Bowls prospects looking up for Christchurch

Press, 5 December 1979, Page 30

Bowls prospects looking up for Christchurch

Christchurch representative bowls teams have not fashioned a very impressive record over the last few years. In fact, the results have been disappointing, especially in the Rothmans inter-centre tournament, when matched against the centre’s size and reputed strength. But given the fine start of a most impressive win in the new quadrangular tournament at Timaru last weekend, Christchurch could be on the verge of a more prosperous period. The Christchurch team had a disheartening trip to Timaru on Saturday. It required nearly four hours and three buses for the team to reach its destination, with the result that the i first round game against North Otago did not begin until mid-after-noon. The return trip on Sunday. with a “booty’’ of four trophies, was more pleasant, if not quite as eventful. It is some years

since Christchurch has held the Redpath Shield, the Steans Cup and the Barnett Tiki at the one time. It gathered these by beating .Dunedin, South Canterbury and North Otago respectively. And it also picked up an attractive new tropnv; as the over-all winner of the tournament. This trophy is as yet unnamed, but seeing as it was donated by the long-serving secretary 7 of the New Zealand Bowling Association, Mr G. H. Jolly, one of joyous inference should not be too hard to find. While Christchurch was a clear-cut winner, the tournament itself was the real success. It certainly received top marks from the players, who found a sharpening in the competitive edge over the former singular matches. The idea of a quadrangular tournament came from a desire to lower the growing expenses for the traditional home-and-awav matches. This it should do. and have other benefits as well.

It is hoped to make the event something of a mini Dominion ■ tournament for the South Island, with the venue rotating between the four centres. South Canterbury laid a firm foundation with sound administration and good greens and there is no reason why the other three centres should not do just as well. Although gusting nor’westerlies made the conditions difficult on Sunday, the standard of bowling was very high and all credit must go to the Christchurch team which displayed both skill and determination to overcome some doughty opponents. Al! eight skips had their moments. Morgan Moffat, with h’s team slipping a little, had a tremendous battle 'n his last game, bit Moffat's ability to olay the occasional brilliant shot carried him through. Neville Poole was an-

other to impress. It was a couple of exceptional running shots by Poole that gave his team a good win over South Canterbury’s top player, Robin Milne. Moffat, Poole, Stan Lawson and Peter Rose were Christchurch's unbeaten skips. The Timaru party comprised 32 players and this figure will be trimmed to 14 for the Rothmans event in February. Moffat and

Kevin Darling, who was unavailable last week-end, will not be back from the world championships in Melbourne in time, but the selectors still face a challenging task in putting together the two seven-man Rothmans teams. However, after last week-end’s encouraging effort there is no shortage of candidates and with the advantage of being at home for the zone elimination Christchurch could this season improve on its rather sorry Rothmans record of the last few years.

By

KEVIN McMENAMIN