BOWLING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 6, 8 January 1934, Page 12

BOWLING.

A DISAPPOINTING SATURDAY.

CHAMPIONSHIPS IN DUNEDIN.

SINGLES THIS MORNING.

(By TRUNDLER.)

Bowling was impossible at the usual hour on Saturday, and very little was done after it cleared up at about four o'clock, even on greens constructed on poroua soil. At Onehunga they managed to get off the final of the New Year tournament, resulting in a win for G. McKendrick, F. Farnsworth, W. Gosling, E. V. Sutherland, who defeated T. H. Geraghty, G. Keeling, E. J. Gatland, A. R. Gatland, after the latter had almost recovered from a heavy deficit. Unless Dunedin is favoured this morning with a taste of the extraordinary ■weather conditions which seem to have been recently prevailing all over the world, two rounds in the Dominion singles championship will have been completed before lunch, and another two during the after; noon. If all goes according to plan, this will reduce each section of 16 competitors to five survivors, one two-lifer and four one-lifers, or ten two-lifers and 40 onelifers from the ten full sections. In addition there is a little section of eight, from which there will be either two or three survivors, according to how the fourth round goes. These will continue to-mor-row morning, and play five rounds during the day, about five or j| x surviving, to resume on Wednesday ot next week, or later if they are also engaged in the pairs or rinks. . Auckland is keenly interested m several sections to-day, particularly A, which contains L. J. Keys, A. Parsons and W. Smith, besides G. E. Piper (Maitai, !N elson), formerly of Rawhiti Club. Section C contains W. Ure, playing in the Ponsonby colours on this occasion, section F includes J. Stormont (playing against Ernie Earraway), W. D. Bennett (Thames) and Professor Walker. The interest in section H arises through J. Mantell (Tauranga), who used to play for Carlton. A member of his rink, A. Bell, is in the next section, with J. C. Duncan. H Gribble (Mount Eden) and C. Muston (Carlton) are in section J. This section also has McLean (Greymouth), but tni3 is evidently a misprint, for R. McLaren, who used to play for Ponsonby until about ten or twelve years ago. He has the pleasure of meeting the famous Carswell (Taieri) in the first round. Altogether the Auckland Centre has nine competitors in the singles, out of 14 attending the tournament, the boutn Auckland Centre has one and Bay of Plenty two. A better proportion from the three Australian rinks are trying the singles, ten having entered, and two ot them will meet Dominion champions m the first round. These are C. T. Fleming (Orange Club, New South Wales), who will strike W. Foster (Caledonian), the singles champion of 1918 and 1926 and rink champion of 1928, and G. Inkster (South Australia), who meets Archie Smellie (Green Island), the pairs champion of 1915. It will be interesting to hear what these visitors have to say about our champions. Some of them will have a chance to meet "a" Kew Zealand champion in a later round, if. they.survive long enough. Thus E. E. Sullings Sydney), the club which is adorned by the perpetual presidency of Tom Yates, whose hearty laugh is so well known on Auckland greens, may meet Arthur Parsons in the last round of the day. If he misses that pleasure he certainly will not miss meeting Maxwell Walker, for they are in the same section in the rinks, and they meet on Tuesday week. In the meantime, W. Hall (Queensland) is in a unique section in the singles, for it includes Walker and Harraway, the only two players who have won all three events (singles, pairs and rinks), so it would be unfortunate li he happened to miss them both. _ Section play in the pairs championship will commence on Wednesday morning, and in the rink championship on Indai morning. A Press Aseociation telegram on Saturday notified 176 entries in the pairs, but the official programme shows 180, and there is no word of any having A hoped that this difference is not a foretaste of inaccuracies that will slip into the reports of. the tournament for Dunedin is not particularly noted for care in its publicity, arrangements, lor instance, in the only published list of competitors in the present tournament the name of the well-known conductor ot the Auckland Choral Society appeared as C. Murton, while the. equally well-known town clerk of one of the largest boroughs in New Zealand was given as H. Dribble. The weather does not seem very promisinß for the Auckland competitors, in Dunedin, for most of them are essentially keen-green players, and even it theie is no actual rain this week the heavy greens will take some time to recover from their recent soaking. Last time the tournament was in Dunedin, four years ago, there was quite fine weather for the singles, but fain delayed the pairs. However it is usually fine in Dunedin during January, so probably our representatives will do "very well in the later stages. ' Played on the two-life system, on the automatic draw, the hard part isi the fact that those who specialise on the dead, draw on a keen green wi 1 be out of it tt they lose both rounds this morning, with no opportunity to redeem their position in later rounds, such as very many do in the rinks, which are always played in sections. Very often a rink gets no wins at all on ■the, first day, and yet survives until tne late stfges, y and when Benefield won his sensational final in Auckland ™tha Wanganui rink, seven years ago, he had already had three losses in.the section play. The position in the singles championship is that in each section of Iβ.this morning four are entirely out of it by lunch time, four more in the first round this afternoon and three more in the last round, but there has not yet been « suggestion to play it m sections, like the pairs and the rinks, and like Auckland played the open singles last month. It is interesting to note, however, that two material alterations have been made in recent years, so perhaps section play may come in time, for every player would then eet five games guaranteed, ana n 2fcnt g take no g longer than the present system, nor even as long, if it was played like the pairs. It will.be remembered that formerly it was run in sections of 18, six acting as markers for the other twelve in each of the first three rounds, by wh ch time a sufficient numb'er were eliminated to act" as markers for the remaining two rounds of the day Although five rounds in point of time, this was really only four in effect, so local markers were obtained, and this enabled five real rounds to be ■played. The main objection to this was that the two-lifers all got a bye m tne «SS si £ fe£sßßSg to four rounds, and this system has been followed ever since. - CLUB GAMES. EDENDALE CLUB. The following games were played on the Edendale green on Saturday: — Ordinary Draw.—Pollock, Credin. BayUss, A Hill 27, v. Hayes. Noad. East, Smith 18 , F ore". Jones, Mayhlll. McCarthy 32. v. Bull Feilding Chapman 16; Bluck, Anni r fov , Conway? Mnnro 19, v. Blackmore, Bradshaw, Koan, C. Hill 22. ELLERSLIE CLUB. The following skips have entered teams for the full rink tournament to be held tomorrow: Livingstone, Gatland, Kenny, Kerr (Onehunga). Coburn (Whangarei), fccotting (St. Helier's), Fraser Smith (West End), Morton (Otahuhu), Murray (Rawhiti), Somers (Mangere), Low, Westbrooke, Maund, Langville, Lynch (Ellerslie), Johns (Patumahoe).