TENNIS PLAYERS WHO LIVE ON THE GAME

Shannon News, 7 January 1927, Page 3

TENNIS PLAYERS WHO LIVE ON THE GAME

AUSTRALIAN PAPER SAYS SPORTS DEPOTS ARE UNAMATEUR. J. O. Anderson’s declaration for frank professionalism in lawn tennis creates a situation that would provoke the god s to laughter, says “Smith’s Weekly”, Sydney. Capitalising >his ability as a player by taking appearance money at matches, he will be ostracised by ether stars whose claim to the amateur status is based on the fact that they are capitalising their prowess and making money out of the game in a different way. The line of demarcation -is very thinly drawn between the player who h-nds his services for a fee and the player who sells hig name to be inocribed on a racquet at so much a time. The accepted definition of amateur is “One who has never practised any athletic game as a means of ‘livelihood Or for the pecuniary gain." How many of Australia’s front-rank players in either tennis or cricket can apply ■ that. rule satisfactorily to themselves? Leading Australian exponent of amateurism in lawn tennis is Gerald Patterson. Whatever Patterson stands for to-day he ' owes to his superiority as -a tennis player. It is not as his’ father’s son or as the nephew of Dame Nellie Melba that he i y s managing director of A. G. Spalding and Bros., Australasia pty., Ltd., with a reputed salary of £6OOO a year.

This company was registered in Victoria on December £4, 1924. It a capital of £150,000. and one of its directors in J. W. Spalding, of New York. The allotment of shares Hied on December 18, 1925, shows that Gerald Leighton Patterson received 10,000 paid-up shares of £1 each in consideration of the goodwill of hi s sports depot in Flinders Lane, and that he holds a parocl ot 16,664 shares in regard to which it is not disclosed how much is paid. He has also taken 15,000 shares on each of which 3d has been jiaid on allotment. A. G. Spalding and Bros., Inc., hold 58,322 shares on some of which 3d is paid and on others nothing. Aren't We All? Last Saturday week at the Victorian Lawn Tenniy Association tournament, the. inspiring sight was witnessed of one of our leading amateur players handing- out fans to overheated spectators. On the back of each fan was printed: “Buy your tennis goods from Fata O’Hara Wood.” O’Hara Wood was formerly a clerk in the offices of the Broken Hill Company. Having a reputation as a tennis player he set up as a supplier of sporting goods. He is, of course, still an amateur. | E. R. Schlesinger is an amateur. ] He is employed as country traveller | b> David Fell and Co., who have the ! agency for A. G. Spalding Limited, j So is J. Crawford, of Sydney, who j works for the Barnet Glass Company, which makes" tennis balls. So is Harry Rice, who is agent for tennis ( material. So is A. W. Dunlop, who is editor of the publication “All Tennis.” As a matter of fact, barring the player who appears for money or who hires out tennis courts or teaches people to play “Aren’t we all?” On his last visit to Melbourne, [Andrews was in various subtle ways made to appreciate the falling of the amateur body that he had fallen from grace. There is a story of his disquietude at being placed at a little table by himself at a reception until another player was sent to bear him company. But possibly in an atmosphere of strict adherence to the niceties of amateurism, he was feeling a little self conscious. Hitherto, by conducting a sports depot he was well within the pale. But to be hired to appear like a mere actor or a barrister is quite another pair of shoes. Two years ago, when the Davis Cup team went to America, each of the four amateurs drew £1 a day expenses and was provided with first-class steamer and rail travelling and de luxe hotel accommodation for himself and wife. The trip for the team and their wives cost some thousands. How Olympics Fared. At about the same time and by another route the Olympic Games team left Australia for Europe. Its members travelled second-class, were allowed 5/- a day expenses, and were put up in cheap lodgings wnile in Paris. The case of S. P. England, the former tennis champion, is instructive He was established as a physical culture teacher in Melbourne, and he combined this work with giving tennis instruction in girls’ schools and lO private pupils. He ranked for years as an amateur on this basis, the question of payment being got over by the use of the word “honorarium.” Eventually a controversy arose as to his siatus and the exemption clause applying to teachers was held not to apply to him. It provided that some other subject in the school curriculum must also be taught in order to retain the amateur status.

As a “professional, S. P. England is a kind of universal provider of tennis facilities in tlie southern suburbs of Melbourne.. He leases a large number of courts “which are available day and night, conducts tournaments and generally has done more to bring tennis within the reach of the masses than any other individual in Australia. Incidentally lie has the

agency for an English -racquet bearing his name and he is said to be doing very well. j In Cricket. Too.

In cricket, it- is just as idle to attempt to prop up a spurious amateurism. The Australians drew £3O for each match in the last Test tour in Australia. Are Woodfull and Pons- , ford amateurs when each gets a royalty of Is f° r his autograph on a bat,' and Woodful, in addition, received a cash retainer? And what was the price of Collin’s engagement by Sidney Myer as a salesman for his cricket materials ? • , Was he selling Myer’s bats or his own prestige and expeiience? That is what the argument comes to at the finish. A little more candour and a great deal less hypocrisy would do no harm. One of the English cricketers on the last Australian tour defined the difference between a professional and an amateur in sport by the way he hold out his hand —whether openly or behind the back. And in this regard it is well-known in England that it pays many nqen better to remain amateur than turn professional. Coming-back to tennis, the current Melbourne view of the recent controversy over Patterson’s visit is this. The Sydney L.T.A. was in financial difficulties, and the debenture holders had stepped in. Everything depended on the success of the approaching tournament and Patterson’s presence was essential. Hence the display of the L.T.A. when Patterson, after fixing the date himself, decided that business reasons (that is the business of Spalding’s) made it. impossible for him to attend. Followed the mysterious telegram from Sydney which was described as an insult to Patterson. That telegram, it is stated, was a pure commercial prediction that if Patterson did not come to Sydney, the Sydney business of Spaldings would be adversely affected. If that is so, the champion’s trip to Sydney was as much a business preposition as his previous decision not to go.

It is clear that some branches of sport require a new definition of amateurism. Perhaps it would be better to make an end of cant and drop the word altogether.

1 A point worth noting is the fact i that certain Melbourne newspapers derive their tennis information from I paid correspondents, who are memj bers of the counsil of the L.T.A.V. The council hold its meetings in camera I the Press being excluded. i