OVER THE WET

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 298, 8 March 1928, Page 7

OVER THE WET

bx I

"DEUCE"

Half- Volleys Rena Lacoste's tennis machine, the automatic opponent which helped him to develop his game, is now made and marketed by the Dunlop Rubber Company. Stanley Street's now water supply, tapping tire stream flowing past the end of the courts, cost £29. Guaranteeing a supply in dry seasons, it is cheap at the price. The C grade matches last Saturday ■were mostly poor stult, marked by the most extraordinary reluctance to take attacking measures. This may have been partly attributable to the temperature. All the matches were played in a blistering heat. Aldred, the Parnell player who beat Hilton so easily In Saturday's C grade, played exceptionally good tennis, so accurate, and at the same time vigorous, that it was really considerably above C grade standard. It was certain that it was above the tennis played by the majority of the other players engaged at Stanley Street during the day. rit ih 5K

Rishworth (Parnell) has several nice strokes, Including a particularly stylish backhand and a good dragging service. The best serving seen at Staney Street last Saturday, however, was that of Walton in the mixed double which won the day for Eden and Kpsora. So deadly was Walton’s service that he repeatedly scored clean aces. Walton’s trouble is inconsistency. He is sometimes brilliant, but painfully erratic. C GRADE SEMI-FINALS SATURDAY’S PROGRAMME SCHOOLS TOURNAMENT WILL CONCLUDE The following are the matches to be played next Saturday, March 10: C Grade Semifinals. —Aratonga (1) v. Ngataringa. at Stanley Street; Papatoetoe v Pukeroa, at Stanley Street. Outer Suburban A Grade. —Mangere East v. Clevedon. at Mangere East; Manurewa v. Mangere rentral, at Manurewa; Papakura v. Valley, at Papakura. B Grade. —Mangrere East v. Clevedon, at Clevedon; Manurewa v. Mangrere Central, at Mangrere Central; Papakura v. Valley, at Valley. The schools’ tournaments will be concluded at Stanley Street on Saturday morning:. On Saturday, March 17, the final of the O Grade will be played, and also of the D tirade, Campbell Park v. Pukeroa, at Stanley Street. STEDMAN AND STURT PLAY GREAT TENNIS REMUERA CHAMPIONSHIPS The Remuera championships, now getting on toward their final stages, have produced some of the finest tennis seen in Auckland this season, and the Stedman J Sturt encounter will go down as a classic. Stedman’s drive was working perfectly, and repeatedly beat Sturt by its speed. Coming into the net, Sturt found the sizzling shots hard to cut off, with the result that Stedman always had the edge, though the first set went to 12-10, after Stedman had double-faulted on set-point at 7-6. In the second set Sturt ran to the lead at 5-2, and actually had set point in the next game, a safe position from which he should ‘ never have been driven! However, he slackened, and Stedman attacked with timely vigour. Worn down by hard drives, Sturt dropped his lead and lost the set at BARTLEET v. BRINSDEN Another bright battle was the Brinsden-Bartleet contest, a five-set match notable for extraordinary fluc- , tuations, and responsible for some very pretty sallies of driving and volleying. For a time Brinsden’s graceful forehand was like a machine, and there were some hot exchanges from corner to corner. Under pressure, with Brinsden attacking strongly and accurately, punching hard on the volley from all parts of the court. Bartleet dropped the second and third sets, but he came back strongly in the next two, Brinsden getting only one more game.

ENGLAND’S BID TENNIS SUPREMACY ENGAGEMENT OF KOZELUH STITCHLESS BALL MAY HELP (By J. s. MacCORMAC in the "New York Times”) England is apparently to make a real effort this year to regain its erstwhile supremacy in the world of tennis. After half a dozen years of mourning over the corpse and the bringing in of numerous verdicts that its death was due to overexertion at; the baseline, the use of grass instead of hard courts, refusal to teach tennis in boys’ schools and the fact that Englishmen played the game for the love of it, etc., some one lias now conceived the happy idea of trying to bring it to life again. A specialist has, accordingly, been called in. His name is Karl Kozeluh, and he is known as the best of the tennis professionals. His brother, J. Kozeluh, has represented Czeeho--Slovakia in the Davis Cup. But Karl is said to be better still and he won the French championship at Cannes conclusively in 1926 and again this month. AvS a coach he is said to be almost better than as a player—which does not always follow. He can rid genius of its occasional faults and he can teach the young ideas. It is in the latter capacity that he has been engaged. He will act as professional coach to young English players for the six weeks following April 2, and thus fulfil a promise given by Lord D’Abernon at last month’s meeting of the All England Lawn Tennis Association that arrangements would be made for giving practice to those who might be csJled upon to represent Great Britain in the next Davis Cup competition. This is the first time in the long histors' of the All England Tennis Club that a professional has been engaged for special coaching purposes and it augurs well for British determination to quaff the heady wine of victory at some bright future date from the muchcoveted drinking vessel, the Davis Cup. Practice on Riviera Urged A further step is being urged on the authorities—that they send the English Davis Cup team to the Riviera for winter practice, but at the time of writing there has been no decision on this point. England’s ignominious defeat in the second round of the cup competition last year, it is maintained by many, was due to the early practice acquired at Monte Carlo by the Danish pair, Wurrn and Ulrich, and the fact that the English team took the courts half trained.

January 1, 1928, marked the passing of the stitched tenni/3 ball and the universal acceptance of the stitchless ball. The change, presumably, will make little difference in the United States where the modern type of ball has been in use for several years, but it will make a good deal of difference here and on the Continent. Tennis experts, however, agree that the change will be for the good, since the modern ball encourages hard hitting. British women players, it is declared, developed a faster game while using the stitchless sphere in America, notably Betty Nuthall, who did much better there than at Wimbledon. _ A converse proof is the poor exhibition afforded by Helen Wills on her appearance at Wimbledon in a Wighv--man Cup match. I shall never forget the look of surprise and bafflement which gradually invaded her demure and Quakerish features as ball after ball flew from her racket over the sidelines, and Mrs. Covell, her English opponent, piled up point after point. Mrs. Mallory, too, has never been able to make anything of the English ball, while on her own ground with the American ball, few of her opponents have been able to make anything o her * Miss Nut Hall's New Service

Columns are being devoted by the London papers to the acquisition b> Miss Betty Nuthall of a new overhead service. Her underhand service was not exactly a gift to her opponents even Helen Wills never seemed entirely comfortable against it and experts like Tilden have df would be a mistake for her to discard it. On the other hand Miss Nuthal is strongly built, and tennis writers who were given opportunity a tew weeks ago to see her new delivery say it carries plenty of pace. _... It cannot be denied that Helen Wills registers many aces with her service, and it is said that the American gir. has been taken as a model by the voung English player who disputed the final with her in America last year. The ball is thrown well up, slightly toward the right and hit with a plain faced racket. The second service is almost as hard as the first but with a little chop to insure its keeping m The new service, unlike the old which was delivered from far behind the baseline, will give Miss Nuthall a better chance to get to the net, and it is expected that volleying will become more a feature of her game than it has been in the past. She has incidentally improved her smashing, which has so far been the most vulnerable point in her armour. Miss Nuthall will use the new delivery for the first time during her trip to the Riviera, which lasts from January 23 to the end of March. She will be partnered there in women s doubles bv Miss Eileen Bennett and in mixed events by the great Henri Cachet. The women she may meet in singles include Miss Helen Wills, Senonta de Alvarez. Miss Aussem, Germany s girl champion. and Miss Elizabeth Ryan who after winning every event in the Italian tournaments last autumn will play ■ill through the Riviera season partnering Helen Wills in the doubles. Miss Nuthali will Probably another meeting with Deve, called by the French Press 'the new Lenglen ” who defeated her in a previous encounter in Paris. Mile. Deve, who is tali and fast about the court, has a good forehand drive and exceptional volleying powers She won all three open events in the covered court Paris meetings last month England seems to have no lack of young and promising girl players. The most promising of them and also the Vinn-est is Miss Susan Noel, dauglitei of too secretary of Queen’s Club where so many English players have been matured. Although only 14 “ears old Miss Noel has developed a really fast first service which is almost perfectly She a^good Su a e n L n toe ta fac?-tha! sie takes the ball on the rise, refusing to be driven back OU ! sober : ‘critic of tennis declared recently* that K M.- Noel^continue^to taThree years be the best British gml player ever seen since Mrs. Lam e chambers was at her very best—whic.i implies that she will be almost a Lenslen.