Strong teams chosen for bowls

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32457, 18 November 1970, Page 18

Strong teams chosen for bowls

(By

K. J. McMENAMIN)

’ALTHOUGH bowls, in . terms of playing strength, is second only to golf as New Zealand’s most popular sport, the game has suffered in the past through the lack of suitable competition at national level. Certainly, the annual Dominion tournament is the most mammoth single sporting fixture each year, but on an inter-provincial basis the meetings have, in the main, been little above social level. All this has now changed with Rothmans giving sponsorship to a national intercentre tournament. If the first tournament last summer aroused only moderate interest, the centres, at least, should give more active support now that the financial burden for the movement of teams about the country has been taken

over by the sponsor. As the competition is a national one, it is important that all care be taken to give it the recognition it deserves and that only players of the highest calibre be asked to take part. Last year the Christchurch selectors picked their two teams (there are three this year) for the opening rounds without any trials; it could only have been form of the previous summer which dictated the choices. However, for the final, a trial was arranged and the seven members of the team which beat Northland to win the tournament were chosen from the 13 invited to attend. This year the centre se-

lectors, who, like last year, are Messrs J. R. Smith, J. A. Moloney and F. W. Larcombe, ran a trial at the outset and the 28 bowlers invited to play on the Linwood club’s main green last Wednesday evening included all who could reasonably lay claim to a place in the top 21 in the province. One trial on a green foreign to the majority of the bowlers can hardly be considered the ideal, but it is preferable to no trial at all. The placing of players is also a hazardous undertaking, and one who suffered particularly in this regard last week was D. P. White. White has fashioned a fine record as a singles player and last year with S. Piper

as his lead he won the open pairs title. However, at the trial he was asked to play No. 2 in a four and as a result did not perform as well as he might have. With Piper, White also reached the semi-finals of last season’s champion of champion pairs and it was surprising therefore that the two were not given a chance as a pair. Piper led in a four and, as a specialist lead, he bowled sufficiently well to win selection. ' White’s case apart, the selectors appear to have produced three strong teams .which should give Christchurch an excellent chance of at least reaching the South Island final. It was inevitable that in trimming the list of 28 names to 21 there would be one or two unlucky players and on form at the trial G. W. Thomson and White would probably qualify. The three singles players S. E. Lawson, J. P. Anderson and R. A. Lulham, are undeniably the best offering and the fourth singles specialist invited to the trial, K. G. Murray, has been included as a lead in a pair. Although conclusively beaten by Lawson, Murray played extremely well to keep with him for almost two thirds of the game. L. C. Lindley, for whom Murray will lead, was in wonderful touch and the other two pairs are also well balanced. W. R. Wilkinson and W. A. Hadlee is a new

coupling, but they could well complement each other as much in character as in bowling prowess. Hadlee bowled very well last week and he -seems poised for a distinguished bowlipg career. B. W. Sinclair and T. J. Edmonds are a proven pair and the skips of the fours, T. F. Coup, C. Rowe and J. A. Gibb, all have major championship wins behind them. For those who believed the teams were just about decided before the players took the green, the selection of W. Hayes must have been a surprise. Hayes got his chance when G. Matthews withdrew, and it was his winning of a triples event at Linwood during Labour week-end that prompted the invitation being extended to him. He again showed his liking for the green by bowling an almost perfect No, 3’s game. The other members of the fours all had to earn their places, and probably none had to work harder than M. J. Sealby, who, after a slow start, drew superbly. P. F. Meier- was another young player to impress and this was especially gratifying in view of the fact that so far this summer he has had little bowling:

T. J. Dixon, C. T. Bateman and L. Muirson all played up to the standard for which they are known, and A. H. Stapleton was only a fraction inferior in drawing and possibly without peer when driving.