In the Courts

Squash. Red walled court; racquet like a tennis racquet but smaller, rounder; ball like a tennis ball but heavier, faster. Before young Harry Wolf got on the court with Rowland Haines to play for the National Amateur Squash Tennis Championship, Rowland Dufton, the professional at the New York Athletic Club, taught him a special stroke to use in that one match --a stroke which Dufton said would win for him. It was a drive straight into the front wall corners that skidded off the back wall and dropped dead. "Mix it up with a soft game," Dufton advised him. "Hyde can take him hitting it easy, and you beat Hyde, didn't you?"

Wolf said he understood. Undoubtedly, putting out Fillmore Hyde, four times national champion, in the semifinal had given him some confidence. But he could not help remembering that he had played Haines in four tournaments this year, and that Haines had won three of the matches. He started hitting hard, saving his new stroke till he got the match moving. He got ahead of Haines and switched to a soft game. It was a mistake. A devastating smasher, and the best half-volleyer among U.S. amateurs, Haines turned Wolf's gentle, strategic shots into points for himself, and caught up fast. Young Wolf seemed to forget everything Dufton had told him except the new stroke. He whaled the ball the way he did out of doors last year when he was playing on the Williams tennis team. Sometimes he got Haines in close and hit a terrific drive, and as Haines jumped back for it the ball hit the corner, skidded along the wall and dropped dead. Haincs's half-volleys became defensive, and young Wolf, playing as though he could not make a mistake, took the fourth game, the fifth, the match, the title. Score: 15-11, 4-15, 8-15, 15-10, 15-7.

Court Tennis. Henry VI of France liked this game so much that in his time people said there were more tennis-players in Paris than drunkards in England. Complicated then, it is even more complicated now by centuries of innovation. The court is longer, wider than a-lawn tennis court, a sagging net strung across the middle; a roofed gallery or "penthouse" near the ceiling, running around three walls, sloping from ten and a half to seven feet from the floor; an opening in the righthand corner of the end wall on the receiving side called the "grille"; an opening in the end wall on the service side, under the penthouse, called the "dedans." Players face each other on opposite sides of the net. Balls of tightly wound cloth; small pear-headed racquets.

Clarence Napier Bruce, Lord Aberdare of Duffryn, who is one of the best racquets players in the world, has never managed to win the Court Tennis Championship of England, but he went after Frank Frazier coolly last week in the Racquet & Tennis Club, Manhattan, for the U.S. title. More experienced, Lord Aberdare out-placed him and Frazier, coming in close to get the Englishman's cut-shots, netted repeatedly. After being set-point three times, Lord Aberdare won the first set 6-3, took the next quickly, then began to net shots on his own forehand. But Frazier let him have some on his backhand and Lord Aberdare, cool, dark-haired, unhurried, gained confidence, found grille and dedans for aces, mixed his usual service with an undertwist until he had the last set, 7-5, and the title.

Racquets. A court 60 ft. by 30 ft. with four black cement walls; no net; long-handled, small-headed racquet; ball like a little baseball, covered with kid. Stanley Mortimer and Clarence C. Pell, who play together as a doubles team (TIME, Feb. 10) played each other once again in the finals of the National Singles at the Boston Tennis and Racquet Club. Figured as a sure loser because of his poorer showing this year, and because he had a harder struggle to get in the finals, Mortimer made only one point in the second game, four in the third, then began to get his serve working and to run Pell around with beautiful low drives. Pell wearied. Mortimer ran out match and title: 15-7, 1-15, 4-15, 15-6, 18-15.

Handball. Foundation of all ball games. No net. Small inflated rubber ball, leather gloves. Alfred Banuet, a young Latin who has been beating all the hand-ball-playing San Francisco policemen at the four-walled game, went to St. Louis last week to defend his national title, played circles around his opponents, put out George Nelson of Baltimore in the finals, 21-10, 21-6.

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