THE SPORTING SCENE

When a Crimson team compiles a 15-2 record and still considers its season a bit of a disappointment, chances are that one of those losses was to Yale. This was the case with this spring's varsity tennis team, which found the Elis, led by Davis Cup nominee Donald Dell, just a little too tough to handle.

The varsity's only other loss came during the Southern trip against a Presbyterian team which the Crimson had defeated the day before. Otherwise, the team's record is a spotless one. A great effort by Bob Bowditch in the singles and by Fred Vinton and Bill Wood in the doubles gave the Crimson the New England Intercollegiate team title.

Captain Ned Weld, playing at number one, scored outstanding victories over M.I.T.'s Raul Karman and Dartmouth's Dick Hoehn. Weld turned in an amazing job for someone who never played higher than number three on his freshman team.

Wood Unbeaten Until Yale

Wood, who played at number six, is the only other senior in the top six. He was unbeaten until the Yale match, and lost to Eli Rick Wallace only after a long and difficult fight. He and Weld, as well as Jim Cameron, Laurie Pratt and Scott Custer, will be missed.

Captain-elect Tim Gallwey, Bowditch, Vinton and Jorge Lemann--two to five this year--form an impressive nucleus for the 1960 squad. Although Gallwey was playing ahead of him at the end of the year, Bowditch's victory in the New England's may well have established him as next year's number one. As for the two gaps in the top six, the most likely candidates to fill them are freshmen Joram Piatigorsky and Mark Woodbury and sophomores Bob Schwartzman and Pete Smith.

Piatigorsky, despite his three losses as number one on the unbeaten freshman team, "has the strokes," according to freshman coach Corey Wynn, to become a major collegiate star, and Woodbury is not far behind him. Schwartzman, ranked seventh on the pre-season ladder, was burdened with laboratory commitments and could only play doubles in a few matches this year; if he has more time next spring, he could help a lot, while Smith, improving steadily, was playing at number eight by the end of the year.

Elis Lose Three Men

The 1960 Eastern League race shapes up as a repetition of the past two years, with no one likely to offer the Crimson and Yale much competition. The Elis, although they will have Dell, Gene Scott and Wallace back, lose Tom Freiberg, Jon Clark, and Sandy Wiener (two, three and five). They have one excellent freshman prospect in Mike Neely.

Yale is losing more than the varsity, and perhaps not picking up as much. At any rate, next May's Yale match will no doubt once again decide the Eastern and Big Three championships, and Barnaby and his men hope to pick those crowns back up again. They should have a fine chance of doing it.