On the Greens

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 23, 27 January 1923, Page 14

On the Greens

THE COLOUR GAMES

DOINGS AT AUCKLAND.

(By " NwtBBB Two.")

The fifth round of the ted, white, and blue games is due to be played today, as well as the fourth round of the junior pennants.. Bad weather has interfered considerably with these matches, and the second and fourth rounds of the colour games have yet to be played fit some later stage of the season, as well as the first and third rounds of the junior pennants. With the coming visit of the New South Wales team, and interchanges of visits betweea several of the, other efenires, there will not b« a great amount of time in which to get off the colour and pennant matches, especially if there «houH be more bad weather. Olub games are not all through yet, so it looks aa if the centre will have to trust td' luck a good daal in order to get through .--with its programme. ,

The position of clubs in the colour competitions at present is aa follows:—

Bed Section^—Victoria, 2 wins; Johnsonville, 2 wins; Wellington, 1 win, 1 loss; Newtown, 1 win, 1 loss; Karori, 1 win, 1 loss; Lyall Bay, 1 win, 1 loss-; Hataitai, 2 losses; Central, 2 losses.

. White Section.—Wellington, 2 wins; Petone, 2 wins; Thorndon, 1 win, 1 loss;'Newtown, 1 win, 1 loss; Central, 1 win, 1 loss; Island Bay, 1 win, 1 loss; Kelburn, 2 losses; Eastbourne, 2 losses.

Blue Section.T-Eelburn, 2 wins; Seatoun, 2 wins; Wellington, 1 win, 1 loss; Thorndon, 1 win, 1 loss; Petone, 1 win, 1 loss; Lyall Bay, 1 win, 1 loss; £Hataitai, 2 losses; Island Bay, 2 losses. Taking the. three games, the position of clubs is as follows:—

In the junior pennants, one round of -which has been played, the ioliowing clubs had wins:—Petone, Kelburn, Island Bay, Newtown. Losses were sustained by Victoria, Johnsonville, Seatoun,^ and Karori. Central and Lyall^ Bay had byes. \One of the hardest games Nbrrie Bell's team had during the rink tournament at Auckland was against Wilson and his Carlton men. During the closing stages of play the home team was doggedly contesting every inch of the way, and it was then that the best wat seen from the Hamilton skini who eventually brought his team out victorious in a sternlyfought contest..

In the singles contests at Auckland, a very fine finish to a great game was witnessed between Charlie Ingrain (Wellington), winner of the champion singles in 1917, and the famous Pilkington (Hamilton). Pilkington was lup and 2to play. On the 20th head Pilkington drew shot on the kitty. Ingram with a beautiful effort rested it off foj/2. Pilkington ran over. Ingram drew a toucher, 3 up on head. Pilkington sent down a fist one which took out one shot. Ingram went wide with his last and was 1 up and 1 to go. /Excitement now ran high and aJI eye scentred on the two players. Ingram sent down the kitty for a longjiead, and drew his first one about sis feet short. Pilkington replied with a short one which just rented .on his opponent's bowl. lugram's seciond was over 2 feet. Pilkington drew,the shot just inside it. Ingrain's third was a beauty, just beating his opponent for shot. Pilkington's next was a shade too strong and -Ingrain's last was a wiSe one. The Hamilton man now set out to draw the shot, but did not reach, and a great/game went to the Wellington man. This game was witnessed by His Excellency the Gorernor-JGreneral and Lady. Jellicoe. Writing in the New Zealand Observer," "Toucher" says that Ernie Jury gay« Ingram his first loss in this round by 19 —12. The tenth round saw the'only two "life*' men meet, that wae Jnry against Walker. Onlookers settled down to view a contest between fcjro such champions as these, but the game was not a good one, for after Jury led by 6-Q^ in the first three heads, Walker settled down whilst Jury went off, and a run-away game went to Walker. Jury had hard luck on several occasions in jnst missing what he was after. In this round amongst the one "lifers" Pilkington pot the only South Island man,' Tonkin, who remained, out'by beating him by 2 points. Harry Clarke just got up in time to win from' Fielding, the Hataitai man. Ken. Brookfield had a great go with Ingram and won by a point. Ingram's last "bowl, which looked a good one, was called off by the umpire as that \player had" infringed the foot on the mat rule. During the' two daj-'s play Ingrain was repeatedly warned and ' had. his bowls "burned" by the umpire, on several occasions, but says "Toucher," he simply would not comply with the rule. "Dmpires on the various greens were very busy watching the players to keep them on the-mark on this -rule. One player was much chagrined to see a "toucher" called off when he was 3 shots down.

A very interesting game in the nhith round of the singles at Auckland was played between Professor Maxwell Walker and the youtSftli Growley, of Tauranga. The young player had his famous, rival oh the go right throughout, and .Walker had to execute one or two very fine shots to keep in the lead. Great applause was given tb the Tauranga boy on several occasions when with his last bowl h« drew the absolute shot and. again sent-down a fast one to burn the head. At the last head Walker was 4 up, but nevertheless Crowley' made a dead-head beforo he eventually was beaten.

There were many stirring battles andstrange happenings in the competitions at Auckland. One pair had a whqlo 8 scored against them, but even then they won tho game. A good example of. a game being pulled out of the fire came under notice in a section of the pairs at Remuera. Fred Parsons, of Eemuera, was 12 up and 4 heads to go on Proctor, of Remuera, who is a Southern howler now resident in Auckland and plays a game of high order. Proctor j put on a 3, 1, and 2, and wanted 6 to ! tie on the last end. Jim ,Vuglar, hisj

lead, lay two, and his skip threw four beauties, whilst Parsons failed to get near. A tie and a play-off saw Proctor and his mate win a highly sensational game. ■ . '■ The Sydney "Sun" writer refers to, the "wonder record" of Mosman Clubthis, season. He states ifrafc on Saturday, 24th December, Mosman, in three engagements, finished up with a surplus j of .177 points, an average of owe 16 i points per rink. The defeat of Chats- ! wood by 114 to 73 was a noteworthy achievement. However, a*' ihe foregoing records pale into insignificance before Rummell's victory in the C grade. The Mosman quartette defeated a Kuringgai rink by 63 to 1. It seems almost impossible that in bowls, a gams in which the element of luck plays such a prominent part, ,a rink should score on only one end. If this is not a world's record in competition games, it must be mighty adjacent to it. fix glancing through the names of players at the Dominion tournament, "Skip" reriUrks in the "Christchurch Press" that one cannot help hut wonder what has become of such prominent, bowlers;as Carswell (last year's champion), Teddy Hill, 1 Tom Churchward, Ted Fountain, J. Porteous, J. Nash, A. London, Joe Martin, and Smelfie Bros. Do they find the distance too far to travel ? ' It" seems a pity these old champions cannot gee their way clear to take part in this annual meeting/as they are certainly an attraction to the younger generation of players. Professor Maxwell Walker (Ponflonby), who won the singles championship at the Dominion tournament, won the singles in 1915 and 1919. : On another occasion he was the rnnner-up.

.(IT IILIORAJE.—PSISS ASSOCIATION.} AUCKLAND, 26th January. The New Sonth v WaW bowkrs played four rinks representing the Auckland centre. The visitors were defeated by 104 to 84. J

-Wins. Li Wellington 4 Petone ™ 3 Newtown 2 Oyall Bay ■ 2 rhorndon .... „ 2 ■' Kelburn « 2 Victoria ~.,~... 2 Tohnsdnville 2 Seatoun —.„.. 2 Karori „„.. 1 Uontral „ 1 feland Bay ..„. 1 Eastboorne „... 0 Sataitai 0 josses. 2 1 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 1 3 3 2 . ' 4