AROUND THE GREENS

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30312, 12 December 1963, Page 13

AROUND THE GREENS

Main fixtures for the week, December 12 to 18 inclusive, are:—T o d a y: Centre bowl testing; all day tournament at Cashmere; electric light tournament at Beckenham. Saturday: Centre fixtures Barnett Tiki v. North Otago (at Oamaru), Lindley Neill Cup v. West Coast (at Fendalton), pennant and Robinson Shield matches. Sunday: tournaments at Kalapol, Klrwee, Redcliffs. Sheffield, South Brighton, and Woolston W.M.C. Monday: electric light tournaments at Beckenham and Sydenham; entries close for Canterbury open singles and pairs championships. Tuesday: mid-week friendly matches; electric light tournament at Redcliffs. Wednesday: all day tournament at Lincoln; electric lieht tournament at Kaiapoi W.M.C. ¥ ¥ ¥

With the recent death of Mr H. M. Stevens (a life memmer), the Sumner club has lost one of its oldest members. Bert Stevens joined the club in 1931 and was president in 1939, secretary from 1933 to 1935 and a member of the executive committee for 28 years. There his experience and sound judgment have been a guiding factor in Sumner's progress over the years. He was also a selector for a number of years, a prominent skip in pennants and mid-week bowls, and at the time of his death, he was the club’s auditor. His death, following so soon after the late Mr T. F. Chambers, has left a big gap in the ranks of the club’s old stalwarts.

One of the outstanding events of the season, the Jubilee Fours, was decided on the Canterbury club’s green last week under near perfect conditions. Eighty members competed and teams skipped by O. Carnie. S. Cawtheray and L. Floyd emerged undefeated after four games. The other teams also went through the day without a loss. They were skipped by J. Sanders and J. Petre, but each drew one game. In the subsequent play-off. the competition went to Carnie’s strong team comprising of N. Thompson, M. Meikle and E. Paul, all of whom set a high standard of play and were never seriously troubled in any of their games.

Club championships at Papanui attracted record entries this year, and the fours are well advanced. A team skipped by R. McLean, last year’s winner, is the only four left with two lives. In two very close games the first against a four skipped by D. Donaldson, McLean won on the last end with an a xurate drive which cleanly removed the shot bowl from the jack and T. Boyd’s team also lost a life to him on the last end of a hard fought game. A feature of the pair's competition has been the number of close matches. Last year’s winners, a pair skipped by S Ives and F. Boocock, the winner of last year's singles, have both lost their tw r o lives. At present there are three two-lifers left in the pairs and four with two lives in the singles. Another week will see these competitions at an interesting stage.

After three rounds in the United club's fours competition, S. Manderson is the only skip with two lives In the p irs competition. ,N. Ferguson and A. MitcheU have two lives each after two rounds, and in the singles competition, after two rounds, the following each have two Hves:-J Hughes, C. Lofley. C. Turner, R. Dorman, and D Hoult.

C. B. Idle bad a successful time at the Sammer club last week-end. With O Anderson he beat J. Christie and N. Taylor, 21-19, in a championship pairs match and in the championship fours, beat H. Tuck and F

Squirrell (who has lost his first life to F. Cassidy). Idle’s match with Tuck was allsquare on the twenty-first, a three on the extra end giving the match to Idle, while in another match, L. C. Terrell beat W. E. Turland, 24-22. when he had required five with the bowl to win: he had an opportune opening and trailed the jack back to give him six. Terrell also beat Cassidy in a good match. Other results were: Tuck and S. Wales lost to R. A. Wilkinson and R. Huston in the championship pairs, and R. Kauffman beat G. Hammond in the singles. Two-lifers in the rinks are Idle, Wilkinson, and Terrell.

One new member of the Christchurch club will not forget the winner of this year's New Zealand Trotting Cup. During his lunch hour break he slipped over to see the running of the race and later, after work, he stepped over to the green to play his firstever singles match. Like Cardigan Bay he was well back in the early stages, but over the last few furlongs he forged ahead and romped in a winner. Elation was unbounded. Upon arriving home full of satisfaction he dashed into the house calling to his wife: "I won, dear. I won.” His wife greeted him with a smile and replied: "That’s wonderful, darling. How much did it pay?”

The Canterbury club has enjoyed a good measure of success in recent weeks in the Watson Shield competition. A team comprised of F. Forrester, R. Rolton, H. Fletcher, and J. Simon (skip) met and defeated by a wide margin the previous holders, a Burwood combination led by B. Moore. It was a grand exhibition of bowling by the Canterbury club's representatives. In another section of the same competition, a team skipped by J. Turpin, and assisted by N. Boon, J. Sanders and J. Petre, in that order, took the honours against a star-studded Barrington four skipped by D. Joseph. Canterbury won handsomely and a repetition of that play will find them difficult to beat in the coming rounds.

Another successful night tournament was held by the Redcliffs club last Tuesday and resulted in a win for D. Coutts (Sydenham), writh R. Page (Redcliffs) second. Most club interest has been centred around the championship pairs, one major upset being the loss of both lives by F. Prangell. Two-lifers remaining are W. Priest. L. Manson, and R. Page, while the top veteran. R. Prangell. is holding on to one life. This competition should reach an interesting position in the next two weeks.