Bob Bowditch swept the singles field without losing a set, and Donald Dell's alarm clock didn't go off, as the varsity tennis team put on a tremendous effort and dethroned favored Yale in the New England Intercollegiate tournament at M.I.T. this weekend.

Defending champion Dell of Yale failed to show up for his first singles match Friday. He wired that he had overslept and would be two hours late, but the tournament committee decided they could not delay the match that long, and Dell was declared in default.

He was wide-awake and on the scene for the doubles, however, as he and Tom Freiberg won that title, defeating the pick-up Crimson team of Fred Vinton and Bill Wood in the final. Yale nearly had to default this one, too, as Freiberg, viewing the singles from atop the M.I.T. tennis shack, had difficulty getting down from his perch for the doubles. He finally made it, though, and the match went on.

Playing together for the first time, Vinton and Wood, the fourth and sixth men on this year's Crimson varsity, reeled off an amazing series of victories over highly regarded teams, including the Amherst and M.I.T. first pairs and the Yale second pair. The Crimson's first team, Bowditch and Captain Ned Weld, reached the semi-finals, where they were beaten by Dell and Freiberg in a tough three-set match.

Probably seeded too low at number seven, Bowditch, a sophomore, beat some of the best men in the tournament on the way to his victory. Particularly impressive were his wins over Tom Richardson of Amherst and Tom Freiberg of Yale; both men are experienced seniors and former finalists in this tournament. In the final, Bowditch beat unseeded Clyde Buck of Williams, who had earlier upset Weld and Raul Karman of M.I.T. Weld, Vinton and Wood all reached the round of sixteen before bowing out.

With Dell out, Yale was able to salvage only a second-place tie with M.I.T. in the team race. They each had 20 points to the Crimson's 25.