Australian Oddities

The sporting public of Australia was excited last week by two important events: the national lawn tennis championship and the cricket tests against England for a nonexistent trophy called "The Ashes." There was most excitement "Down Under" about the cricket. Not only had famed Batsman Don Bradman been bowled for a duck (put out with no runs) in the second match, but the crack British bowler, Harold Larwood, had consistently shown a distressing disregard for the safety of opposing batsmen. In the third match he had struck and injured Australia's W. M. Woodfull and W. A. Oldfield. The Australian Board of Cricket Control had addressed a protesting cable to the Marylebone Cricket Club in London, governing body of the game. Said the reply:

"The Marylebone Cricket Club deplore your cable: We deprecate your opinion that there has been unsportsmanlike play. . . . We hope the situation now is not so serious as your cable seemed to indicate. But if it is such as to jeopardize good relations between English and Australian cricketers and you consider it desirable to cancel the remainder of the program, we would consent . . . with great reluctance. . . ." While waiting for the B. C. C. to decide whether or not to resume the test matches (with England ahead, 2-to-1, in the three-out-of-five series) the British team engaged in an exhibition match with New South Wales on a rain-soaked pitch at Sydney.

To the U. S. sporting public, the ceremonious cricket altercation was much less exciting than the tennis news from Melbourne, particularly the news that concerned Australia's newest and queerest tennis phenomenon, 16-year-old Vivian McGrath. The four U. S. players who went to Australia last October for a tour like the one which Tilden & Johnston made in 1920, knew about Jack Crawford and Harry Hopman, mainstays of last year's Australian Davis Cup team. But all they had heard about McGrath was that he is a boy wonder who hits his backhand shots with both hands. As soon as they started to play, they found out more. In last week's quarter-finals at Melbourne, Vivian McGrath played Henry Ellsworth Vines Jr., U. S. and Wimbledon champion, who had beaten him before. Whacking Vines's hardest serves with his two-handed backhand, McGrath won smartly 6-2, 2-6, 8-6, 7-5.

Although Gledhill beat him 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 in the semi-finals next day, McGrath's victory over Vines proved definitely that he is not a freakish flash-in-the-pan. but the rarest thing in tennis--an utterly unorthodox player who is also a superlatively good one. Unable to give eye-witness reports of McGrath or to publish adequate photographs of him, U. S. tennis writers had to rely on descriptions by U. S. players who had seen him in action. Said Wilmer Allison: "McGrath will go right to the top with that funny backhand. I don't know who is going to beat him in a year or two."

Best description of Freak McGrath's technique, written before he had really proved his capabilities beyond winning the under-21 championship of Australia without losing a set, was published last spring in American Lawn Tennis. Excerpts:

"The double stroke is used mainly as a drive. . . . It is amazingly consistent and accurate. McGrath will play through a set without netting or outing more than three or four of them. He gets uncanny pace with a short swing. In the two-handed shot the power comes from the left arm, with the right arm giving rigidity and control. There is only one drawback to the backhand as McGrath plays it: it shortens the reach. On the forehand, he is sound but rather soft, which indeed describes the rest of his game except that his service, a high-kicker, is excellent. . . ."

U. S. tennists began to wonder 1) whether the two-handed backhand would presently become an orthodox stroke; 2) whether the U. S. was as sure as it seemed a year ago of reaching the challenge round in the Davis Cup matches, for which entries closed last week.

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