Personalities in Sport

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 223, 9 December 1927, Page 10

Personalities in Sport

111-Luck Has Dogged Auckland's Tennis Champion

Fickle fame has had a habit of failing Edgar L. Bartleet, Auckland's present tennis champion, by a hairbreadth. To be in the finals of the three Neff Zealand championships, and to be pipped in every one of them, that is the heart-breaking experience he went through at Christchurch in 1921. , . >To one can accuse him of not being a "fighter, for he plays his best game when he is pressed, and he was runnerup half a dozen times in the Auckland event before he took the singles title. There is just a little “something'' which has prevented him, so far, from becoming the best man in New Zealand: perhaps “it is a certain carelessness. or again, it may be his backhand. _ . NATURAL ABILITY Bartleet, who is a firm believer in “catching ’em young,” if you want to make players of them, played his first set when he was at Grammar School, and about 15 years old. and in two years he had won the school championship. He liked the game for itself and he had a natural ability to hit the ball back straight and hard, so that his service and his forehand drive, for whieh he has become notable, soon developed. At school also he could scamper over distances, and won the mile championship in 4min 56sec, and the steeplechase. Strangely enough he acquired style and strokes without being coached and without seeing any champions playing. After leaving school he joined Eden and Epsom and notched his first win in the club championship when he was about 17 or 18. After that he won the event half a dozen times with a break while he was on a trip to England. 'While at Varsity where he was studying court-craft of a different kind, he represented the college in the 1920 tournament, and won the New Zealand Varsity singles title and the mixed championship with Miss B. Knight. After that he picked up the championships of Rotorua, South Auckland and Taranaki.

ATTEMPT ON NEW ZEALAND TITLES It was his second attempt at Domin-

ion titles in 1921, when lie lost thr.. finals, the singles going to Dr j t Laurenson. In 1923 Bartleet had tremendous struggle with a. W who took the title, in a semi-final''-{> ' match went to five sets, and the was 14—12. Bartleet says he has never been the same man since. The sair« year he won the doubles with H l' Robson, and this is his only Domini victory. Runner-up in Auckland champion ships has been a habit of his. held this position thrice to Laurenson twice to Sims and once to E. GrifTitlis. The men’s doubles he hoi* in 1922. 1924, and 1927. and the mixed in 1921. He now plays at Remuera and has been champion for two year* THE CHAMPION SPEAKS • You cannot train and keep y OUr mind on your work.” he said. * so I have almost given up serious tennis, though I will go to the New Zealand tournament this year. • Get them young before their *tyl* is set,*’ was his advice about champions. The junior should be put on the right track and not allowed to g 0 along blindly. It is easy to start rieht and extremely hard to correct error? once learnt. Here we are at a disadvantage because there is only one coach, a woman, and many are barred from getting her advice. • Good players are often accused, and rightly so, of being selfish, but one cannot blame them The little time they snatch away from business has to be spent on trying to keep up their own game', and not teaching beginners It is a pity coaching is not on a better basis. “No man gets on in New Zealand tennis unless he helps himself. I could never get a game with good players until by pure luck I beat Goldsmith in a law and insurance match. After that many were willing to play with me, and I went ahead.”

The champion says that he has never consciously copied strokes and never studied the theory of th« game. •My style in service and forehand cam* naturally,” he said, “but I have been looking for a back-hand for a lone time.”