Bowling At Cardiff Often Difficult

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28660, 9 August 1958, Page 5

Bowling At Cardiff Often Difficult

CONSIDERING the difficult conditions at Cardiff, New Zealand did well to win the pairs at the Empire Games bowls, in the opinion of a notable New Zealand bowler who was a spectator at the Games.

The greens used for the Games up *to the standard of New Zealand greens. The Sophia Gardens green had beautiful ’Airface with no bape patched but was much slower than the New Zealand bowlers were used to and did not take as much draw—only about 3ft 6in. Welsh greens .receive very little rolling which makes them heavier. The Guest Keen No. 1 green was not as good as the Sophia Gardens green, although it was about the same speed, but the No. 2 green was very poor mainly because it had little use and it, should never have been used for thfe Games. It would definitely not have been used for a New Zealand national tournament, but unfortunately the New Zealand players had most of their games on this green. Pairs

Full credit must go to J. Morris and R. E. Pilkington for the wonderful bouis tney played on this green, but these two players are used to holding greens. The slowness of this green by Christchurch standards was such that a running shot on any local. green would only reach the kitty as a draw on the Guest Keen No. 2 green.

As J. Pirret won the singles at Auckland in 1950 with his last bowl so did Pilkington make sure of the pairs this year with his last bowl. Playing Australia, ftew Zealand was holding tlje lead by four points with one head left to play. On the last head Australia held the five shots for a win—all within 18 inches of the kitty on a full length head. Everything rested on Pilkingtofi’s last bowl, and with a perfect upshot, with only nine inches of green, he forced the kitty back to' one of the bowls of Morris, his lead, to win by five. This shot deserved the gold medal. Pirret never really reached his true form at the 'Games and was further handicapped by an injury to an eye, which definitely affected his play, especially against Scotland, when he wds beaten 21-3 The four never seemed settled and R. Andrew was badly off form. A disconcerting feature at the Games was that players followed their bowls right up to the head, a practice not allowed in New Zealand. The classic following example was when Northern Ireland’s No. 2 followed his bowl to within five yards of the kitty and then lay full length down on the green to watch it reach the head. Another upsetting feature in the fours was the habit of players of standing over the head when the skips were playing their

bowls. Movements on the head are very disturbing to any skip when playing a hard game, and the New Zealand four were playing hard games all the time. It was noticeable that players from Britain all played with wooden bowls. The composition bowls are certainly not as good on Welsh greens. Driving was seen only from the New Zealand players, with Australia an ! South Africa indulging a little, but not with the bulletlike drives of T. T. Skoglund and W. O’Neil. If a bowler drove, the English, Welsh, Scots, and Irish considered him poor. Observations from Cardiff were that New Zealand players required at least six weeks’ competitive play in Britain to become accustomed to the conditions. The one week provided was completely useless, as bowls is a game in which conditions play a vital part.