Age no barrier

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32566, 27 March 1971, Page 14

Age no barrier

A GE was shown to be no bar to bowling success when the Cashmere club last week finalised its Hamilton Plate competition, a singles event restricted to bowlers who have not won a club championship. The entry this year was more than 40 and when A. J. Marriott, a proven bowler who was a member of A. F. Roberts’s runner-up team in the last Christmas fours, reached the final with two lives intact the plate looked as good as his. However, the 81-year-

old W. D. Palmer had other ideas and in an excellent game he relieved Marriott of his first life, beating him by eight points.

The pair met again last Friday night and although the bitterly cold conditions made Palmer’s task even more difficult he again emerged victorious, the winning margin on this occasion being seven points after Marriott had gone into the last end four down.

Palmer, who did not take up bowls until he was 72, impressed those who saw the two games by the manner in which he dedicated himself to the task in hand and endeavoured to make every bowl count. He said it was rather amusing for him to win a competition at his stage of life, but hoped that his success would be an example to other elderly men who might feel that there were no challenges left for them.