Handball

Swart little Angelo Trulio started to play one-wall handball five years ago. He was so good that he took up the harder four-wall game, beat Alfred Banuet for the national championship last year. Last week little Trulio was favored to keep his title in a cream-colored court of the Lake Shore Athletic Club in Chicago. His surprise came in the semifinals, against Albert Charles ("Hobey") Hobelmann of Baltimore, a player who had lost in the national semi-finals for the last six years. They made a preposterous contrast in the court--Trulio with the well-muscled physique of a lightweight boxer, Hobelmann 6 ft. 3 in. and 154 Ib. wearing spectacles. Trulio as usual tried to wear down his opponent with a slow high serve that crept along the wall but Hobelmann's low volleys, played fast with amazing control, passed the champion again & again. When they came out of the court, Hobelmann was in the finals, 21-6, 21-6.

Next day Hobelmann's adversary was a player with a game more like his own-curly-haired Samuel Atcheson, paper salesman of Memphis, Tenn. Atcheson had a run of 14 points at the start of the match before Hobelmann got one; Hobelmann got 11 while his adversary ran out the game. The next game--Hobelmann depending largely on his reach, Atcheson playing low shots into the corners--was close till the points were at 6-all. Then Atcheson got another run, 15 points this time, to end the match and tournament without losing a game--a feat which he has performed three times in the national Y. M. C. A. championships. It was the third time he had given Hobelmann a licking in tournament play.

Handball--because the proportions of the court make it impossible for more than 300 people to see a match--may never be a widely publicized game. This does not interfere with its prehistoric popularity. The modern forms of handball come from Ireland where a Tipperary handballer named William Baggs really showed the possibilities of the garrite 80 years ago by developing spins, curves and drop-shots.

An Irishman named Casey, disgusted because there were no courts in the U. S., built one in Brooklyn in 1885; in 1887 he won,11-to-6, against the Irish champion, John Lawlor, a best-of-21-game series for the world's championship and a $1,000 sidebet. One-wall handball started in 1900. Cheaper, more convenient and less subtle, it is more popular in the East than the older game. Squash handball, played with squash rackets on a handball court, is popular in California. For persons too lazy or slow to be good at singles, which can cause expert players to lose as much as 10 Ib. in a match, doubles handball on the same sized court (46 by 22 ft.) is a comfortable pastime. Angelo Trulio had the additional disappointment last week of getting put out of the doubles with his partner, Maynard Laswell, by McCarthy & Serritella of Chicago who lost to Jack Endzvick & Joe Goudreau of Cleveland in the final.

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