BOWLS

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 27, 27 October 1926, Page 8

BOWLS

(By

No. 3.”)

Among the New South Wales players likely to come to New Zealand for the Dominion tournament is Victor Casey, formerly of Auckland who usually makes a mid-summer visit to New Zealand for the. sake of the bowls and the racing, and on this occasion it will enable him to take in the Ellerslie races at Christmas and New Year, and a fortnight later the Dominion tournament. During the winter months he visited South Africa, venturing as far north as the Victoria Falls, where he found that bowls was as popular as it is iu this part of the world. Indeed, he considers the Victoria Falls green one of the finest in South Africa, considering the conditions, and though there were days when the weather was very warm there were always those' ready for a game there. It is interesting to learn that the grand old game has penetrated to the heart of Africa. One of the matters for eternal argument in bowling clubs is that of the selection of rinks There has never been a selector or selection committee which has given complete satisfaction, and there never will be, for the simple reason that the majority of bowlers have a higher estimation of their own capacity than others,_ and all the explanation in the world is futile to satisfy their vanity. The job of selector is the least satisfactory one a man can take on, and try as he will, he must offend some players and, being human, they will assume that-he overlooks them’ for some personal reason, apart altogether from their ability as bowlers or the measure of their strength in a rink, whilst in nine cases out of ten the sole selector or selection committee are really doing their very best in a most conscientious manner so that the honour of the club upon the green may be upheld. Most clubs have tried all systems of selection. I lean to the belief that the sole selector does the best work, providing he is keen on the game; keen on his club, and has the proper temperament. These qualities are not so easy to secure in the one individual, I allow, but given them, I think the best results are obtained. But even for the best of selectors, who can claim to have achieved results, the job is not a bed of roses. There are always those who are inclined to “work” their , way with selectors, if such is possible, so that it requires very great strength of character, and an utterly unbiased mind to do just the right'tiring in the right way. Many clubs do not possess such a man, in which case it is always best to have a committee of three to take what is coming to them. Selectors should haunt the green. They should take notice of the young players, and they should see if the old players “with reputations” (of which they are as a rule verv jealous) are keeping up to the standard. In no other game that I know do players so vary season by season We all know men who could play rattling bowls three or four years ago, but have gone off.. But these can come on again, and it is for the selectors to take careful heed of such changes, so that the very best representation may be obtained for the. club. The Dominion Bowling Association has had the laws of the game, and also the constitution and rules of the association printed on cardboard for distribution to all the affiliated clubs in the Dominion. Copies have been received by the secretary of the Weilington centre (Mr. R. W. Shallcrass) for reissue to the clubs of. the district, and each club would be doing the rignt thing to have them framed and hung in the pavilion, where they could be inspected at anv time. Not infrequently a point arises on the green about a certain position, but no one is quite sure of the law bearing upon.it, now there can be no hesitation. The laws of the game will be on view, and any knotty point can be cleared nn at once. These laws have been recently revised by the Dominion Council, and on the whole good work has been done in elucidating laws that were hitherto somewhat obscurely drafted. . Mr. J. W. i-lardley, the president of the Dominion Bowling Association, will be in Wellington during the first week in December in connection with a tour he intends to make of all the centres affiliated to the association. After Wellington, he is to visit the South Island, returning north in time for. Christmas. The secretary’ of the Wellington Bowling Centre is in receipt of a little booklet entitled the “British Bowlers’ World Tour,” which has been written by Frank Mobbs, J.P., of Kettering, one of the members of the team, and .a “townie” of the captain of the team, George Wright, with whom the author is photographed as a frontispiece to the booklet. The review is a straightforward narrative, of the trip. The encountering of a shoal of flying fish in the Arabian Sea seemed to be about tlie most thrilling thing that was encountered on the voyage out to Australia. Being a boot manufacturer, Air. Mobbs records a visit ’to the biggest factory in Sydney, where 5000 pairs of boots are turned out per week. He said they (in England) had nothing to learn from Sydnev in manufacturing, and the finish of the work done there was not up to the English standard. Here and there the author makes reference to people that come from Settering way. He relates an incident during his stav in Sydney as follows: —‘‘On Fridav an old man named Mobbs came to see me at the hotel. He lived at Carley ford, near Parramatta, about three miles off. He told me there were plenty of Mobbs about there, and a Dr. Mobbs had papers relating to the claim for the *Mobbs Millions, but there was no prospect of getting any portion, and happilv did not want any. He said his father was transported for life for stealing a flask of gunpowder, and was the original stock the Mobbs s of that part had sprung from. The account of tlie team’s visit to New Zealand is extremely prosy, but the only two views of bowling clubs in the book are those of the Wellington Club. There 'is also a view of the memorial to Queen Victoria at Rotorua.