player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameGeoffrey Morton
LastnameOllivier
GenderMale
CountryNew Zealand
Date of birth1886-08-19
Place of birthChristchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
Date of death1960-10-10
Place of deathChristchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand

About

Geoffrey Ollivier attained the rank of corporal in the New Zealand Rifle Brigade during World War One. He won the men’s singles event at the New Zealand Championships a record seven times. The following appreciation of Ollivier’s early lawn tennis career was published in The Star newspaper (Christchurch, Canterbury) on 13 April and 20 April 1927:

“Show me a great man, and I will show you a good mother,” a philosopher once said, and anyone who has met Mrs Julia Anthony Wilding, mother of Anthony Wilding, must realise this truth. It was Mrs Wilding’s interest in her boy, an interest that made her treasure even the cricket scores of his schooldays, that made Anthony great, and the same influence of a mother can be seen in the success of our other great tennis champion, Geoffrey Ollivier.

Mrs Frances Gibson Ollivier was a fine player, very quick on the court, and one of the best Canterbury ladies of her day. She represented the province on more than one occasion. Geoffrey went to the Boys’ High School, and on his half-holidays, was j an enthusiastic looker-on at the tennis at the Cranmer Square Club, a short distance away.

However, School had two masters, Messrs Jackson and Smith, both tennis enthusiasts, and if either of them were there, they hunted young Ollivier off the premises, for cricket was compulsory in the School in those days. Still, at odd times, Ollivier put in an afternoon as ball boy, and sometimes he got a game with his mother, when a fourth lady was missing. It may be said that the whole of the early tennis training of the future champion was with the ladies of the club, for, though Ollivier joined Linwood Club at an early age, he got little tennis there, for no one would play with him. They considered him too great a “dud”.

After a month or two spent as looker-on at Linwood, his mother suggested his joining Cranmer, and, as was said before, his tennis was learnt playing on the ladies’ afternoons at that club, mostly with his mother as partner or opponent. Mrs Ollivier did not live to see the full measure of her son’s tennis genius, but she did live to see him handed the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Club’s Challenge Cup. He won that event in 1907, the year before she died.

Geoff’s father was not a tennis player, for he was lame, yet the first “chip” court in Christchurch was put down at his home. It was the result of the gardener’s brainy idea, and had a clay and cinder surface. Afterwards, when it showed signs of wear, it was tarred. Ollivier’s progress was rapid. He was still in his teens when he won the C.L.T.C.’s challenge cup.

This year, I907, saw many good players’ names among the entries. Among them were: Richard Harman, Thomas Quill, P.A. Laurie, William Goss and A.D. Cox. The latter reached the final with Ollivier for an opponent. Both were young players and a long way down the ladder, and neither was expected to get far. Yet, such was the success of unremitting practice, that one by one the mighty were humbled, and youth was served.

A phrase was used to describe Ollivier’s game that day which is as true of his play now as it was then. “Splendidly accurate” were the words used, and today he is as ever: Splendidly accurate. Ollivier won 6-1, 9-7, 7-5. From Canterbury champion to national champion was a matter of four years. Few players anywhere in the world have won the honour at their first attempt. Most serve an apprenticeship.

And it is possible that Ollivier would not have accomplished this but for the presence in Christchurch of the Americans in search of the Davis Cup. William Lamed, Beals Wright and Maurice McLoughlin were the U.S.A. team, and they needed a fourth for practice. On the recommendation of Mr Harman, Ollivier was suggested, and for the six weeks prior to the cup he played with the Americans every day. There is no doubt that the things he learned in that six weeks stood him in great stead in the days that followed.

The field for the national championships in the year of Geoffrey Ollivier’s first win in 1911 included Cecil Cox, Quill, Harman, and the Australians, Rupert Wertheim, Arthur O’Hara Wood, Robert Kidston and the previous national champion, John Peacock. Norman Brookes and Rodney Heath entered, but did not compete. Ollivier beat O’Hara Wood in the semi-final, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, and beat Peacock in the final, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

There is no doubt that Anthony Wilding influenced Ollivier’s life. They were born and brought up within a stone’s throw of one another at Opawa, and frequently played together. On Wilding’s return home from England, Ollivier remodelled his game on Anthony’s, adopting the English backhand which he still uses. However, Ollivier has often stated in regard to this, that he considers the American backhand, with the stiff wrist and knuckles upward the better grip, and if he were starting again he would adopt it.

Ollivier won the national singles six times altogether, and this in spite of the five-year gap while the war was on. In 1924 he won without the loss of a set, and in 1925 he lost but two sets. In 1912, the British Davis Cup team visited New Zealand and Ollivier was the only New Zealander to defeat any of the four. He beat Arthur Lowe in Auckland, 6-3, 6-3, and Alfred Beamish in Christchurch, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2. During the English tour of 1920, Ollivier beat Beamish again in Christchurch, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, and at Dunedin he beat Beamish again, 6-3, 6-4.

Ollivier has won many tournaments in recent years, but since 1920 no record is available; but a list compiled that year showed the following wins: Singles champion (N.Z.), 1911, 1914, 1919; doubles with William Goss, 1912; with Frederick S. Wilding, 1914, 1919; mixed doubles with Miss Nancy Hartgill, 1912; with Miss Minnie Steele, 1913.

In the Championship of Victoria in 1912, after defeating Ronald V. Thomas. Bert Saint-John and Norman Brookes (by default), he was beaten in the fourth round by James C. Parke. Ollivier was singles champion of Otago in 1910, 1911, 1915 and 1919; doubles, 1910 with F. S. Wilding, 1911 with C.H. Thompson, 1915 with West Sheppard; singles champion of Canterbury 1913, and, with E. J. Taylor, doubles champion the same year; singles and doubles champion, Wellington, in 1913. And other singles championships: Ashburton, 1907, 1909, 1910; Dannevirke, 1912; Masterton, 1912; and at United 1909, 1913, 1915, 1919.

To this must be added his successes in the last seven years [1920-1927].

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