BOWLING NOTES.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18070, 12 May 1924, Page 11

BOWLING NOTES.

BY "SKIP."

The bowling season was brought to a close by the annual Easter tournament, which was a very great success. The weather was delightful and the greens, considering the lateness of the season, were exceptionally good. The Christchurch rink, comprised of Or. Mazey, W. Brown, W. Helliwell, and A. J. Wicks (s), is to be heartily congratulated on its win. It went right through without a loss.

The monthly meeting of the Centre will be held this evening.

A Timaru rink, which was in town recently, spent a very enjoyable afternoon on the Heathcote green. The visitors—F. Karton, P. Cosgrove, W. Boyce, W. Cowles (s) —played E. Henderson, J. Williams, W. Spiller, and J. Morgan (s), and after sixteen heads had been played the score was 16 all. Some beautiful play was witnessed, and the green was in excellent order. In tfie evening both teams were the guests of Mr and Mrs J. Bound.

Bowl Testing.

Considerable interest is at present being taken in the report which was submitted to the Dominion of New Zealand Bowling Council by the official bowl tester, Mr W. A. Scott. I have just received the following lefcter-from a valued correspondent in Dunedin: — "I have been looking forward to seeing the report of the results from the 'table ■ testing in Wellington of the test bowls, but so far apparently it has not been published. However, we have the report of the Dominion bowl tester, Mr Scott. As these results are so astonishing ; <md of vital interest to the bowlers of the Dominion, if you will please give me space I would like to make some comments on them.

"In the first place, it will come as a surprise to many bowlers to learn that Mr Scott is the only official tester for 1 the whole of New Zealand. This being so, it is pertinent to ask why any other method than that adcjpted by Mr Scott—namely, the green test —has been allowed, he being the highest , official authority on the question. If each Centre is allowed to. use its own method of testing, it places Mr Scott in a very peculiar position. After years of testing in the various centres, when all the standard bowls have been assembled, for examination, it is discovered by Mr Scott (using the green test) that they are far from uniform —as much as 3ft 6in variation in idraw. What sort of position does this land bowlers in who, after no end of expense and trouble, are informed that the standard bowls by which their bowls have been tested and altered are quite unreliable. Mr Scott does not say which standard he used when testing the test bowls, but I notice Christchurch was found to be Sin slack (or. narrow), while Wanganui was 2ft over, Timaru was lft Gin under, and so on. Certainly a most extraordinary state of affairs! One wonders how such varying standard test bowls came to be used.

"In coiicluding his report Mr Scott suggests as a remedy for this state of affaifs that all the test bowls be brought together every twelve months and re-tested-; or, better still, to make it compulsory that all .testing be carried out on the green by one official. This would be a drastic indeed. Badly as bowlers have suffered under the present methods, I hardly think they -tfrould survive at all under the suggested remedies. In the first place, it l 'is* nfecessaiy ".to'Jre-tfcst. the, test bowls every twelve months;, surety it would be doubly essential that all the bowls in the Dominion be re-tested every season, as they get ten times more rough usage.than the test bowls, which lead a veryy sheltered life, free' from the hard knocks of the every,day. fellow. In the second place, Mr Scott would like one official only to do the bowl testing for New Zealand. ' I can' hardly think he is in earnest over this proposal, knowing what it would mean. Either the official "would have to visit the various centres 'at the same time, especially before tournaments are held, and do the work, of ( about ten men, qr he might demand that all bowls for testing be'sent.to his own factory. A monopoly of this sott would, not. be givihg the other fellow a chance to live. In fact, it might lead to the Government stepping, in to' .prevent profiteering; J "Some years ago, before I had the opportunity to learn sufficient about green and table tests, I. was strongly ■ in. favour of, and. advocated, the green, test. Since I have had many oppor-. tunities of seeing both methods,, and, in view of the bad' conditions invariably met with on the green (Mr Scott knows this only too well), I am now convincedthat,, given a, properly-constructed table, its merits over the green are beyond dispute. In the first table is free from wind and rain, and has a far -more uniform surface than, any green could possibly have. Besides being level, another decided advantage is that it could be used on any day," no .matter what weather, and all testing' could be done in tlid off season. With the green, there is usually a rush of testing just before a tournament, and, the stamping of bowls being imperative, the testing has to be got; through, even if the condition of- the green and the weather be anything but good enough. "What did Mr Scott, find in Christchurch St the last Dominion tournament? I understand the conditions were so bad that he hid to bring the test bowls to Dunedin to.be tested,and then he had to do it on a green that had stood the tear and wear of this trying, season, having anything but a uniform surface. Even were it possible to get a level green, the tracking of bowls is so Berious that the. point of the shoot has to .be shifted after each bowl has been run, which means that no two , bowls meet exactly the same will make this very simple, test to test the green (and not bowls), I. venture to say they will get their eyes opened. Make a chalk mark on the* chute at a point to give the bowl approximately an 80ft run. Take any ope bpwl (preferably the standard), run it dowii the chute, aiid mark the spot where it stops, with a jack; then, to make certain of no tracking, shift the point of the chute one inch, run the same bowl down again firom the same starting point, marking where it stops as before.' Repeat this process, say, half-a-dozen times. Approximately the .point on the green where the jacks are placed should be the same distance from the end of the chute and the distance apart. It would be interesting to learn'the result of this simple test. '' Some bowlers aver that, because bowls are played on a green, they Bhould be tested on . a green. This seemingly good argument does not always apply. I would like to see testing tried on a crown green where bowls are played. Chronometers, used in ships, are not tested on the sea, but on land. Henry Ford's cars, used on roads, are tested in the factories; and here let me say that the factory, where bowls are made under an expert, should be the proper place to produce bowls of any given standard of draw, and the maker's stamp should be sufficient guarantee for all purposes. It is very un-

(Continued at foot of next column.)

just that when a bowler buys a set of bowls he Ms to pay to get them stamped and perhaps altered. "In'-conclusion, I would like to ask Mr Scott if, when ordering the six standard bowls from Thomas Taylor' lately, he stipulated that they be produced from the green test, as otherwise I feel sure Mr Taylor will make them from a table test. If this be so, and w<J get our standard bowl produced from the table test, then surely the table is good enough to test all other bowls by. I must apologise for taking up so much of your space, but my desire is to assist the afflicted bowlers a little if I can.—l am, etc., WM. DALL." [lt would be interesting to know what other bowlers of . thia.^^kip.]