New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-12-14


in February.
First in Importance and interest
perhaps is the change recommended in
the long-standing foot fault rule, that
age-old problem of the courts that has
been productive of moro bitter axxu-
ment, more aimless verbosity, than any
one rule in the books
The playing rules committee. con-
sisting Of S Wallis Merrihew, chair
man; F.. c. Conlin, Beals c. Wright.
Abraham Bassford jr- Watson NJ
Washburn. Samuel Hardy and Richard
Norris Williams, Sd, has entirely dis
placed the old rule, with its redun-
dancy and pulling construction, and
submitted the following:
Before commencing to serve the
server shall stand with both feet at
rest behind e., further from the
net than-the base line, and within
the limits Of the center mark and the
side line Both feet shall be kept
behind the base line until the racquet
strikes the ball"
Simplifies Judges Work
How simple, and yet hat world of
trouble and vexation is removedby a
few strokes of the pen! No longer will
It be necessary for the man appointed
as E judge Of foot faults to wrack his
brain in deciding whether the server
executed either a chop, step, jump"
etc No longer will it be necessary for
that hapless individual to bisect his
line of vision with the palm of his
hand, held perpendicularly, in the vain
effort to decide whether this ~hop, step
Or jump was committed either just
before, al the moment of or just after
serving by the server
The old rule, which was modelled
after the ruling of the English Lawn
Tennis Association, with all its in
volved wording and difficulty of inter
probation. was primarily designed to
prevent the server from gaining an IN
fair advantage over an opponent by
reaching the net too quickly. The pur-
vitality necessary for the good OF the
game, but the process of achieving
that purpose was very faulty. Some
thing had to be done. and the rules
committee has done it-and done it
well, in my opinion
AS the committee rightly observes,
"if the server is kept back of the base
line until the racquet strikes the
line it makes little difference what
he does there"
When the new foot-fault rule is
to be. the server may indulge in all the
contortions and pyrotechnics he de-
sires, including the hop, step, jump,
leap, plunge and a bit of the "shilnmy,"
if be be adept at that, so long as
neither foot shall encroach on or past
the base line before the racquet strikes
the ball.
If the committee had accomplished
nothing else besides the FASH oning of
,.,11c how
justified its existence, l should say,
but this was only a small part of the
work done.
New Method of Scoring
The next most striking change in
the rules relates to the matter Of scor-
ing, and while l should not feel JUS
tilted in terming this change "impor-
tant" or liable to have any vital effect
on the game one way or the other, it
certainly will simplify the scoring of
match, even though it does upset
some ancient traditions Of lawn tennis.
This is Rule No. 90, formerly known
as Law No. %, and it discards entirely
the present scoring system and subst-
tutes what the committe calls the 1928
method. No more shall we hear the
fanciful "3Olove!" from the umpires
chair, but the more prosaic "2-in."
Here is the new rule.
'lf the server win the first point,
the score is called lin; if the re-
ceiver win the first point, the score
is called 1~out.' If each player win
one point, the score is called 1-all'
If the server win the next point the
score is called Pin; if the receiver
win it. the score is called '1-2,' and
the scoring is continued in this man.
ner until either player has won four
points, when the game is scored for
that player, unless the other player
has scored points, when the score is
called '4-3' or '3-4,' as the case may
be and game is scored for the player
who first thereafter gains lead OF
2points."
1t is curious thing, after all these
years of scoring by the present metho Cd,
that little girl of fourteen years,
living in far-oF Deming, N. NJ, should
be primarily responsible for the change
in the system, yet such is the fact.
Girl Cause of Change
In discussing the proposed change
in the scoring system with Paul Will
Jams yesterday, | asked him what had
led the committee to revert to the
point system.
"A fourteen ycar-old girl in Deming,
N. NJ, wrote in to me recently," said
the field secretary, and said she was
book of rules, but she couldn't under
stand the scoring system and asked me
to explain it. 1T was much easier to
devise new system, for after all, why
do we use 10 or 80 or 40 or love in
scoring? The point system will also
make it much easier to keep a complete
point score Of Il match, which is a
recommendation in itself"
The rules for handicapping have also
n hxr h.
committee, the new rule resulting as
follows:
"The method Of handicapping shall
consist of alloting 10 each player
one or more points in & set, these
points to be added to the points
scored by each player in that set.
The points scored shall be recorded
at the end of each game, and, at the
conclusion of the set, the allotted
handicaps shall be added to this
total. The player then having the
Sreater number of points wins the
set regardless of the number of
games won or lost"
This is certainly an improvement
over the present Anticipated and in
yolved method Of handicapping. al
though there probably will be many
who viii object to the system of
winning by points instead of by games.
The committee on the equalization