IHE ladies of the Cercle Sportif Francais got off to a flying start in the Ladies Doubles badminton league last night when their Blue and White aggregation' swept through the little opposition that was provided by their respective opponerits—Betar and S.M.C. Girls—to win 9-0.
Thus the first round of this section of the shuttle game opened last night in a quite and eventful manner with the favourite teams justifying early predictions.
Although the Betar, a newly fornia ed squad, were decisively defeated by the Blues it must be conceded that, notwithstanding their comparative' inexperience, they put up a good showing. Especially conspicuous for them was F. Gabriel, who partnered E. Veinerman in the third couple, and C. Hanin, who was coupled with H.
Hayward as the lead-off pair.
The newcomers fought unfleggingly but they were up against more experienced opponents. The losers services were not equal to the situation while their backhand returns were glaringly weak and such returns offered easy openings for the opposition to it on the shots Besides, they lacked decisiveness in their net and drop shots which frequently failed to hit the mark. F. Gabriel was the most steadfast in her control and played sound doubles throughout the match.
The winners, especially Tavares and Mrs. Trolle, settled down from the very start and once they were in stride the greater sharpness of their strokes gave them the upper hand which they never relinquished. The French aces walked off the floor without meeting any kind of opposition.
The other encounter between the CSF. 'Whites' and the S.M.C. Girls' team proved to be another one-sided affair. The French 'Whites' defnitely took command of the situation and smothered the Chinese girls without losing a stt.
Mrs. Jorgensen and Mme. des Cour-tils were especially brilliant on the court exhibiting some marvellous : dropshots to the far end corner epo that had the girls om the run time and again. Moreover, the French champion-smashed with fin" ality while Mrs. Jorgensen's answer baseline that frequently caught was her accurate High lobs fo the Chinese couple unaware. On the whole the French line-up through without encountering much dimeulty though the S.M.C, players fought back fiercely in a fruitlets at. tempt.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.