High Tension Tennis

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 205, 18 November 1927, Page 10

High Tension Tennis

ANZACS v. GERMANS. 1914 An Epic Davis Cup Contest THE forthcoming visit of the French tennis players just after “La Belle” France has scored its first victory in the Davis Cup contests, recalls the most dramatic struggle ever witnessed for the international trophy in July-August, 1914, on a lovely mountain tableland near Pittsburgh, U.S. A., when Australia and New Zealand met Germany at a moment when the World War thunder-cloud loomed black and rumbled on the other side of the Atlantic, gathering force to finally burst in its holocaust of blood and death.

TO such an extent did the outbreak of the World War monopolise the cables and newspaper space at that time, that the dramatic details of the Davis Cup meeting between the Anzacs and Germans have never yet been published here, and it is onlj' through the recent appearance in an American journal of the reminiscences of the Associated Press reporter, who “covered” the contest, that the inner history of the forgotten 1914 contest has at last been released. Australia and New Zealand were represented by our own splendid Anthony Wilding, with his ideal partner Norman Brookes, while Otto Froitzheim and Oscar Kreuzer gave battle for Germany. The Teutonic representatives were rated on a par with the top-class British players, and were regarded as likely to carry all before them in a season or two. Both were officers in crack German regiments, Froitzheim being on the personal staff of the then All Highest, now the dour wood-sawing expert of Doom. In those bad old days Mr. Hohenzollern, sen., had bestowed his most gracious patronage on lawn tennis, and it was given a further boost by the active participation in the game of Little Willie H, jun. Naturally the German contestants were keen to shine in a bout which had the Imperial approval, and held high hopes of downing our representatives from “down under.” Froitzheim had been hailed as a really great player of the first rank, while Kreuzer, was but little below his partner and, like Brookes, was a left-hander; the German pair forming an ideal combination of a type curiously resembling our Anzac representatives. THE STAGE SETTING The game was the Alleghany Country Club, whose quarters were situated on a high mountain plateau, about two miles from the industrial inferno created in- Pittsburgh by the philanthropists of the U.S. Steel Trust. There was as marked a contrast betw'een the refined and exclusive atmosphere of the tennis club courts, and the squalor and degradation of Pittsburgh below, as between the players patting and lobbing snowy flan-nel-coveerd rubber balls to each other, instead of the Mills and jam -tin bombs which were soon to repla«; them. There was a world-wide interest in the result of the bouts, and to cater for

this and its “chain” of newspaper clients, the U.S. Associated Press had strung a special telegraph wire to the Alleghany Country Club’s pavilion from the main cable two miles away, and this was the sole channel by which the results were to be flashed direct to the outside world from time to time. RUMOURS OF WAR The matches were due to begin on Thursday, July 30, 1914, and the players had been in training on the courts for some days. On the evening of the 29th everything was serene and peaceful on this beautiful plateau. The special wires had been spliced and tested for the start of play next day, when an elderly gentleman, the president of the Alleghany Club, approached the pressman and asked had he seen the afternoon papers. The streamer headlines, “War in Europe,” had thrown the Germans into a most excited state of mind. Urgent cables had been sent by them from Pittsburgh to New York and to the Fatherland; but as yet no replies had been received, and the Germans were inclined to default if war was even imminent. All assurances that the headlines were probably only a “Yellow Press” canard or scare, and the whole thing but a military or diplomatic demonstration proved of no avail with the German officers. If “Der Tag” was about to dawn it was their first duty to get there—pronto. “PEACEFUL” SETTLEMENT ASSURED Here, explained the president of tht club, was where the press men could help with its special wire to New York, and perhaps save thousands of people the disappointment of a fruitless journey on the morrow. The reporter agreed to get the truth of the situation from his headquarters, and the clubman went below to fetch the four competitors to the Press stand. They all grouped anxiously around the telegraph key while the operator asked his questions and read out the answers as the speedy staccato of the sounder replied. War had not been declared, and no frontiers had been crossed. The Germans were not fully assured. More detailed questions and answers followed as rapidly as the operator could click the key and read the reply. “ON WITH THE DANCE” The definite assurance came that while there had been mobilisation and massing of forces, it all seemed but a gigantic diplomatic demonstration, and the most powerful and influential circles in every country were operating to avert such a calamity as war, and all the avenues to peace were still open. Before the Germans had received all this and other information Wilding had lit his pipe impatiently and wandered away to talk about something else, little thinking that he alone of the group on the Pennsylvania mountain-top was fated for the Supreme Sacrifice. The Germans were grim, strained and fretful in showing their great concern, but Norman Brookes was imperturbable as ever with his inscrutable “poker face.” TENSE TENNIS After the conference at the telegraph board the Germans were partially reassured, but stipulated that the instant war was declared or certain they were to be permitted to default immediately. To continue would be unpardonable. A white handkerchief was to be waved from the Press stand as a signal if the fateful news was received. The flash of war did not come until the Anzacs had defeated the Germans in the entire series of five matches, but no doubt even the steeled nerves of the Teutons were a bit frayed by the strain of the ordeal they had passed through. The crowd* knew nothing of the drama behind the contest, or how near it cam# to being a “waih-out. Likewise that the wave of a handkerchief from the Press stand would hav# brought the competition to a sudden and dramatic end. THE AFTERMATH After the game Anthony Wilding hurried to England and joined up to meet his fate early in Flanders fields, while his partner, Norman Brookes, gained a brevet commission in Mespot, only to be invalided home. Froitzheim and Kreuzer endeavoured in vain to rejoin their regiments by devious routes, but the long arms of the British Secret Service and the silent navy were too far-reaching, and they were landed as prisoners of war at Gibraltar. Froitzheim has returned to the game, and is still a front-rank player.