After the Cup

It just wasn't Britain's year in international sport. Against one of the strongest U.S. teams ever sent to the courts, Britain's tennis team knew that it had no chance to take home the Wightman Cup (for women's tennis). But there was a match to be played, and 38-year-old Captain Ted Avory, who helped select the British team, had picked the best in British tennis. U.S. spectators, taking his word for that, decided that he had also picked the best-looking (see cut).

"Stalling! Stalling!" The day before the matches, the U.S. girls practiced under a blazing sun on the Forest Hills (L.I.) courts, subject to the stern eye and acid comments of Cup Donor Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman. When one of them loitered over a courtside conversation, Mrs. Wightman snapped: "Stalling! Stalling!" Sighed blonde Jean Bostock, as she watched Margaret Osborne: "I'll be lucky to even get a point!" The British girls had been experimenting with U.S. menus. Pert Betty Hilton was feeling poorly. "It's because of the cream puffs," confided Teammate Kay Stammers Menzies.

Old & New. As expected, the British team--a combination of campaigners past their tennis prime like Mrs. Menzies, and youngsters on the way up like blonde, 19-year-old Joy Gannon--was no match for Margaret Osborne, Louise Brough, Doris Hart and Pat Todd. Just as last year, the world-beating U.S. team swept all matches, won 7 to o. But the British had their moments. Betty Hilton forced Doris Hart to a touch-&-go third set; Miss Hart's hairline passing shots finally won

it, 7-5-Against methodical, smooth-stroking

Margaret Osborne, 1947 Wimbledon champion and the world's ranking amateur, Jean Bostock got much more than the single point she had hoped for. With a tenacious retrieving game, she took the second set, lost the third and deciding one, only when Miss Osborne got her forecourt game going full blast. With an earnest manner and a well-displayed figure, Mrs. Bostock succeeded in making the Forest Hills crowd unmistakably pro-British.

At Montreal the Australian Davis Cup team of Jack Bromwich, Dinny Pails and Colin Long beat Czechoslovakia in the interzone final, 4-1. The Aussies will tackle the U.S. in the challenge round at Forest Hills, at the end of this month.

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