Nearly 3000 bowlers in pursuit of the three championships

Press, 19 December 1985, Page 29

Nearly 3000 bowlers in pursuit of the three championships

Rising travel and accommodation costs have been largely responsible for reduced entries to national bowling championships in recent years. However, the tournament still remains unchallenged as the single biggest annual event on the New Zealand sports calendar. Nearly 3000 players will be chasing the three titles at stake over the next month, and while the great bulk of them come from Canterbury most of the 26 centres around the country will be represented. Organising a national bowls tournament is a mammoth undertaking. Because of the size of the event only the four major centres have been used, although the Waikato centre has shown interest in breaking the cycle and it is possible that before long the Hutt Valley could be used instead of Wellington. Over the years a set ‘ organisational format has been established and one centre is barely over one championships before it must start preparing for the next, four years later.

The playing format has undergone a number of changes in recent years, and one has still to be found that is accepted by all. In fact, tinkering with the championships has become as regular a part of N.Z.B.A. annual meetings as the reading of the previous, year’s minutes. This year section play is being tried in both the pairs and the singles, as it has long been in the fours. How-

ever, even here there has been a late change with the pairs reduced from four rounds to six, at least three wins required to qualify.

This has cut a day off the tournament, although it is to some extent offset by the singles (also three wins needed from four rounds) being spread over two days. The new system has the virtue of guranteeing all singles and pairs players eight games, and this is important to the bowlers who are coming from distant parts. Under the old two-life system four games was all that was guaranteed.

Section play has been tried before, some seven years, but it was based then on one player coming through from each section. This brought points for and against into the reckoning and proved totally unacceptable because of the anomolies which abounded.

The section play being used for the singles and pairs this time is in the form of a trial and it will be up to the players to make the final judgment on its worth. Already there are indications that a good percentage favour the two-life system. The organisers, too, would probably fall into this camp, as a two-life draw makes it fairly simple to work out when a final will be reached. The section system is very dependent on how many players qualify. As has become the practice in recent years, largely to fit in with live television coverage of the finals, the

singles and pairs will be played first, with the fours getting started in the final week.

The fours have eight qualifying rounds, two games of 25 ends each day, and with players on the green for the best part of nine hours a day it is, indeed, a testing competition.

Apart from the actual running of the matches there is a huge organisational effort behind the scenes. With morning and afternoon teas and lunches to be provided it is a very busy time for clubs, although more welcome will be the patronage given their bars at the end of the day. It is a boom time for clubs, and Canterbury is fortunate in that the great majority of them have firstclass facilities. They are certainly a far cry from the converted toolshed that was

the bar for a headquarters green not so many years ago. Canterbury has long had a reputation for the quality of its greens, and while not all may be perfect there is unlikely to be too many complaints in this direction. Weed greens of the South Island have become world renowned and few, if any, clubs have been hit by inajor problems this summer. • :

Once again the tournament headquarters will be Woolston W.M.C. It was first used in 1974 and because of the space it offers, for players, spectators, officials and cars, is probably the best “headquarters in the country. The greens are also of a high standard and the only disadvantage the site does have is that the greens can be difficult to play when a strong wind is blowing. Hopefully calm, warm days

will prevail, although it is rare for a Dominion tournament to go right through without at least one wet day. The opening ceremony will be held at Woolston W.M.C. tomorrow week (December 27). It will start at 2.45 p.m. and be preceded at 1.15 p.m. by a celebrity singles. The invited players for this game are the defending national singles champion, lan Dickison, of Dunedin, and Canterbury’s national representative since 1979, Morgan Moffat. Moffat has still to make a name for himself as a singles player, but he is keen to do so and a win over Dickison would put him in a confident frame of mind for the battles ahead. Section play in the singles will take up the next two days, with half the 1296 entires playing on the Satur-

day and the other half on the Sunday., There will be a very big day on Monday, December 30, when all the 1024 pairs entries will be in action. The most distant greens in use will be Leeston and Amberley, and they are comparatively short distances compared with the travelling that is necessary in other centres.

Post-section play in the singles and pairs will continue from Tuesday, December 31, until Saturday, January 4, when the finals of both events will be held. “

The following day section play in the fours, for which the entry is 538, will start and this championship will move into post-section play on Thursday, January 9. The fours final is expected to be reached on Monday,- January 13.