A SUGGESTION

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 19, 22 January 1921, Page 6

A SUGGESTION

TO SHORTEN BOWLING TOURNA-

MENTS

Tho opinion has been expressed during the present gathering o£ bowlers that the tournament has been too lengthy, and a well-known bowling authority, who has had experience' in running , tournaments, suggests a method by which tho period of their duration can be reduced. The exceptionally large number of entries at the present tourna-ment must not bo forgotten, but tho authority in question, states that oven record entries would not affect tho system he suggests —not even if • they were larger than' this year's.

The suggestion is that the tournament should open on the Thursday morning with the .singles, played on the twoJife principle. .Even supposing the entries totalled 200,, the singles would then bo completed by the Saturday evening. , The links would then commence on tho Monday. The teams would be arranged in sections of 8,. Eeven i games would bs played, and each team would play each, othor ono in the section.. The qualifying number of wins would be four, and the sectional play would continue until the leading rink had secured as many wins an tho largest scored by a rink in any other section. Thus, those with four wins would meet, and.somb would secure jive wins. These winners of fiVo games would' play in the second round with those who lia-d scored five wins in section play, and tlje winners would then continue in tho third round with the winners of six games in section play, until the winners of seven games came •■ to . light. This eliminating process, the correspondent figures,, would take up one day after section play, and the'rinks remaining in would bo winners of seven games. These rinks would then play off on the two-life system, but .not until .the preliminary rounds in tho doubles had been pla-yed.1.

The doubles would . commenoe on' the Friday at noon on the sudden death system. Even with 256 entries in the doubles they would be brought down to 16 on tho Saturday evening (4 games). The roBult would p c that by the Saturday cloning tho-, singled would /bo finiehed, the rinks brought down to 16 teams, and tho doubles also to 16. Those players no further interested could leave . for their homes. The finals of the rinka and doubles could be played on the Monday or Tuesday, or if necessary.'on the \Vedr.esday, and thus the tournament would be completed in eleven or twelve. days. . If this principle, states_ the correspondent, had been adopted in'the.present tournament, 'with tho entries as. they have stood, the games would hav^ been. completed in ten days, even allowing for one day's rain. It would have worked out as follows:—Out of the 160 rinks there were 4 with 5;.-wins; 24 with-6 wins, 14 with 7, and 2 with 8; it would have ; taken only 4 rounds to have brought this number to 8 wins,-and then those with eight would have off on the two-life system. Should byes have been required in the play they would havo been given to thoso teams Scoring tho 'greatest number of points in section play. -