The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-08-13

Pal aggregation ana the POCOmac
Baltimore News-The Washington
each team having won nine mat
result of the home-and-home serie
1t had originally been intende
to be played-nine in Baltimore
tie at which the series now stan
between the two teams will be ne
The first half Of the series, played
on the Potomac Park courts, saw
the National Capitals representa-
tives coming out on the long end
C four of the six singles matches
and In two Of the doubles matches.
With such commanding lead Balti-
moreans had practically conceded
the match to the Washington
players.
But another story was told on
the Clifton Park courts in Balti,
more yesterday. With an even split
in the six singles the Washington
team needed but one OF the three
doubles matches to clinch the intec.
city honors and the News-Times
trophy.
O'Nefl and Hills dropped their
first set to Cohn and Hicks, but
both Davis and Cragoe and Newkirk
and Mcconnell defeated their op.
ponents in the opening set. O'Neill
and Hills came back and handed
their opposition a severe drubbing
In the second, to 0, while Wash
ington's other two combinations lost
In turn.
With the three doubles teams
each having won q set, the match
and trophy seemed as good as
won. The Maryland boys, how
ever, staged a wonderful come
back and won all three OF the
the deadlock.
It was q badly battered collection
Of players who returned from Baltic
more last night. There wasn't o
player on the Washington team but
who did not have bruises and cuts
somewhere about his body. They
looked far more like collection of
gridii on athletes who had been
through a gruelling game than a
collection of tennis players.
Capt. J. II. Hills left large chunks
Of skin off his arm and shoulder
on Clifton courts, while O'Neill, Cra-
goe, Newkirk and Rathegeber were
as though somebody had been using
a rusty old rake with reckless aban-
don about their person.
All those cuts, all those bruises,
Ill those limps from strained and
wrenched tendons came about
through Clifton players introducing
the Washington boys to trick"
courts. Trick is no name for
them. They are man-kilers. OF
one thing there is a certainty-they
are not championship courts. They
are only apologies.
could be desired. But, directly in
back of the base lines and within
less than eighteen inches, grass
plots begin. The same holds true
along the side lines. Cross court
and back court balls require the
player to play from the grass.
Something entirely new to the
Washington delegation.
A hurried cut across the court to
either side line that carried the
player over resulted in a highly
entertaining acrobatic stunt. They
must have creased the grass around
those courts, judging from the
hippodrome stunts some Of the
Potomac Park boys pulled off.
O'Neill in particular was playing
one-half the time on either one
knee, or both, and at times he was
endeavorins to make returns while
either flat on his back or in a
prone position. Hills was another
xuoz hauino his difPia1,lfiaa
During the doubles match he
made a seemingly impossible re-
covery Of a smash across the side
lines and in coming back into the
court started to skate around on
that creased grass with the re-
suit that he took a head-long dive
through the net. That's when he
left large hunks Of cuticle scattered
about the court.
That grass was only q minor
contributing factor in Washing
tons defeat. From what was
shown, the Baltimore players were
still less. In laying out CliftOn's
courts some hack driver at
tempted a drainage system by
placing bitches. six inches deep,
and running parallel to the base
lines.
Every time a Potomac player
went back to make a return from
over the base line he went into
that ditch. He not only went into
1t, but in the majority Of instances
he went down into it, head over
heels. Barnum and Bailey could
not have put on a better show.
Even with all of this the Wash.
ington delegation had no alibis to
offer for their defeat. 1t was a
determined looking set which filed
through the station gates on their
homeward journey last night. They
are determined to avenge that de-
feat in Baltimore and they are just
as determined that in the next
match, if a third match is played
that it will not be on Clifton's
"trick" courts.
Comparative figures mean very
little in tennis, but 1t might be OF
interest to the Potomac boys fol
lowers to know that in the nine
matches played yesterday they wor
81 games in the singles against but
~ for Baltimore. while in the
doubles the game count was So to As
for the Orioles. A most highly cred
liable showing.
The results Of yesterdays play
follows:
Singles-Cohn, Baltimore, defeated
ONeill, rs, IL, ca. TAYLOR
Baltimore, defeated Cragoe, Ga
MNHAW rOnAV