Around The Greens

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32474, 8 December 1970, Page 25

Around The Greens

It was an important day Main, last season’s champion for the Papanui Bowling fours skip, was put out by Club last Saturday when its Bamford. Both winning new $45,000 pavilion was teams include players fairly officially opened by the new to the game, these being Mayor of Christchurch (Mr J. Jones and J. Mullany, A. R. Guthrey). who are with Wood, and B. There is still some work Rodgers and R. Thompson of to be done before the build- Bamford’s rink.

ing is completed, but when finished its amenities will include .oom for three fullsized indoor rinks, a kitchen, a storeroom, a secretary’s office, men’s and women’s locker rooms and a large lounge on the second floor for social gatherings. Speakers at the official opening beside the Mayor were the Member of Parliament for Papanui (Mr H. J. Walker), the immediate pastpresident of the New Zealand Bowling Association (Mr M. A LeCren), the president of the Christchurch Bowling Centre (Mr G. Cotton) and the president of the club (Mr D. J. Shuker). , . , , The photograph (right) shows the pavilion with members and visitors at the opening ceremony. # # * With the inter-club threefours competition almost three-quarters completed, last year’s champion team, Opawa I, holds a narrow lead. . . It has 28 points and is followed by Christchurch I with 27J and Fendalton II with 27. Dallington I and Woolston have 25 and St Albans H 24. . Bumham Camp, which has only one team entered, leads the Manning Cup ladder with 122.5 points. Then follow Christchurch (104), C® s ] l ' mere (99), Woolston (98), Soreydon (94) and Sydenham (90). Six teams have an unbeaten record of four wins in the Robinson Shield competition. They are Bumside I, Burwood I, Burwood 111, Linwood I, Papanui II and Spreydon I. The Manning Cup and Robinson Shield competitions resume next Saturday and the Three-fours the following week-end. ♦ • * Two-lifers left in the Sumner fours championship are T. Wood, J. Bamford and O. Bryden. In the pairs R. Main, S." Beaumont, B. Idle and Wood still have to taste

defeat and in the singles N. Poole, E. Tomlinson, Wood and Bamford are unbeaten. Idle, last year’s runner-up in the fours, was surprisingly eliminated by Wood and in another upset result,

» 1 * * The 1968 New Zealand bowls representative and current holder of the national pairs title, W. R. Wilkinson, will next season change from the St Albans club to Beckenham. Earlier this year Wilkinson bought a home in Centaurus Road and this is the reason for the move. He has continued to play at St Albans this summer so as he can lead a team from the club in the Dominion fours at Wellington next month as well as defending his national pairs title. Being a school-teacher Wilkinson has moved around the country a good deal and he has belonged to a number of bowling clubs. He started in Christchurch with Edgeware in 1952 and first joined St Albans the following year. His second stint at St Albans began in 1966. Another factor in Wilkinson’s move to Beckenham is that his younger brother (by seven years), B. Wilkinson is a member and who in his four years in the game has enjoyed considerable success. B. Wilkinson, who recently returned to Christchurch from the North Island as officer-in-charge of the C. 1.8. here, will lead for his brother and the pairing should be one of which much will be heard. # # S> At a recent tournament staged by the Woolston W.M.C. a Morrison Avenue four skipped by B. Rhodes was successful. It won all its games and in an exciting play-off with a strong Woolston team, Rhodes drew the shot with his last bowl. Other members of the winning four were R. Skevington, E. Scott and C. Phillips. In the Morrison Avenue rinks championship G. Anderton and J. Leggett are skips still holding two-lives. The one-lifers are Rhodes, R. Lawrie, J. Childs, A. Kilday and E. Woolf.

* * * At Linwood the pairs championship has been reduced to four teams in each draw. The skips are: J. P. Anderson, S. J. Snedden, H. Molloy, G. Papp, K. Wilkie

and I. Smith—Snedden and Molloy being two-lifers. Three of the five qualifying rounds have been played in the fours and two skips, Snedden and J. McDonald, have already secured the necessary three wins. The biggest upset in the pairs was the defeat of J. P. Andesrson by I. Smith, who plays No. 3 for Anderson in the fours. In the fours, Anderson, who is defending all three titles at Linwood, suffered an early loss to L. E. Russell.

Two teams have qualified for the Edgeware fours championship, the skips being K. Glover and W. Winterbourn. Other teams still unbeaten are those skipped by A. Johnstone, J. Tyler and J. Spiers. In a singles upset, Johnstone, the defending champion, lost a life to F. Cowles. Johnstone led 10-6 after eight ends and after 15 ends the scores were tied. However, Cowles fared better over the final ends and he finished with an advantage of three points. * * *

The annual matches for the Cooper and Fox Cups was held between the Barrington and Amberley clubs last week-end. In the Cooper Cup, which is a pairs competition, Barrington won five of the eight games and finished ahead 173-115 on aggregate points. The Fox Cup, for fours, was won by Amberley on aggregate points after the games had finished at two each. Amberley totalled 84 and Barrington 75. * * *

i A busy week-end of championship games at Canterbury produced a number of close finishes and the usual quota of surprises. A. Poyntz was eliminated from both the fours and the singles. He was well beaten in the fours by H. Fletcher and went down in the final end of his singles game against the defending champion, T. Steele. The only two-hfers remaining in the fours are W. J. E. Watson and J. Sanders, while one-lifers to have wins at the week-end included J- Wood, W. Blackie, L. Thompson, F. Lees and G. Dunn. Blackie, after a pairs defeat at the hands of G. Craig, surprised by the easy manner in which he beat L. W. Whittington in the singles. J. Turpin, who is

showing tremendous form at present, and D. Clements were other successful pairs skips. In the singles the man of the moment is C. Spillane, who has only this season returned to bowling after a lengthy absence. He is unbeaten in five games and his scalps include some highly-regarded bowlers, two of them being A. Murray, last year’s intermediate champion, and the Christchurch representative, L. Thomas. « « *

A progressive all-day fours tournament at the Fendalton club last Saturday attracted 64 entries. The winning team was P. W. Wratt, M. A. Johnston, D. G. Sutherland and S. E. F. Joblin (s). After two rounds of the Christchurch club’s fours championship the unbeaten skips are R. Findlay, E. Trenberth, W. R. Fleming, K. Smith, L. C. Lindley and P. McCormick. In the singles G. Barnes, a second-year colt who has a fine record, lost his first life to D. Langley, but then beat M. Boon to retain his second. Langley also suffered a loss, to F. Needham. In other singles games E. Standring beat Fleming and B. S. Johns beat W. J. Cole. The highly-rated team of Johns and S. E. Lawson is out of the pairs, losing its second life to A. Jones and F. Kinvig (s). The game was hardfought, the difference in the scores being five points. Other pairs results have been.—Standring beat R. A. Lulham; Fleming beat Findlay; Trenberth beat Smith; and K. Brierley beat G. O’Reilly. » # *