The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 31

SIM PH section Federal Mediator Ken Moffett (right) has summoned baseball's striking parties and there could be a new proposal put on the table today, Page D-4. silt Wednesday, June 24, 1981 ii.a THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER 5 WTvf Wimbledon Toasts A I Kentuckians Lead Veteran Met Field Victory 9. I (f i -r 'Jl -J BlliWW'l "5 Rinaldi's BY NEIL AAADUR 1981 N.Y. Times News Service WIMBLEDON, England-Wimbledon toasted Kathy Rinaldi Tuesday as the youngest player ever to win a match in the historic tennis championships. And the 14-year-old American achieved this distinction by rallying from match point for a thrilling three-set victory over Sue Rollinson of South Africa.

Following in the youthful two-handed tradition of Chris Evert Lloyd, Tracy Austin and Andrea Jaeger, Rinaldi raised her arms triumphantly after a 6-3, 2-6, 9-7 decision that consumed two hours, 36 minutes on the infamous No. 2 court of the All England Club. Mita Klima of Austria was 13 years old when she lost a first-round match in the 1907 tournament, never to be heard from again on the international circuit. If Tuesday's display of determination and poise were any criteria for the future, Rinaldi, who is still an amateur and only entering the ninth grade at Martin County High School in Stuart, could enjoy a long and successful run in the sport. "IT'S JUST been great," Rinaldi said of her debut, after her father, Dr.

Dennis Rinaldi, a dentist in Jensen Beach, greeted her with a post-match hug. "I really enjoyed myself out there on the court." After a tumultuous opening day that saw three seeded men eliminated, the first round among the women produced routine straight set victories by Lloyd, Hana Mandlikova, Austin, Martina Navratilova and Jaeger, the top five seeds. In fact, it was a tenacious five-set triumph by Mark Edmondson of Australia over lOth-seeded Guillermo Vilas of Argentina that dominated Centre Court activity and added further confusion to the bottom half of the men's singles draw. Of the eight seeded players in the bottom half, only John McEnroe (No. 2), Roscoe Tanner (8) and Belas Taroczy of Hungary (15) remain, and Taroczy, like Ivan Lendl, Victor Pecci, Yannick Noah and Vilas, is more comfortable on clay than grass.

Six of Edmondson's last seven singles matches here have been five-setters. After overpowering Vilas in the first two sets. Ed mondson said his mind, so accus tomed to a best-of-three-set for mat, began thinking about a celebration drink. Suddenly, it was two sets all. "I didn't care If I broke a leg, I wasn't going to lose my serve in the fifth," said the baldlsh stocky former Australian Open champion.

Among the seeded women, Mandlikova, No. 2, was extended, 6-3, 7-5, by a French teen-ager Corinne Vanier, and then said, if it hadn't been Wimbledon, she would have taken four weeks off to rest a pulled muscle in her lower back. NAVRATILOVA, NO. 4 and more concerned about a stretch ed stomach muscle, held her serve only once In a first set with Joyce Portman that had nine straight service breaks. But the two-time Wimbledon champion still won comfortably, 6-4, 6-0.

ranking at the time was not good enough. But she Justified the committee's faith by reaching the quarter-finals of the French Open before losing to Mandliko va, the eventual champion, and is now No. 47 in the rankings. WIMBLEDON HAS had its share of exciting summer debuts for American teen-agers since Lloyd, at 17, reached the semi finals in 1972 against Evonne Goolagong Cawley In their storied first meeting. Austin was six months into her 14th year when she first played here in 1977, and Jaeger, at 15, was the youngest seed ever last year.

"When I went out there, I was a little tense and nervous," said Rinaldi, who had played on grass courts for the first time last week at a tournament in Eastbourne. Rinaldi's baseline style closely parallels her predecessors. She holds her two-handed backhand grip slightly higher, which allows for greater disguise, and her 5-foot-5, 115-pound frame provides more power than Evert, Austin or Jaeger had at 14. Rollinson, a pert 5-footer, tested Rinaldis patience, running down almost every ball and extending the excitement of rallies that often ended on bad bounces, let cords or shots that missed by only inches. Rinaldi, who turned 14 last March 24, was initially accepted into the main draw as a "wild card" because her computer then had three consecutive birds with putts of 6, 1 and 4 feet.

He bogeyed the par 3 14th, but got it back with a 20-foot birdie putt on the next hole. He finally put three par holes In a row together and turned in 34, two under. The blond youngster said he's "usually real consistent, but this was a wild one." He straightened himself out on the second nine with six pars and two birdie putts of 20 and 15 feet on a couple of par 3 holes, the fourth and eighth, before getting the double on the ninth. "I hit a great drive," he remembered, "but I pushed a 5-iron that stopped three feet off the green, chipped short and 3-putted. But I'm happy." Oldendick lost to Gavin Mclntyre on the 20th hole in the Met junior last year.

ON A short course that measured only 6,261 yards even from the back tees Tuesday, appearing made to order for good Iron players, Volpenhein still said he "mainly hit a driver. As long as I can hit it, I'll always use a driver because I can drive it past trouble on this golf course." His theory appeared questionable on the No. 1 hole when he hooked It against the fence. "All I could do was chip out," he said, "then knock it on the green and 2-putt." The bogey parade started on 7 when he caught a bunker, then 3-putted the next two holes to turn 4-over before getting It going on the homeward trip. He easily conquered the two par-5 holes, 11 and 12.

"I just missed an eagle on 11, and had a tap-in for birdie," Volpenhein said. "I 2-putted from 40 feet for a birdie on 12, and got another one from 15 feet on 16." VOLPENHEIN HAD a big jun- -ior year at Kentucky. He won the Augusta (Ga.) College Invitational, "the biggest one, i guess, because there were good teams there from Houston, Wake Forest, Alabama and Florida among others." He also won the Murray (Ky.) and the Eastern Kentucky Invl-tatlonals, and was first-team all Southeastern Conference (on voting by the coaches). Attending UK on a grant-in-aid, Volpenhein plays No. 1 for the Wildcats.

He won the Northern Kentucky Amateur last summer, and BY DICK FORBES Sports Reporter If qualifying form means anything, a pair of Northern Kentuckians should reach the finals of the 72nd Metropolitan Amateur Golf Championship at Cin-cincinnati Country Club Friday afternoon. It was a Jim Volpenhein-Bruce Oldendlck show in the second round of qualifying at old CCC Tuesday, Volpenhein winning the medal with a steady 70-72142, even par for the distance, and Oldendick coming home with a two-under 69, lowest score in the two-day trek going into match play today. Tacked to an opening 77, Oldendick got in with 146. Volpenhein, a 21-year-old senior at University of Kentucky who plays out of Summit Hills, bogeyed four holes on the front nine including 7-8-9 in succession, but had three birdies on the back for 39-33 against 35-36 par. OLDENDICK, PLAYING the back nine first, had it four under until he came to the last hole, No.

9, when he double-bogeyed. The 17-year-old senior-to-be at Boone County High School, registered out of Hidden Valley in Indiana, was runnerup In the Metropolitan Junior on the same CCC course last year. It took a 154 to make the cut for the low 31 who start match play, with defending champion Lou Moore not required to qualify. Exactly 31 made it, which for the first time in near-memory eliminated a playoff. Volpenhein led the qualifiers by three strokes, young Tim Mit-tlehauser of Miami View and veteran Jim Stahl of Hyde Park posting 145s.

Oldendick and Ma-ketewah's Tom Relnhold tied at 146. Among other local heavy weights who got in were Carl Tuke, Bob Lohr, Lynn Moore, Denny Gallagher, Taylor Metcalfe and Bill Wade. There are nine publlnx players In the championship field. OLDENDICK PLAYED six- holes before he made a par. "I missed only two greens all day," he said, "and I sank a lot of little knee-knocker putts.

I had a lot of 2 to 5-footers, and only missed one of them." He bogeyed his first hole, No. 10, when he three putted, but Enquirer Photo BY FRED STRAUB I JIM VOLPENHEIN works on the practice green at Cincinnati Country Club. Oldendick faces Jon Camp Jr. of Avon Fields, and Lou Moore, the champ, tackles Matt Snodgrass, the Maketewah menace. With the field cut to 16 after today's round, there'll be two matches a day for the rest of the week for the pair that reaches Friday's finals.

Leafs Sign Multi-Year Pact was third low qualifier for the Met at Maketewah. He lost to Lance Schneider in the second round of match play. Volpenhein will have a battle In today's first round of match play. He's up against Metcalfe, who's been runner-up In the Met so many times he's lost count. Gardens, insisted the Leafs would never let the same thing happen here.

"I CAN absolutely guarantee that won't happen this time," Imlach said. "I don't know Just what happened with the other Ifeam, but it doesn't matter. We're here to develop young hockey players. "We want to try to do the same thing with this team that was done with the Swords when I was with the Sabres. We want to develop the kids here and eventually see them playing in Toronto.

I hope history repeats Itself." Some of the former Swords who won the Calder Cup (AHL) championship and moved up to the Sabres roster were Rick Dudley, Peter McNab, Gary Bromley, Billy Hajt and John Gould. Imlach said he had approached one person we (Maple Leafs) know pretty about the coaching job. "He's sitting back to think about it, like anyone would," Imlach explained. "We don't know anything yet." The Maple Leafs also share a farm team in Moncton, New Brunswick with the Chicago Black Hawks, but Imlach pointed out, "You don't have control with only half a team." The Moncton association will continue for at least one more season, however. SMITH SAID he had been in touch with Lefty McFadden, a (See HOCKEY, Page D-4) nine teams in the CHL this season.

The others, and their NHL affiliates, are Nashville (Minnesota North Stars); Indianapolis (New York Islanders); Salt Lake City (St. Louis Blues); Fort Worth (Colorado Rockies); Dallas (Vancouver Canucks); Tulsa (Winnipeg Jets); Oklahoma City (Calgary Cowboys); and Wichita (Edmonton Oilers). CHL President Bud Poile said Cincinnati would be in the league's Northern Division with Indianapolis, Nashville and Salt Lake City. That will help hold down the travel budget since the team can travel by bus to Indy (two hours) and Music City (five hours). Poile last visited the Coliseum press box nearly two years ago when the Cincinnati Stingers of the CHL folded at midseason.

He still has painful memories of that experience. "That was Just a very bad situation, an impossible situation," Poile said. "That team was merely an accommodation. It was like an unwanted child (by the parent teams). There was no passion, no feeling for the team." mat irancnise was jointly staffed by the four former-WHA teams which joined the NHL Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec and New England.

The team never really had a chance to succeed. Imlach, whose association with Cincinnati goes back to his GM days with the Buffalo Sabres and the Swords at Cincinnati it I BY TERRY FLYNN Sports Reporter Floyd Smith and his boss, Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Punch Imlach, came to town Tuesday to sign a lease agree ment with Riverfront Coliseum, assuring Cincinnati of a Central Hockey League team for at least two years. Smith, formerly the coach of two Cincinnati hockey teams the American Hockey League Swords and the World Hockey Association Stingers and also an NHL coach for both Buffalo and Toronto, didn't give a specific figure for the length of the agreement, but emphasized it was a multi-year pact. "We're coming in here to develop hockey players, and we intend to keep the team here," Smith said. "I'll be spending a lot of time in Cincinnati, and I'll be looking for people from this area to work in our operation." Smith said the lease agreement was signed Tuesday just a short time before the press conference was held In the Coliseum press box.

"We haven't really had a chance to set things up," he said. "We don't have a coach, we don't have a front office staff or a publicity director. And we haven't been able to do anything about a radio hookup. We'll be working in these areas in the next few weeks." THE CINCINNATI franchise, as yet unnamed, will be one of HfsiOe Longest Game Ends In 33rd Inning Page D-4 Paige Remembers Negro League Days Page D-4 index Sports Editor JOHN GIBSON Tel. 369-1917 (After 4 p.m.) Scores 369-1005, 369-1006 24 hours) Enquirer Photo BY MARK TREITEL FLOYD SMITH (left), former Cincinnati Stingers and Swords coach, now working for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Maple Leafs general manager Punch Imlach prepare for a press conference at Riverfront Coliseum.

The 'Timing' Has Come To Indiana's Clifford mm mm summoned later than expected, too, but Clifford was clean off the worksheet. Hey, fellas, don't forget about the guy at Indiana. You remember, the Big Ten MVP. Big guy, likes to roll out and throw. At least, Clifford rolled out and threw a lot in his first three years at Indiana.

Had the timing for it. But last year the Hoosier coaches changed the beat, and for the first time in his career Clifford was a little out of step. He should have graduated after his junior year. "We went to a different kind of passing game, and we weren't used to it," he said. "We took out too many things that worked the year before." By the time Clifford's blond curls surfaced in the big league draft, it was the 10th round.

He was taken by a team with three veteran quarterbacks. (JTi WHEELER, Page D-4) At the time, the pros rated Clifford with Herrman and Rich Campbell as the best of the class of quarterbacks. He was strong and tough and had that unteachable timing. Had it, that is, until last year. BY MOST accounts, Clifford was a pretty good quarterback last year.

He completed more than half of his passes, and 13 were touchdowns. But he wasn't the best player in the Big Ten. He wasn't really close. And on the first day of the National Football League draft, Clifford's telephone sounded like one cymbal clashing. This was unexpected.

The Miami Dolphins had whispered things in Clifford's ear that turned out to be nothings. They went for Brad Wright of New Mexico in the eighth round. Herrmann and Neil Lomax were They marveled at Tim Clifford's timing, the way he could keep the football until the most favorable moment of release, when harm's huge forearm took aim on his earhole. Around Indiana University, he was known as "Cool Clifford." Cool, for short. His early collegiate career was timed like Johnny Carson's monologue.

There was his first game, freshman year, Minnesota leading, 14-0. Scott Arnett, the senior starting quarterback, on the ground with an injury. Clifford coming into the noisy huddle and yelling for everybody to shut up. Indiana winning, 34-22. It had been much the same in high school.

A sophomore, up from the Junior varsity, taking Colerain past Mount Healthy in an upset. Later he set the city record for touchdown passes, 24. They called, him "Sonny" then, for arm and girth resembling Sonny Jurgensen. All the big colleges contacted him. The Pittsburgh Pirates made an offer.

Indiana was the right choice for Clifford, at the opportune time. He made the Hoosiers 8-4 few doubted that it was he who actually made the Hoosiers and was the Big Ten's Most Valuable Player as a junior. He was, and Mark Herrmann and Art Schlichter weren't. BASEBALL D-4 HORSE RACING D-5 SCOREBOARD D-2 SPORTS BRIEFS D-2 i "ihl-iillBl---r.