Lawn Tennis and How to Play It

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 174, 13 October 1927, Page 12

Lawn Tennis and How to Play It

1; HOW I CAME TO LOVE THE GAME It is always with a thrill that a man looks back to the days of his first love. That first stepping out into Romance may have been many years ago, and very likely the first love was not the last; but it is never forgotten. I well remember my own first love. Alas, 1 cannot say that she was pretty, although certainly she was slender and graceful . . . Forgive me, my first love was not a woman, but a tennis racquet! It sounds banal, perhaps, yet there was certainly a thrill of real romance for me when, at the age of nine, I discovered that racquet. My father had bought it in London for my elder sister, and I —a pale, timid and I am afraid rather an unhealthy-looking little bo}' —found it one day and looked at it with fascination, and I think with awe. I begged my sister to teach me to play with it. She wouldn’t. Now, looking back through the years, I cannot blame her; it is not wise to entrust one’s racquet to a small boy. Yet for all that, I did play with it. Boylike, I discovered the drawer where it was kept; and when my sister was out I would creep up to her room, take out the racquet, and play with it in the garden, against the wall of our house. Of course, eventually I was caught and the drawer locked. I was scolded, too, perhaps not as severely as I deserved, but with what unforgettable scorn! “If only you were clever enough,” said my sister, “I would let you play sometimes. But you hold the racquet with both hands! You’ll never make a lawn tennis player l ” “POKER-FACE” Then came the war, when nobody in France had thoughts or time to spare for sport. I entered the Lycee Condorcet, moreover, and I was kept busy with my studies and the important business of growing-up. My charaeter began to form. I was a dreamer, happiest when alone. I did not respond readily to friendly advances from people I did not know, and it was through this that I acquired the composed expression of face which I still wear when playing tennis and which has earned me the soubriquet of It was not until 1919 that, as a boy of 15, I seriously began playing tennis. I had a racquet of my own then and although I seemed to lack natural facility for the game, I set myself to master it. Then I was sent to England in the hope that I would there be able to counteract the v/orst pronunciation of English that it is possible to imagine: but my time was not all to be devoted to studies, I was also to take up rowing and lawn tennis. I did not, lam afraid, make much improvement in my .English accent, nor did I spend much time on the water: but I did start playing serious lawn tennis. For a month I practised with my sister, and then I was rash enough to enter the annual tournament at Ventnor. Alas, I made a most disastrous beginning, both in tennis and in sportsmanship. Not. only did I fail to win a single game in the singles, but I let disgust at my failure to get the better of me and I rushed back to France —deserting the poor girl whom I had promised to partner in the mixed doubles! TENNIS BEFORE STUDY However I got over that pettishness, and, after that, my real enthusiasm for the game began to manifest itself. My father built me a court near our house and frequently my mother sent excuses for my absence from school. I began to sacrifice everything for lawn tennis. I gave up my studies and abandoned the idea of going to a technical school. Even when I travelled, I did not inquire for architecture or scenery, but only for tennis courtsl Fortunately, my father, •who had been a rowing champion and was in all ways a lover of sport, understood and helped me, saying that he would rather have me a strong athlete than a pale engineer. He knew that I aspired to become a champion and he knew the value of such an ambition. There are many worse things than physical fitness, keenness, the experi ence of world-travel, the knowledge of men and women that one acquires in meeting them both as friends and as rivals. When a man can count a Borotra, a Brugnon, a Williams, and an Alonso among his friends, he realises the hours spent on lawn tennis courts are not always wasted. And, when, hav ing won a game in a match for the Davis Cup, he hears the honour of his victory given not to himself but to his country—then surely he has reason to feel that his efforts to become a champion have been more than rewarded ! In training, in time, in giving up other work and other pleasure, I have devoted myself to this game; but it has given back to me far more than I ever gave to it, for it has given me the most profound pleasure. And that is a thing that lawn tennis will give to everyone who plays it with that seriousness, keenness and intentness which is the essence of success in sport. (Next Week—“ Learning the Game”,

TRAMPING CLUB’S ANNUAL MEETING

Trampers under the banner of the Auckland Tramping: Club held their annual meeting last evening. The following officers were elected: President, Mr. C. Me Adam; vice-presi-dent, Mr. J. P. Dougherty; secretary, Mr. A. Moulton; general committee, Messrs. Robertson, Gilchrist, Mays, Thatcher and Miss Wagstaff; social committee, Misses Connett, Bates and M. Mackay and Messrs. Slaughter, Hetherington and Key worth. A suggestion was made that the club should adopt a badge and that it should be worn by members when they were on tours. The incoming committee was directed to consider the proposal. The financial statement showed that the club had a credit of £ll 8s sd. Votes of thanks were passed to the president, Mr. McAdam, and Mrs. McAdam and to the secretary, Mr. A. Moulton. Miss E. Smith, who had typed all the club programmes, received s. presentation.