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Tennis Club

Tennis is one of the sports that have been badly hit by World War II. The cream of its players have been skimmed off by the demands of a total war, leaving a mediocre standard of play. "Esprit de corps" has declined almost to vanishing point through the absence of club championships and ladder matches, and regular W.L.T.A. inter-club competitions and tournaments. But above all its "sine qua non"—tennis balls—has been either impossible to obtain or of enormous price, and inversely poor quality.

But there is a much brighter aspect to this otherwise gloomy picture. The regular club meetings on Saturday afternoons have been well attended. A series of inter-club matches have been played during the season; and, most important of all, the club trained a team which participated in the revived N.Z.U. Tournament.

The normal Saturday afternoon play was well supported by members. In addition, the usual two Yankee Tournaments were run. A Freshers' Tournament was held at the beginning of the session, and in September the Opening of Season Tournament, which was unfortunately interrupted by the rain at the end of the first round. However, with singular versatility club members had the remaining rounds of this tournament on the dance floor.

An A team and a B team, each comprising four men and four women, participated in a series of informal inter-club matches held on alternate Saturdays. A survey of results yields the following figures:—A Team played 5, won 2, lost 3. B Team played 3, won 2, lost I. Details as follows:—

(1)	v. Talavera: A Team won by 11 matches to 5.
(2)	v. Island Bay: A Team lost by 5 matches to 11. B Team lost by 5 matches to 11.
(3)	v. Newtown: A Team lost by 5 matches to 11. B Team won by 9 matches to 7.
(4)	v. Seatoun: A Team lost by 4 matches to 12.
(5)	v. Karori United: A Team won by 12 matches to 4. B Team won by 10 matches to 6.

The results indicate that when confronted by the stronger clubs, such as Newtown or Island Bay, our comparative weakness is apparent.

Thirdly there was the greatest event of all, Tournament. In spite of the fact that Victoria's representatives were playing on their own peculiar —and to the players of other colleges—rather abhorrent concrete courts, they were handicapped by a decided lack of practice in combination play and in general match play. To be sure, there were B. M. O'Connor and W. K. Smiler, both experienced players and destined to go through to the finals as runner-up and men's singles champion (and N.Z.U. Blue) respectively. Nancy Turner and Joyce Strange, the women's singles players, had also played much inter-club tennis. The former, indeed, reached the semi-finals, only to be narrowly defeated in a hard-fought duel with Miss J Wallace (A.U.C.), subsequently singles champion (3—6, 9—6, 5—7).

P. R. McKenzie and D. S. Goodwin, the men's doubles pair, suffered from a decided lack of combination, and O'Connor and Smiler were eliminated in the semi-finals in the first round, principally for this reason. So also was the fate of the women's doubles team, Nancy Turner and Rae Turner,

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Joyce Strange and Avis Reid. The mixed doubles pairs, A. McLeod and Jean Miller, and J. Stacey and Margaret Beattie, both were defeated early on by superior combinations from Canterbury, who later captured the Tennis Cup. In general, one has the feeling that with two or three weeks of intensive practice in combination play, there would have been a very marked difference in the results.

Finally, it is unnecessary to add words of propaganda to attract students to the game of tennis. Possessing the qualities of a highly skilled art, it will always attract those who are fascinated by the subtle stroke rhythms and who make their acquisition a lifetime pursuit. In addition, its intensely competitive nature will always appeal to a constant and even increasing number of votaries.