Tennis plays a great part in the sporting life of the northern port, where the lack of turf precludes the serious rivalry of eric! The possibilities which the game affords in the way of social gatherings add very much confined to the British residents. Four to its popularity which is by no means years ago our German cousins caught on" to the sport, and some of them are now formidable opponents and very keen players our French and Russian neighbours are also very enthusiastic about the game, though they take it less seriously and more pour passer lo temps than their fellow Aryans.
Our courts are either of chun am or of stiff mud rolled in with chopped straw they play very accurately and very fast, but are a little more trying to the foot and eye than grass. As they are easily and cheaply repaired and kept in order, their aesthetic and sentimental disadvantages are more than made ood.
mon-place, entirely evolved from the inner For some years our play has been com-consciousness of the port, as the local satirist would say. Accurate placing on the back line, with good pace has regarded as the climax of good play—cross. volleying and the homicidal smash were never seen, so that there was a great flutter the' local feiniis' cote' wheti we were re-enforced this spring by high talent fresh from careers of conquest' at home, to say nothing of excellent consignments from the southern ports, The spring Mixed Doubles showed that, like the people "down in Judev," we didn't know everything in Tientsin; the terrible offensive power of the fore and back-handed volley across the court came as a revelation, to us, and caused much misgiving among the old stagers. The Championship consequently awoke an extrinsic interest, as it necessarily involved a contest of styles. The local sports gave heavy odds on the new school; the result has justified their choice but not their rashness in offering and 3
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.