Busy period for bowlers

Press, 1 March 1984, Page 34

Busy period for bowlers

Christchurch lawn bowlers, especially those who like the idea of gaining worth-while profit from their talents, face a busy time in the next few days. Tomorrow the Linwood club will start its three-day Runaway Holiday Tours tournament, which is now in its third year. This open fours event will carry prizes to the value of nearly $3OOO, with the first prize of return air tickets to Queensland in July accounting for twothirds of the total. A full entry of 36 teams has been received, including some strong teams from outside of Christchurch. Among the visiting skips are Bruce McNish (Milton), Kevin Wing (Palmerston North), Bob Wadsworth (Nelson) and Garry Andrews (Dunedin). The winner last year was Ken Watson, but he will .be representing Christchurch in the Rothmans inter-centre final at Burwood this weekend. His team has been taken over by Trevor Austin, who was Watson’s third last year. Then on Monday Christ-

church will get its first taste of professional bowls of the singles variety. Here again there is a full entry, of 128 players, for the Christchurch tournament in the Countrywide satellite series, which starts on eight greens and will end at Edgeware on Wednesday. This tournament, which also has sponsorship from Radio New Zealand, carries $l7OO in prize-money, the winner taking $6OO. There are many bowlers who have entered both events, and if any should be good enough to get to both finals it would, indeed, be a rewarding six days of bowls. But money may still not be everything. The Rothmans event will have an edge in prestige, and also on this week-end is the centre champion-of-champions triples, which has a high standing. And to cap what must surely be the busiest six days of bowls Christchurch has known outside of a Dominion tournament, the women’s centre resumes its open singles on Saturday.