BOWLS CHAMPIONSHIP IS GREAT SPORTING EVENT

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30940, 22 December 1965, Page 11

BOWLS CHAMPIONSHIP IS GREAT SPORTING EVENT

AT 8.30 ami. exactl.- on Monday, December 27, 128 arms win swing back and almost in synchronisation 128 bowls will roll along the gree-s in Christchurch as the Zealand bowling championships get under way. Half an hour later another 496 bowlers will take up the competition and then in the afternoon another 256 bowlers will start to have the whole of 1008 players in the singles having their first day matches. A national bowls tournament is the largest sporting event, from the number of active competitors, in New Zealand. This year 2340 bowlers have entered for the tournament which begins with the singles, followed by the pairs which begin on December 29 and the rinks, the glamour event of the tournament on January 3. There is always intense rivalry in a national tournament and this will be heightened this year because the tournament will also be used as a trial to help in the selection of the five New Zealand players to compete in the world bowling cham-

pionships at Sydney next JW. AU of the players who won titles at Auckland last year will be defending their titles at Christchurch. M. R. Buchan (Tui Park, Waikato) has now won the singles title in successive yean. If he wins this year he will be the first player to have gained a hat-trick since the national tournament began in 1914. The odds on any player winning the singles title three years in succession when about 1000 players are competing plus all the little side issues, tricky greens, different conditions, the possibility of having a day off or striking a player who has the midas touch probably would need to be ascertained by a computer but Buchan is such an acoomrlished player that it is well within his capabilities. However, Buchan can expect stem opposition from other former singles titleholders such as J. H. Rabone who won the title in 1955 and 1961; P. C. Skoglund who took the title at Christchurch in 1958 and A. Govorko, the 1963 winner. As well there are many other prominent players such as R. L. McDouall (Onehunga), who. in spite of bis fine record in pairs

and fours baa yet to win a atagiee title; toe Canterbury players I. Anticich (South Brighton), R. Lulham (Christchurch), H. Deevoll (Sydenham), J. Dele (Burwood) and toe members at toe powerful Carlton dub, W. P. O’Neill, and toe Connews.

But one thing ie certain there will be some relatively unknown player, who will toppie some of toe more fancied players. N. R. D. Lash and C. D. McGarry (Carlton) will be defending their pairs title. McGarry is well known to Christchurch bowlers, winning many tournaments here when he was a member of the Christchurch Club. R. L. McDonald, who won the title in 1962 when teamed with toe great bowler, F. Livingstone, will play with W. O. McDonald. S. W. Jolly, and J. N. S. Flett (Point Chevalier), who won the 1963 title at Wellington will be possibly the greatest threat to the Carlton pair.

There are 816 teams entered in the pairs championship and as there are so many fine combinations it is certain that even the fancied combinations might not get past the first rounds. No team has ever won the pairs title in successive years so Lash and McGarry, like their counterpart, Buchan, in the singles, are flying in the face of heavy odds.

The fours championship is perhaps the blue riband event of bowling and the system of qualifying for post section play and then on the "sudden death’’ principle, requires not only great skills but also considerable stam-

Ina from the players, particularly if the weather is hot. The Otahuhu Railway four (D. Miller, G. Mcßae, A. Cot. ton, P. E. B. Jones) will be here in full cry to try and equal the record of Buchan and Howarth and they should be well worth watching. A four that is expected to be prominent is the Carlton four skipped by W. O’Neill. O’Neill also has a very outstanding record in that no other player has played in so many finals and finished second. He won his first title when playing three for T. T. Skoglund in Christchurch in 1954, then at Dunedin in 1960 skipped his own four to success. O’Neill’s four for this tournament will comprise of last year’s pairs winners. Lash and McGarry as lesd and number two, and W. G. Gifford will be in the number three berth. One of the strongest sections in the fours will be section 21. It Includes G. Jolly, W. Hampton (Naenae) and Rabone Auckland). Jolly is well known for his bowling achievements and Hampton has always been prominent in many tournaments and is an Empire Games representative.

Rabone came into prominence in 1955 at Wellington when he won the singles title, and then in Auckland in 1961 won it for the second time. Rabone is also an Empire Games representative

Although these three are in the same section, they do not meet in the section play.