Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), Sunday 8 September 1929, page 43


LAWN TENNIS

TRIUMPH OF IAN COLLINS Champions of To-Morrow

I

It is an English caprice to label each successive Wimbledon meeting with the name of a competitor, more or less effectively dedicating the tourney to the glory of the player thus identified. So we have had Brookes' Wimbledon, Wilding's Wimbledon, Patterson's Wimbledon, Tilden's Wimbledon, and all the others similarly marked. It is not necessarily the winner of the men's championship who is accorded this honor. The method of selection goes much deeper than that, and it would be hazardous to attempt at this distance to spot the successful candidate from the inadequate data supplied by the Press cabled messages received in Perth during tye progress of the tour-

nament.

On that system any casual investi-gation made late in last July might well have resulted in the- picking of Cochet for the ^distinction.. or alter-natively of the defeated but valiant if not actually heroic; Tilden. Waiting proved wiser, for-the arrival *«f the English exchanges publishing -. com-ments by acknowledged critics brings the surprising, but to local players pleasing, intelligence that "it was the Wimbledon of L G. Collins, a Scots-man, who was the only player to be In two finals. During thc tournament he established firmly an international re-putation as a doubles player, when many critics had queried the wisdom of. his Inclusion in our Davis Cup team. His performance is 'the more

remarkable since be suffers from a permanent disablement of one leg."

Thousands of Perth enthusiasts can see lau now and that leg of hissouvenir of a fierce Rugby matchcontorting him as he threw up the ser-vice ball. Into the ' fantastic appear-ance of a monkey mounting a pole. To learn that, in "the-opinion of com-petent judges on the spot, last Wim-bledon was Collins* Wimbledon, brings Wimbledon in all its, international splendor closer to the stay-at-home Australian who, nevertheless,- has had the privilege of watching and admir-ing Collins on the court.

Collins, according tc the said English exchange, was the British Horatius in the final of the doubles, which the American pair won at 6-4, 5-7. 6-3, 10-12, 6-4. Listen to this from a popu-lar London daily: "*Many of those who saw lt wSl have been led away by the tremendousness of Colin Gregory and have lost sight of the intrinsic quali-ties of Ian Collins, whose acute per-ception made most of the openings, and whose coolness saved many a crisis that Gregory's impetuosity had caused."

Following the men's doubles came the final of the women's doubles, after

I which Collins came on again with Hiss

Joan Fry to play Miss Helen Wills and Hunter for the mixed doubles title. Collins, a palpably tired man, with his partner. was defeated The arrange-ment directly, responsible for this re-sult drew this comment-from a critic of international repute: "The chance of the English pair was spoilt by a re-arrangement of the programmé, which made the final of the men's singles the first item. It should have been Ute second and the men's, doubles first in order to give Collins as much rest as possible between his two finals.1*

It certainly Is remarkable that with one man-and only one, and he a Britisher-in two finals a more sympa-thetic arrangement of programme could not nave been made by a -British committee. Anyhow, the smiling Ian, like the stout fellow that lie proved himself tn Perth, though actually he won no material prize achieved the tremendous distinction of having the meeting dubbed '"Collins" Wimbledon.'"

Play in the annual Slazenger Cup competitions, the first association fix-ture of the new season. will begin on the 21st inst. Entries win close on the lSth Inst, and should be lodged with the secretary of the association. Mr. EL Stephen Hart, St. Geo. House, St. George's-terrace. The competitions are open to teams of four players under 19 years of age from any school or club, and include one section for boys and

iifinrhn. frit* «rif-le

Letters addressed to the coaching committee of the WALTX continue to arrive from country clubs commend-ing the movement and urging the claims to consideration of their own juniors. For the moment the com-mittee-consisting ' of Messrs. Ed-mondson, Glyde and Middleton-have not been able to devise a ^cheme de-finitely embracing juniors from be-yond the metropolitan area, but at all events they have the work on their laps. Saturday of last week they gave up to the looking over of some 60 boys, for the most part previously unknown, and salved seven for further atten-tion. Of these, two. Marchant and Kneip. having some advantage in age and presumably experience, "were out-standing and should be capable of be-ing moulded quickly into really good shape.. Many of those beyond the seven have only to seek improvement during the coming season to be certain of inclusion among nest year's chosen. It Hes with themselves. Yesterday the committee for a couple ot hours or more hovered around six courts on which 72 young gills In turn were tried out The essential coaching may

start next week.