On the Greens

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 107, 1 November 1924, Page 18

On the Greens

DOMINION TOURNEY

AUCKLAND FINDS FAULT

AIM OF DOMINION COUNCIL.

By " Numbeb Two."

A section of Auckland bowlers is apparently very much up in arms over the arrangements made for the Dominion tournament in Wellington next January. The views expressed by "Trundler" in the Auckland "Star" presumably represent the opinions of the dissatisfied bowlers. "There will surely be a storm of protest, amounting to indignation,'he writes, "when it becomes known all over the Dominion that the Wellington tournament committee have made a decidedly retrograde step in framing the conditions for the championship pairs next January. It may not be generally known that when the Bowling Council met in Wellington last month they decided on the general principles on which the Dominion tournament' was to be run, leaving the details in the usual manner to a local executive, conj sisting of the Wellington members of | the council, together with the" executive j officers of the Wellington Centre. Now the principal innovation decided upon by the council was that instead of giving two days to the-singles arid two to the pairs, as heretofore, each of these should have three days. This was the Auckland compromise which the council accepted as an alternative to the Dunedin remit, to the effect that each should be completed before the rinks began. It was felt that the latter proposal, in j the event of bad weather, might unduly 'postpone the commencement of the rinks,-the most important part of the whole tournament, whereas by increasing the time for the earlier events from two days to three days, each would be finished the first week,; or else so nearly finished that the few still in it would have no objection to playing the finals after the section play- in the rinks. The general assumption was that in all miI portant particulars the main features would remain the same as in previous ■ years, and the only suggestion privately made in Auckland was that with three whole days for the pairs, it was to be hoped that the committee would give six rounds to the section play in the pairs, instead of five, leaving the third day entirely to inter-section play. It i now appears, however, that instead of keeping the rounds at five, or even inj creasing them to six, the tournament committee have cut them down to three These will all be played on the first day; leaving the whole of the second and third days to inter-section play, in order , to. find the winner from among those who have had two,or more wins on the first day. A more lopsided impressioh of the purpose of a tournament could not very well be imagined, for surely its main purpose is to give a pleasurable time to those who'enter and incur 'ill the expense of travelling to another part of the Dominion. If the whole object of a tournament -is to find the winner, the committee might just as well have gone the whole hog, and" made it 'sudden death' from the first. Under this precious scheme it will be found that on the first day at least'a third will go out, and possibly even more, and even the attractions of the capital will not be regarded as a reasonable compensation to those who will then have the pleasure of cooling their heels for three solid days before the rinks begin On the secorid morning" another third go out in the first round, giving four rounds in all to that third of the total number competing, while the remaining third will get five, six, up to possibly nine or ten rounds, according to their success in surviving 'sudden death.' It may be taken for granted that the Dominion i Council would never have sanctioned i three days for pairs unless it was to j make the tournament even more interj esting than it has been hitherto, whereas ! this new move will make it decidedly •: less interesting, a feature for which : there, is. no excuse when the committee j have an extra day given them. In view lof this point it has been gravely sug- ; gested that this has1 been done purposely jin Wellington, in order to 'kill' the pairs, by making them so unpopular that nobody will enter for them. It is known that VVellington are right up against both singles and pairs,, but it is hard to believe that they would follow their attempt to get rid of them in a constitutional manner by pushing them out through the back door in this way. That would be worse than a crime: it would be a blunder."

These views were brought under the notice of the Dominion president, Mr. F. Meadowcroft, who . said . that' the comments made were rather wide of the mark wheii both sides of the problem of arranging a tournament to suit the convenience of the greatest number of bowlers were inquired into. To suggest that Wellington had so arranged matters as to "kill the pairs by making them so unpopular that nobody will enter for them," was not at A all correct. There had never been the slightest intention to "kill the-pairs," but-the sole aim of the committee in drawing up the programme for the 1925 tournament had been to reduce the length of the playipjr period. Year after year there had been the same complaint that tournaments were • drawn out too long, and to end that continually recurring dissatisfaction the Tournament Committee had reduced the number of games to three, instead of five, as heretofore. Three days' singles and three days' pairs would enable finality to be reached over the whole tournament within a fortnight, which would have been impossible under the five-game system holding previously. If it should be that even under the threegame principle and the two-out-of-three provision, it was not possible to determine'the winners by the Saturday evening, there would be so few still in the running that they would not mind staying over to complete their sections

There were, of course, some bowlers, said Mr. Meadowcroft, to whom a few days over the fortnight did not oreatly matter. There were some other" bowlers to whom the fact that time, as reflected by hotel bills-and incidentals, was money, did not areatly matter, but bowling was rightly a 'democratic frame and there were other .bowlers who could not so well afford those extra days spent at a tournament.

Auckland was making the point that a man who entered for the pairs and lost two gunies out of his three would be wght out of it, .and would have no

play on Friday and Saturday,' pairs accordingly being made unpopular, but to place upon the arrangements made the construction that- Wellington, having lost the all-ring tournament, wag trying to kill the pairs and singles by making them unpopular, was altogether wide of the mark. There would always be room lor debate 'as to whether three games gave a bowler as good an opportunity as' five, and also there would be room for debate, perhaps not ao much room as to whether a bowler who lost two out of three games should, all aspects of . the tournament considered, carry on. The matter, if it was to be taken further, could be discussed again at next Monday evening's meeting of the Tournament Committee, but, for his part he would like to see the committee retain its present plans and carry on under the proposed conditions for the tournament. If Wellington could get it through m a manner satisfactory to the majority of bowlers in a fortnight it would certainly be a feather in the Tournament Committee's cap, for no centre had so far managed it recently. He believed that if Wellington showed at the January tournament that it could De done, future tournaments would bo conducted on similar lines. : NOTES. 1 _ A good deal of interest is being shown , m the Thompson Shield contest between Wellington arid Carlton (Auckland) Club, and names are now evna ■ down on the list. The conditions laid I down by Mr..Thompson, when donating 1«h l/f't ' ,Pr °Vi- de that' the csntes * . shall take place in Auckland and WelUngton alternately. The Wellington ! vuri B rLtclb^ lleaTsforAttckiaad returned to the Dominion after a trip abroad, has remarked that the Home greens, generally speaking, are much I heavier than the average Dunedih green. • uZ\l .m gr^nS in Eng'and or Scot- ( land that Mr. Owen played on had a surface that could be compared with > for instance, the Caledonian Club's » green, and he is convinced that the ma;- --; jority of the Home players, would be ■■ quite at sea if they were to play on that green m,the height of summer. Mr. Owen found that the style of play in ' the Homeland differs considerably from • that seen on local greens. At Home < driving is not indulged in nearly to • the same extent as it is here. Leads ; and seconds play practically nothing but drawing shots, the. third, when necessary, drives, and the skip seldom plays any shot but a drawing one. That style ot play would quickly meet with disaster against our leading exponents' of the game. 1 . "I understand," gays an English bowling column writer, "that the International Board is determined to see that players observe the rule of maintaining one foot entirely on the mat when delivering Players are to be requested by the board to give up the habit ■of ' turning woods over as they lie at the jack head. Every wood tquched under such conditions is burned, i.e., it is technically disqualified, and to obviate the need of touching woods when at rest it is suggested that the owner's initial should be placed on the small disc aB well as the ivory "eye." It is also suggested tnat the International Board should in future issue badges to qualified internationals, and that they should b 3 made of gold and embody the emblems of the four countries. To-day an international, ere he finishes .his week's games; finds himself decorated with half a dozen badges. County players, likewise, entirely spoil the appearance of their regulation dress by . adorning themselves with trumpery metal badges." Senior Pennant play commences next Saturday, the draw being .-—Section AHataitai v. Victoria, Hutt v. Central, Khandallah v. Island Bay, Lyall Bay a bye. Section B: Seatoun v. Thorndon, Johnsonville v. Karori, Kelburn v. Petone, Newtown a bye. The Junior Pennants do not commence until to-day fortnight, 15th November. The first round will be:—Section A: Hutt v. Central, at Hutt; Upper Hutt v. Island Bay, at Island Bay. Section B: Lyall Bay v Karori, at Lyall Bay; Newtown v. Seal toun, at Newtown; Kelburn a bye. The Dunedin Bowling Cliib suffers a severe loss by the sudden death of Mr. Peter Walker. • Mr. Walker had been .connected with the club for over 25 years, and during the whole of that period he had been one of its workers. He always took; a keen interest in the welfare and prosperity of the club. He was president in 1911, and at the time of his death he was a director and a member of all committees. Last year he and Mrs. Walker were with the party of bowlers who toured New South Wales and Queensland, Mr. Walkar being the life and soul of the party. The Rawhiti Club, Auckland, has lost a valued member and a hard-working secretary, Mr. G. E. Piper, who has been transferred as an officer of the Public Works Department to Nelson. He has taken his bowls with him, naturally, and in the leather bowl bag with which the members"~of the Rawhiti Club presented ■ him as a recognition- of his services to the club. Says "Skip" in the "Herald":- "Mr. Piper started his career at Clyde, Central ,Otago, where he was stationed, and from the outset proved to be a trundler above the average. The writer saw him play his first big game when he played No. 3 for Clyde against Cromwell, on the lattef's green, for possession of the Jolly Meindrial Cup, a trophy much sought after by teams, from clubs on the Goldfields, by reason of its having been given by re-' latives of the. late Captain Jolly, who was killed in the Great War while rescuing wounded men under fire. On the occasion of this ganie the scores were equal, and one head to go, when a great draw shot by Mr. Piper went right behind the kitty, and, of course, won : the game for Clyde. Removing to Invercargill, his bowling education was improved by playing under that great South Island skip, Mr. J. Ham, who has taught such men as Bremner, the present champion skip of the Dominion."

Canterbury bowlers are, to judge from those who attended the last meeting of the centre, very well pleased that arrangements. have been made for an inter-centre match between Wellington and Canterbury. The delegates at the meeting expressed their appreciation again at the offer made by Mr. M. F. Barriett of a large tiki as a trophy for the match. Christchurch bowlers, by the way, have now supplied ttyphies for several of the inter-centre matches in which they are interested, Mr. J. A. Redpat-h having given the Redpath Shield for competition between Christchurch and Dunedin^ Mr. F, Steans the Steans Cup for competition between Christchurch and South Canterbury and Mr. Barnett. the Barnett'Tiki. •

"There are some more like myself," remarked a leading local bowler to "Number Two" the other ■ day, "who have rather a weakness for the polish on our bowls; we like to nurse them up with polishes and oils picked but from a whole assortment, and somehow or other we don't like that pebble-filled ditch. I'm told that the pebbles don't leave- a mark, that like that, popular household cleanser, 'they haven't scratched yet,' but these bowls ,of mine ore terribly shiny after I don t know just how mi\ny seasons' polishing.. I rather regret seeing one of them roll too far and thump down. Grass is a nuisance, soil gets dirty; sand is not so bad; pebbles look nice, hut BtiU I don't like them," '