BOWLING.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 252, 23 October 1924, Page 13

BOWLING.

INCIDENTS LAST SATURDAY.

dominion tournament.

(By TRUNDLER.)

An interesting bit of byplay took place on Saturday afternoon in one of the bowling pavilions between the president of the Auckland Centre and the president of tho Carlton Club. The former was commiserating with the members on the shocking weather, and affirmed his conviction that it was the fault of his colleague, Mr. Jack Thomson, for be wns so anxious for a fine day on the following Saturday for the opening of the Carlton green, that he had quite forgotten to arrange with the clerk of the weather for a fine afternoon that day also. Mr. Thomson denied the soft impeachment, and reminded Mr. Hardley that the weather was arranged in Wellington, so that he was not to blame for such an awful day. He added that perhaps it was just as well they did not have the arranging of it themselves, for they would never agree as to when it ought to rain. And then the strawberries might all shrivel up. At each pavilion visited last Saturday the president of the Auckland Centre introduced his colleague, although the latter is probably aa well known as any bowler in Auckland. Attending in a threefold capacity as president of the Carlton Club, a member of the centre executive, and a member of the Dominion council, Mr. Thomson dealt chiefly with Dominion affairs, bringing forward various aspects at the different pavilions. One of the strongest points he made was in reference to bowltesting, where lie explained that it was deemed inadvisable to press the matter of the table test, as it would be difficult for the smaller centres to equip themselves with the necessary expensive plant. The alternative was equally objectionable; it might lead to under centralisation of testing, a further expense to individual bowlers. The matter was therefore left optional to each centre, and Auckland had at once decided to permanently adopt the table test, and to assist the official tester in bringing his equipment right up to date. Mr. Thomson also explained that after all the trouble of testing there was continual bother over "pokers" showing up at tournaments, and yet in his experience no competitor had ever challenged an opponent's bowl. In order to put the onus of challenging upon the controlling body, instead of on the individual competitor, the Auckland members had succeeded in getting a motion carried whioh provided for all the bowls being tested prior to the commencement of a final. By this regulation nobody would dare to use pokers in a tournament, for he would know that he would come to grief at this official testing, and therefore could not possiby win.

It is often said that "a prophet hath no honour In his own country," but an interesting exception took place on Saturday, when the president of the Rocky Nook Club, Mr. W. H. Keatley, was welcoming "the distinguished visitors from the centre." It was very pleasing to note that ho included their own member, Mr. G. L. Gladding, and the applause that greeted his remarks clearly showed that George is esteemed just as highly by his own clubmates as he is-in other parts of theMsity. <- r,-

A very interesting point was made by Mr. Gladding when respondingtb the welcome that was given to all the members of the centre executive by the president of his own club. Recognising the danger'that Mr. Keatley's words might be token to mean that be was the Rocky Nook representative on the executive, Mr. Gladding pointed out that all the members, except the special representative of the country clubs,, were elected by the whole of tho 45 clubs in the Auckland Centre, extending from Kawakawa in the north to Tuakau in the south, and that he accordingly represented Whangarei and Pukekohe just as truly as lie represented Rocky Nook and Remuera.

Next Saturday nine more clubs are proposing to open for the season, and •the president of the centre hopes, to again make a flying tour to all' those that can be conveniently visited. Commencing at Dominion Koad, where he is ■to open the new pavilion, he hopes to visit Grey Lynn, Ponsonby, Carlton, Remuera and Ellerslie. The Dominion Tournament. Great improvements have "been effected at the Wellington Bowling Club's greens during the. past winter, and it would- appear that the parent club at the capital is-leaving no stone unturned to make the Dominion tournament a great success next January. By the way, there have been so many inquiries about the dates that intending competitors would do well to note that entries close on December 15. The singles commence on Monday, January 12, the pairs on Thursday, January 15, and the rinks on Monday, January 10. One interesting innovation that visitors will notice on the Wellington green is that the ditch has been filled with pebbles, to keep clean the bowls that fall into it. As "Number Two" sagely remarks in the "Wellington "Post," mo commenting on Mr. Allely's discovery of this contrivance in England, to which reference was recently made in this column, the bowlers of New Zealand will no longer need to go to the Old Country to see how the pebbles work. He further remarks that it is strange nobody thought of it before, although we usually pride ourselves on our originality, so superior to conservative England. Another good scheme to which "Number Two" draws attention is the Tccent decision of the Australian Bowling Council to insist on bowls having a distinctive mark on both discs. This was suggested some months ago, and it certainly seems to be a move in the right direction, as it ought to put a stop to the provoking habit of turning a bowl over in order to see whose it is. Presumably this refers only to tournaments, for people often like to try a set of bowls for several weeks before definitely deciding to keep them and get them branded. 'In the meantime, in case public opinion ever demands the introduction of the same rule in New ZeaJand, purchasers of new bowls would ibe wise to discontinue the foolish practice of branding'the small disc with a numeral. In the old days when all four bowls were of different bias, there was some sense in this system, as a player liked to deliver them in their proper order, but now that all good players lave their four bowls exactly alike it is useless to put numerals on them. The other day in a match-there were no less than six of the eight players with bowls so branded, . and five of them were branded 2. They weTe being incessantly turned over/ whereas it only wanted a strict umpire to remind them that a bowl touched by any player is "burned," and nobody has any right to turn one over. j_ k .