take good and bad decisions quite unperturhed, and with whose manners no fault can he found "But they are certainly true about some who are aspiring to international honours," he wrote. "They are over keen to win and show irritability when things go against them. Women players are the chief offenders. They imagine from good newspaper reports that they are budding Lenglens and can behave like her. I have been told by lawn tennis committees that it if» most difficult to obtain private hospitality for some of the present-day young women tennis players." Mr. Frank Poxon (News-Chronicle> says: "From a long experience I must endorse Mr. Griffiths' remarks What he said is entirely justified."

Too Many Tournaments. Mr. A. Wallis Myers, writing in the Daily Telegraph, says that if young players are less decorous and modest to-day, that is due to a number of reasons. "Tournaments arc almost endless in number," he says; "players are pressed by promoters. some of them associated with thp trade, to enter them even when they are obviously stale. The personnel of local committees has changed. The honorary worker finds a lack of in spiration; the agents of manufactur ers are too much in control. The psychology of younger players is also in fluenced hy the unchecked success of oversea invaders. When a Japanese player can win an unbroken sequence of tournaments the depreciation in the class of play is advertised. The Lawn Tennis Assoc;ation have been invited to refine and graduate their tournaments. Open to all comers a? most of them are, the stronger competitors are not adequately challenged either physically or morally. Their' spoils are too easily gained. Hence the temptation to slack, a wrong valuation of form, and an inflated re putation."

Tempermental Players. Mrs. Geraldine Beamish, an England player and a former covered court? ch.ampion, said in a Daiyl Mail interview: — "This tendency to tantrums on the courts seem'ed rather on the increase this year. I do not think you find j it in club tennis. It is these tournamejnts and competitiye tennis that are so had for our young players. They play far too much, and if is too great a strain on their nerves, J think it might be remedied by not playing sa many tournaments, and I should he very §trict and sqspend people whe did not hehave themselves. The Lawn Tennis Association has every possible power. Regrettahle behaviour on the court is the worst featu^e, hecause it is so bad for the prestige of England if foreigners see it. I am afraid some of our English players are becoming as tempermental as some we have known from other cpuntries, and we are in danger of losing our repu-« tation. for sportsmapship. Nowadays our players blossom into competitive

tenrfis at, say, 15 years old, and foolish ciritics may lead them to helieve that they are all Lenglens and Tildens. At such an early age it is wrong physically to play so much tennis, and if you knew the number of girls who hurst into tears in the dressing-room after they have lost a match you would be very surprised. And the girls are no more tempermental than the man,"