BOWLS

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27873, 23 January 1956, Page 3

BOWLS

OPEN SINGLES TOURNEY

TWENTY-EIGHT PLAYERS QUALIFY

Section play in the Christchurch Bowling Centre’s open singles tournament was played on 10 greens on Saturday. This year a new system was tried as against the old two-life one.

On Saturday each player played • five rounds of 21 heads with .a time limit of 14 hours. All those with four and five wins in section play will take part in post-section play, which will commence next Saturday.

The new system may have merit in that all those who enter are assured of five games, whereas under the two-life system they could be eliminated in the first two rounds. However, under the new system many players who would have little hope of winning their club handicap singles, even on a long handicap, entered and this caused many poor games. Conditions varied considerably on Saturday. For the first games the greens were holding on account of the light drizzle, and many games went the full 21 ends. As the day wore on the hot sun soon livened the greens and only the fast players were getting through 16 heads. Of the 130 players who entered, only 28 qualified for post-section play and of these only eight went through the section play unbeaten. The Christchurch green was at times turned into an American bowling alley, when Brierly (Canterbury) unleashed his drives of which there were many. On one particular head, when playing on the number 2 rink, he drove and sent the kitty off at right angles and it travelled for nearly 100 feet across the green before coming to rest in the ditch on the far side of the green. Brierly's drive availed him little as he only won one out of the five games played. There were a few surprises during the day, the greatest probably being the winning of only two games by Sheard (Woolston). Sheard is a very excellent draw player and is a past champion of champions singles winner. Hirst (R.S.A.), winner of the national pairs title a few years ago, was right out of touch on Saturday and won only one game. Another R.S.A. player and present holder of the champion of champion singles title, Fox, also failed to qualify. Taylor (Christchurch), who has previously won this tournament when playing with the Mount Pleasant club, failed to qualify Hayes (Belfast) played excellent bowls throughout the day and although he did not win by big margins he always seemed to have the mastery of the game and his excellent drawing saved him on many occasions.

Huddlestone (Mount Pleasant), another player with five wins, had to fight very hard in three of his games, but his ability to draw brought him ultimate victory. Belfast, which is only a small club, had another representative with five wins in Charteris, who won all his games by big margins, the smallest being 9 points. The following players have qualified for post-section play:— Five Wins.—Hayes (Belfast), Prebble (Fendalton), Huddlestone (Mount Pleasant), Sharp (Dallington), Bromley (Beckenham), Porter (Linwood), G. Bennett (Linwood), and Charteris (Belfast).

Four Wins.—Teague (Sydenham), G. Smith (Riccarton), R. Jones (Opawa), S. Common (Mona Vale), W. Fox (North Brighton), O’Halloran (Opawa), Wright (Belfast), Collender (Sydenham), Manson (Hornby). Bowman (Woolston), A. Rennie (Canterbury), J. Jones (Rangiora), Milliken (Canterbury), de Roo (Edgeware), Erridge (Canterbury), Lyell (Beckenham), Walker (Canterbury), Gardiner (St. Albans), Gibbons (Barrington), and Cogswell (Linwood).