Nothing has changed in over 60 years...... Junior tennis was marred by incidents in 1954....

This is an interesting article from 1954 during the Southland Junior Tennis Tournament.  Have the young people really changed or is it still the same and we have just forgotten!!!!
Although the junior tennis championships were an undoubted success, they were marred to a certain extent by several incidents on the part of the players which made the task of the officials more difficult and were no credit to the players concerned.
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There were the refusal of some players to umpire, their reluctance to help with sweeping the wet courts when asked to do so, and an exhibition of temperament, or rather temper during some games.
Reference to this conduct was also made by the secretary of the association, Mr J.H.B. Scholefield, when speaking to players after the tournament, his last after an association of 15 years.  During that time, he said, he had seen entries grow from 11 to the present 120, and there had been a corresponding improvement in the standard of play.
But regrettably, there had been a tendency with some players to cultivate a temperament which was no credit to themselves or the sport.  He advised offenders to concentrate more on their game, and said that to spectators such displays were only exhibitions of bad manners, and brought themselves and the sport into disrepute.
These are sound words of advice and could well be heeded.
Officials had an unenviable time trying to get the big number of matches through, and their task was made more difficult when early rain last Saturday prevented play for some hours because of the condition of the courts.
Efforts were being made to sweep the surplus water from them, and when an official approached four or five of the boy players sitting in a car to help, he was told that they "had come to play tennis and not to sweep the courts".
A most discourteous and unappreciative answer, and the official would have been justified if he had wipe his hands of anything further concerning the tournament.  It is to his credit that he did not.
It was unfortunate that there was a number of hold-ups because of rain and players had to sometimes wait around, but they should remember that the tournament officials sacrifice a lot of their time which could be devoted to other interests besides running the championships, and it is only through their enthusiasm for the sport that the fixture can possibly be made a success.  This time is not only confined to the actual tournament but weeks beforehand with discussions about what form the tournament should take, entries arranging the draws and so on.
If players give some thought to these things and realise what is being done for them, there should be no hesitation on their part when they are asked to  help.