Omaha daily bee., 1908-03-22
The FOOT FAULT RULE AGAIN
CONTINUED from Page one.)

N~NH'iii"SN AAolh Aobe Ohe'y
after the international competition OF that
year, but the lawn tennis champion still
subscribes to that view. This, It is con-
tended, will put an end to the activities
OF players who consistently violate the rule
L. o. S. Poidevin, a well-known Austral-
ian lawn tennis player and cricketer, is in
favor of closer watch on foot faulting
chiefly because the player who is guilty
of foot faulting is taking an unfair ad-
vantage over the player he is opposing
I'VE should not wait until the server
makes an obvious and undoubted foot fault
before challenging him, but should chal.
lenge any service that admits of doubt
The question for the line umpire is not rs
this an unfair service7. but rs It a fair
serviceP Why do / say that? Because, In
the first place, it is due to the strikeout
that he should receive a fair service-not
a doubtful one, but one that is quite fair;
1t is his blrthright. As a rule the strikeout
is not considered IN this question, but he
ought to be. He has to depend upon the
line umpire to see that he gets a fair SER
vice-one that is beyond doubt-and If that
official allows numbers of doubtful services
to go by unchallenged he is obviously not
doing his duty to the strikerout."
Mr. Poidevins idea is that there is moth
ing particularly wrong with the present
rules Of service but that they are not care
fully administered. AS to the both feet on
the ground idea, he says:
There is, It seems to me, a twofold OBJ
lection to It. theoretically It is quite
wrong to articically limit the servers feet
TO one definite and unalterable position.
For various and obvious reasons there is
naturalness and variety about the service
as at present pTacticed that forms most
desirable aspect of the game. To make
everybody serve in the same position would
destroy this variety. Scarcely any two
people serve exactly alike and 1t is by de-
veloping their natural gifts and tendencies
that new elements are brought into the
game and its possibilities developed. Just
think Of what the introduction and develop
ment OF the so-called american service
means to the game There can be no doubt
that the both feet on the ground rule
cramps the service and does away with it's
most charming factor, viz, its variety, and
all that this and its development mean to
the game. This aspect calls for encourage
ment not strangulation.
Again the proposal admits of the prac-
tical objection that it is all against the
making of an effective service. one of the
principals of making decent service con-
slsts in the proper transference of the bal
ance from one foot to the other and that
would be interfered with and very seriously
cramped. Besides, we must consider how
the alteration woud effect the leading play
ers tr Of the day We have only to think Of
and what his service means to him, to be
reminded how ruinous the change would
be to the game of most OF our finest play
ers, + e., TO the standard of play. And re-
member, II is not our finest players who
offend agaist the rule.
American Players All offend.
However, in America almost all players
offend against the rule The trouble seems
to be the non-enforcement OF the regula-
tion Of the books by the officials at lawn
tennis tournaments here. THE objection
to the present rule is not so much that 1t is
bad rule in itself as that it is unworl-
able because Of the perennial scarcity of
umpires and especially of competent base
line umpires," says Amateur Sport OF con-
ditions in England. If things are that way
in England where the tournaments are al
most universally well managed how much
worse they are here where hardly any may
be considered managed" 1t does not take
a very clever person to imagine.