Surprising Selections For Games Bowls Team

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28528, 6 March 1958, Page 13

Surprising Selections For Games Bowls Team

TT WAS expected that the national bowling championships at Christchurch would have given bowlers a fairly clear indication of the composition of the New Zealand team for the Empire Games at Cardiff. The selections announced last week proved con-

clusively that the selectors had a very good idea of the players they would nominate, before the national championships began. Of ttie seven bowlers selected, only one won a national title this year, and only one other played his way into a semi-final where he was eliminated. Even the player who won a title—J. Pirret, jun.—has been selected for an event other than that which he won. Singles Although the young northern bowler, P. C. Skoglund, won the singles title with his two lives intact—a feat not done before in a New Zealand singles championship—it was not unexpected that Pirret should have been selected for this event at the Empire Games. Behind him Pirret has a wonderful bowling record. Although it was the pairs title he won he strengthened his claim

for the singles event by playing his way into the semi-final before being eliminated. Had Skoglund been 20 or 30 years older, he would probably have been an automatic choice for the singles, for his bowling was far superior to any produced by any other bowler in the singles. His age—2l—was against him. Fours The result of the fours made it even more apparent that the championships did not figure very prominently in the selectors’ calculations. If they had, T. T. Skoglund (Carlton) would undoubtedly have been chosen to skip the Empire Games four. In winning the title for the fourth time since 1949, Skoglund proved again that he is still the best fours skip in the Dominion. Possibly he was omitted on the ground that the last twice he has

skipped an Empire Games four he has not won a gold medal, but both times his team performed with credit, gaining third place in 1950 at Auckland and sixth of 10 teams in Vancouver in 1954. The most puzzling feature of the selection is the inclusion of a reserve to replace any player who may have to drop out of the team before it leaves New Zealand, without provision for a reserve at Cardiff should a member of the bowling team become indisposed. Reserve The Empire Games rules pro- I vide that once the final selections for the individual events are made —that is, before the team leaves—the members cannot be transferred to an event for which they are not entered. In effect, this means that if a member of the fours, for example, should take ill and could not play, the whole team must withdraw from the competition, even though players in other events were available to fill the position. The rules also provide that a reserve can travel with the team to fill in should any player become ill, and that a member of the bowling team, as well as being entered in an event, can also be named as a reserve to fill any position should the need arise.

Expenses It is understandable that the selectors, with an eye to the expenses of such a tour, thought it best not to include another player as a reserve only. The selectors may, however, have nominated one of the team as reserve in case of sickness, but this has not been announced. One way in which this matter could be solved would be to nominate J. R. Smith, of Christchurch, who will be at Cardiff as a New Zealand representative to

the International Bowling Board, as the reserve. Smith has an excellent bowling record, and would fill any position well. But it does not really matter who the reserve is. What does matter is that there should be one.