Silence or Barracking?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 861, 3 January 1930, Page 7

Silence or Barracking?

One of the causes advanced for the decreased attendance at lawn tennis matches in this country (says “American Lawn Tennis”) is the requirement that the members of the galleries observe the etiquette of the game relating to silence during rallies. More than one newspaper writer has protested against this and wondered when this particular clause would be cast into the discard. In the New York “Times” recently John Kieran wrote an article along these lines, from which these extracts are taken: The games that draw crowds are those at which unlimited and unrebuked rooting is allowed, encouraged and even demanded, as at college football games. A man stirs himself into a frenzy of enjoyment and excitement by his own wind power. After he has cheered himself black and blue in the face, he can’t very well walk out saying: “That wasn’t much to look at. I guess I won’t come again.” But if the enthusiasm bubbles over the line of correct tennis taste at a tennis match the umpire turns around in his chair and announces in frigid and final tones that the gallery will refrain from such unseemly conduct in the future. He

Tennis and the Spectators

doesn't state the penalty for a breach of the law, but there’s a feeling in the air that the punishment would be something terrible. There are silent games and noisy games, and games in which silence and noise are sandwiched like lean and fat in a flitch of bacon. Baseball and football are noisy games, although there are occasions in both of them when a tense moment brings the tribute of silence. Pelota is another noisy game, and that was one of our objections to it when seen in Mexico City several years ago. Golf is an even more silent game than lawn tennis, but Mr. Kieran and his fellow writers do not plead for noise to encourage (?) a golfer -who is preparing to drive or putt. To every game its manners and customs; they are precious, sometimes almost sacred. If the price to pay for increased attendance at our game is >a departure from the time-honoured rule of silence until a rally is ended, we say that we have no desire to exchange King Log for King Stork. But we do not think it has come to this. Sufficient followers of lawn tennis exist to fill the stadium at Forest Hills or any other home of the game—and they will be filled again.