Another honour for bowling champion

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32382, 22 August 1970, Page 11

Another honour for bowling champion

(~)NE of the Dominion’s v finest indoor bowlers, A. E. Williamson, of the Pioneer Club, passed yet another milestone in a long and highly successful career last week-end when he became the first Canterbury player to be awarded a gold star for five provincial championship wins. Williamson has maintained outstanding consistency since be first won the champion-of-champion singles title and was selected for Canterbury during his very first year of competition in 1957. In that' same year he also won the Bradley Cup fours and was runner-up in both the singles and pairs at the New Zealand championships at Invercargill.

s Since then, Williamson , has missed playing for the * representative side in only t two seasons, 1965 and again ’ this year when only one r match was played. s- Williamson has reason to y remember Invercargill with 1 fondness for it was there 1 that he won his first national title, the pairs, with R. [. Watkin as his lead, in 1966. t . He was also skip of the j successful Canterbury team j which took the A. S. Paterj son Trophy from Southland 5 at Invercargill in 1967. . The Canterbury bowler > created a record in 1968 when he became the first person in the Dominion to 1 win two Rothmans finals, : his previous success having , been in 1966. , Williamson gained his first Canterbury title in 1960 when he won the . singles. Since then he has

won the singles again (1964), the pairs (1967) and the rinks (in 1965 and again this season). Other titles include the inter-club Osborne pairs (in 1963 and 1967), the Bradley Cup again (1965), the champion-of-champion singles again (in 1959, 1960, and 1963) and the champion-of-champion pairs (in 1968). Twenty-nine club titles have been taken by Williamson over the years, 10 each in the singles and pairs and nine in the rinks.

One event which he has so far failed to monopolise is the champion-of-champion fours, but since this was only introduced four seasons ago, Williamson can be expected to be a strong contender for this title too in ‘the future.