The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1937. NEW ZEALAND BOWLERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 300, 18 December 1937, Page 8

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1937. NEW ZEALAND BOWLERS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the icrotig that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, A.nd the good that we can do.

The names of the fifteen athletes chosen to represent the Dominion in the British Empire Games, to commence in Sydney on February 5, four of them being Aucklanders, have been published this week, together with the names of six, including two from Auckland, provisionally chosen. No decision, however, has been made regarding the seven bowlers who are to represent the Dominion in the singles, pairs and rinks, in spite of strenuous efforts in influential quarters to make a prior selection, and strike a levy on the 17,294 registered bowlers in the Dominion to pay the expenses of the seven selected. For bowling, as bowlers well know, is no ordinary game; as a member of the Council remarked when the question of selection was being threshed out: "There are no real champions in bowls. They are all likely to be beaten at any time." Hence the difficulty of selecting a truly representative bowling "team."

The decision of the Council is that the New Zealand representatives shall be selected not exclusively on the basis of their form as known in New Zealand, but also on the form they are able to show in Australia. Aspirants for selection mast compete in the Australian carnival, and the selectors will be the councillors in attendance, "with power to co-opt." This means that all of the forty New Zealand bowlers who are expected to take part in the Australian carnival will have an equal chance of selection for the Empire Games, subject only to the measure of their success in the prior competitions. This condition is not absolutely binding on the selectors, but it may be taken for granted that it will very largely influence their choice, for the greens in Sydney are understood to differ so materially from those in New Zealand, particularly in the height of summer, that it would be dangerous to work on the local achievements of the players. It is fortunate, therefore, that the forty who are going include bowlers who are competent in every style of play and every condition of green. Some prefer keen greens, and others are "up and into it" on a heavy green, while all have varying preferences for the dead draw, the rest, the follow through, the trail, the run or the drive. All who are going have been seen in hundreds of matches, and nearly all in dozens of tournaments also, so there will be keen interest in watching to see what style of play proves most successful.

The rinks which are to compete in the Australian carnival will be drawn mainly from the Auckland province, but there will be players from Otago and Canterbury also. It is an open secret that some of the councillors were greatly relieved when they were given the Opportunity to vote on the Auckland scheme for letting the New Zealand representatives in the Empire Games, like the Australian, virtually select themselves, by their performance in the prior tournament, for they realised that if seven were chosen beforehand, and their expenses paid, there would be at least 70, if not 700, whose friends (and perhaps themselves) would think they were equally entitled to selection.

The game of bowls is usually regarded purely as a pastime, and it will be a new experience for most of the New Zealand contingent to enter so serious a competition as the Empire's Olympic Games. However, many of the players in the contingent rank high in playing ability, and with the Australian conditions approximating those of New Zealand, though perhaps the greens are keener, they should have a fighting chance in the final tests. Before these are reached, the seven who will carry the flag of New Zealand will have had a good opportunity to familiarise themselves with the pace of the greens, and there is every reason to anticipate a good showing by the wearers of the silver fern.