Tennis Club

The tennis courts were very well patronised last season and, in general, the weather was very kind to us, both for Tournament Trials and the week-end tennis on the Club courts.

There was a record entry for the Freshers' Tournament on 7th March, about 80 members participating. Miss Kathleen Pears and J. D. O'Shea emerged as the winning pair.

September the 17th was Opening Day and no fewer than 98 players took part in the Tournament. The final produced a grim struggle before Miss Ruth Singleton and Frank Fortune won a narrow victory.

Both the men's and the ladies' ladders showed considerable activity and changes in positions were frequent. A feature of the men's ladder was the rise to high positions of several new players, and an almost complete change of names in the last six places. Hardly any of the previous season's players retained their hold on the bottom rungs.

And the ladies' ladder also contains several new names, although considerable difficulty is usually caused over the vacation by the fact that many girls are full-time students and are away for two months at a time when weather and light are most conducive to play.

The following players held the top six positions on the two ladders at the end of the season:—

Ladies: 1, Miss F. E. MacLean; 2. Miss M. E. Edwards; 3, Miss L. Mete Kingi; 4, Miss K. Pears; 5. Miss P. Higgins; 6. Miss M. Walker.

Men: 1. R. McL. Ferkins; 2, F. H. Renouf; 3, N. A. Morrison; 4, R. W. Baird; 5, J. Hartley; 6. B. M. O'Connor.

Our teams were moderately successful in the W.L.T.A. inter-club competitions. The Senior A men's team finished an excellent season by being runners-up to Newtown A. The Senior B team, however, was fairly well down in its grade. One of the Third grade teams was runner-up in that grade, but the other was near the bottom.

Only two ladies' teams were entered this year, but both did well, the second ladies finishing near the top and the third ladies playing off with Island Bay for the grade championship.

Entries were very good and as matches were played in good time, all the championships were decided before Easter. Winners:

Ladies Singles: Miss K. Pears.

Ladies' Doubles: Misses F. E. MacLean and K. Pears. Combined Doubles: Miss F. E. MacLean and N. A. Morrison.

Men's Doubles: N. A. Morrison and J. Hartley.

Men's Singles: R. McL. Ferkins.

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Tournament was held at Otago this year and our team repeated its success of 1938 at Auckland, although not so convincingly. Although the team differed very little from the previous year's, it met very strong opposition from Otago, and got home only narrowly. New Zealand University titles in the Combined and Men's Doubles were won. We were, perhaps, unlucky in the Women's Doubles, in which Misses P. Higgin and M. Walker, the second combination, were runners-up, for they had to play a marathon final straight after an exhausting earlier game.

New Zealand University Blues were awarded to Miss F. E. MacLean and to Messrs. N.A. Morrison (captain of the Tournament team) and F. H. Renouf. These three also won V.U.C. Blues.

The annual match between the past and present students was again played on the College courts and after a very interesting and enjoyable afternoon, the present students ran out winners after a very even contest.