Tennis Success

'Success in sport seems to be the normal thing at Concordia. We can boast of premiership teams in most of the games played at C.C, and tennis is one of these.’ These were the opening sentences of the tennis report in the 1944 Brown and Gold.

However, tennis balls were scarce during World War II, and those available were of a very inferior quality. This led to a waning interest in tennis among the younger boys. Another problem was the sad state of disrepair of the courts which could not be asphalted for the duration of the war. (The photo clearly shows the badly cracked court surface.)
In spite of this, the committed members of the A team achieved an undefeated premiership during the 1943-1944 season, winning all matches against seven other schools – PAC, St Peters, Immanuel, Kings, Adelaide HS and Sacred Heart.

The photo shows Keith Nagel who had a ‘powerful service and served many aces’; Elmore Leske who was a left-hander marked by ‘dogged tenacity’; Robert Paech  whose ’cross-court drives were a delight to watch, and are often quite unplayable’; and Everard Leske who kept a ‘cool head’ but was soon ‘wet with perspiration’.