BOWLING

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 37, 12 February 1926, Page 14

BOWLING

■V 'NUMBER TWO.*

The Britishers Are Here.

Conditions could not have been better at the Victoria green on Monday afternoon when the British bowlers played their first series of matches against several combined Wellington rinks and won by a handsome margin. riiie rink nearest the pavilion on which Glendining (Wellington) and Fleming were playing was somewhat difficult to play, but although heavy rain had fallen overnight the.> green was not as heavy as one might nave expected. Victoria, Hataitai, Thorndon, and Wellington Clubs have each excelled themselves in trying to make the stay of the visitors a pleasant one in the Capital City, and the only regrets there should be at the end of their soiour.'i hero should be that they were not hero long enough to let us know them still better. All the visitorß are sports to a man, and they are very good bowlers, too. Certainly, they did find .he Exhibition tournament far Wo strenuous, and consider that we in New Zealand take our game of bowls over-senously, but they all confess to having had a most enjoyable time. That a few highclass rinks could be selected from amongst the ranks of the visitors if they were put to the point of being ranged against us in' Tests," is quite evident. They have nothing to learn from us about how to bowl, it would seem, although perhaps the following up of bowls and the tearing up and down thj green to which several of them are very seriously addicted, is something which we do not desire to. copy from them. Of mannerisms and a queer typs of green calisthenics they are not m any short supply, but neither have they any monopoly, as any amount of'• antic.3 are to be seen on any New Zealand green on any day in the week, not excepting Sundays, so we are all squaro on that head. However, if we do legislate in regard to following up bow.'a, it is fortunate that we have no laws against indulgence in antics and tho execution of those mystic psychic influences which make badly-delivered bowls run to perfection, narrow woods draw, drawing bowls run straight, and "tender" b ; owls run out their distance. As the British bowlers say, it is no use being too serious over bowls, so if anyone feels disposed to touch his no3o with boot (or boots) while watching the result of a doubtful delivery, jr twine one leg two or three times round the other, let him be. His "physical jerks" may do him good and they won't do the bowl .any harm, but the onlookers will be amused, which will take some of the dourness off our play. Of course, we are not always serious over our bowls in New Zealand. If we were we would sometimes be given to returning the correct scores on cards, even in tournaments, but if we were t do that the game would lose all its charm. So might it be deprived of ita delightful abandon- if we adhered to the rales of the game at Dominion bowling tournaments. Not serious ovsr the game of bowls! 'Sh! Let anyone go to a meeting of the Wellington Centre and He'll find some gentlemen there who are in deadly earnest ovar many little things. But, perhaps, it is the little things 'that matter, so that may be the reaion : why we let the bigger things go occasionally. Bowls, of course, is only a social game, so why worry! Good lack to the British bowlers, anyway. Heavy Boiling Condemned. \ Should heavy rollers be used on bowling greens t This problem has agitated the minds of New Zealand bowlers for many a long day, and it is not by any means solved to everyone's satisfaction yet, Mr. Walter Wake, manager of the British bowling team, has very definite views on the subject, however, and they are dead against heavy rolling. He does not hold to the view that keen greens should be sought after at all costs. In the course of a conversation with "Number Two," Mr. Wake said that some of our greens resembled nothing so much as hardbaked mud. They had been rolled and rolled with heavy rollers so regularly and frequently, even when wet, that they had been so compressed as to make it- impossible to scratch them with one's finger nail, so hard had they become. Under such conditions it was a wonder the grass grew at all, and if there were imperfections on such greens, the incessant rolling had made it utterly impossible to roll them out, even when moist on the surface, so like concrete had they become. In Britain, said Mr. Wake, the bowling swards were made of Cumberland seawashed turves, which were cut by a box mould into squares exactly 13 inches square. Each piece of turf was laid with the aid of a straight-edge and * spirit level, and the whole surface of the green was as level aa a billiard table. As the turves rapidly became knitted it was possible to play on a green a fortnight or so after it had been put down, and in time the roots of tho grass went so deep arid become so thoroughly interwoven, that the surface of the green was just like a great mat, or carpet, which, if it were desired, could be rolled up into one piece. Very rarely indeed, and then only very lightly, was a roller used—perhaps once or twice in a season. The grass was kept smooth of cutting with a machine and by scything. A quarter of an hour after a heavy shower British greens would be again playable, the mat of grass and the fine ash foundation having absorbed the moisture, whereas in New Zealand greens were under water after a downpour. *Grasssown greens, to which we were accustomed in New Zealand, were rare in the Old Country. Mr. Wake mentioned that there was one "green in England, the grass of which had not been touched for 80 years. There was no need to top-dress there like we had to do on our graaa-sown greens. While admitj ting that it was impracticable to get Cumberland turf brought out to New Zealand on a large scale for greenmaking purposes for the reason that all the moisture would go out of it en route, Mr. Wake atill thought that we could keep our greens in good playing trim by cutting and scything and eliminating the roller, particularly the heavy type. They would be quite pleasant to play on, even if not rolled into a hard mass.

While not presuming to offer any advice to New Zealand on the point of amending the laws of the game or altering the style of play, because the Dominion had adapted its own rules to meet its. own ideas as to how the game should be played, Mr. Wake had a few observations to make on the difficulties which the visitors experienced in trying to accustom themselves to New Zealand bowling conditions. They had almost to learn a new game here, he said. For one thing the rinks here were only 12ft to 13ft wide as against the 19ft to 20ft rinks played on at Home. Our narrow rinks were very difficult to get useil to, and the visiting players were always nervous of interference with the bowls by reason of the close proximity of men in the neighbouring rinks. The end rinks were especially tronblesome, and, being narrower than what the visitors were accustomed to at Home, had really been the cause of the majority of the team's defeats: players would take more green than was Bafe with the consequence that they often lost, their bowls in the side ditches. Another difference between the New Zealand and British systems was in the length of the head; at Homo the jack had to b* thrown 25 yards, but here only 22 yards. Mr. Wade remarked that the ditches at Home now had pebbles on the bottom. These kept

tho bowla clean, and gave the additional advantage of stopping "touch- ! ers" dead where they went into toe ditch, which was only fair. Wellington bowlers will be interested to learn that Mr. Wake maintains that the table test is superior to tho test on the green, to which Dnnedin seems to be irrevocably wedded. The table could be depended upon to be even all over the surface, but the same could not always be said of a green, especially under our conditions where greens were rolled heavily and made so hard that little hollows conld never be rolled out of them. The shifting of the chute after each bowl is released also does not find much ,: favour with Mr. Wake. He maintains that there is no reason why the chute should be shifted as the greens are so hard that it is impossible for a."track" to be made in them by the bowls as they roll up the green to the standard bowl, and, further, that to move the apparatus is unfair because succeeding bowls may encounter green imperfections ' that put them off tht aourse they would normally take. The "Friendly BowL" Twenty years ago Mr. W. Barnett, a member of/the Chriatchurch Bowling Club, conceived"the happy idea of inaugurating an annual friendly match between the Christchurch and Wellington Bowling Clubs, the match to be played alternately on each club's green. Mr. Barnett presented as a trophy for the match a bowl mounted on a silver stand, which he had won at the Northern Bowling Association's Easter Tournament held at Napier in 1894. This trophy has become known as the "Friendly Bowl,'/ and on Saturday afternoon it was competed for on the Christchurch Club's green, the match resulting in a win for the Wellington players by 118 points to 105.

In presenting the trophy for competition between the two clubs it was Mr. Barnett's wish that the annual matches to be. played would more securely cement the bond of friendship between them. The principal condition of the match is .that the visiting team, whether it wins or loses, shall take the "Friendly Bowl" back with it. Last year the match was played in Wellington and the Christehurch team secured possession of the trophy. Usually the match consists of four rink games, but this year five rinks from each club played, the extra rink having been included at the special request of several old Wellington players who otherwise would have been debarred from taking part.

Prior to the match being commenced on Saturday afternoon, the visiting bowlers were the guests of the officials and members of the Christchurch Club at luncheon in the club's pavilion. Mr, A. Dickson, president of the club, was in the chair, and various touts were honoured and felicitous speeches made. During the afternoon tea interval, Mr. H. G. Mayer; on behalf of the visiting team, made a presentation to Mrs. Dickson, wife of the president of the Christchurch Bowling Club, of a souvenir silver spoon, surmounted by a kiwi, the emblem of the Wellington Bowling Club, and'in doing so thanked her for her kindness, and attention during the day. The following are the scores, the names of the Wellington rinks being mentioned first:— -. , ;•■' A. Ealdane, A. Lolham, 8. Potter, and N. M'Lean, 24; P. D. Sargent, G.: H. Cooper, J. Woolf, and W. Barnett, sen., 14. ' J. Rennie, Captain Holdsworth, Captain M'Arthur, and W. Glendinning, 21; C. Maddren, C. J. Atkinson, C. H. Eidley, and W. HeUiwell^ 28. J. B. Brlnsden, W. N. Dempsey, G. Magnus, and H. G. Mayer, 29; G. A. Mazey, S. Barnett, C. H. Piper, and A. Dickson, 24. A. Wylie, M. Martin, V. Dimock, and H. Jackman, 24; the Rev. Hayward, W. Brown, Dr. A. J. Orchard, and Dr. J. C. Pairman, 17. L. Ledger, A. Hamilton, W. Berry, and J. J. Roberts, 21; Dr. J. P. Whetter, S. Manning, G. Lewis, and W. H. MacDongall, 22. Wellington 118 points (3 games); Christchurch, 105 points (2 games). At the conclusion of the games, Mr. Dickson handed the "Friendly Bowl" to" Mr. Mayer to hold for a year when a Christchureh team would go to Wellington to bring it back. Mr.. Mayer thanked Mr. Diekson, and remarked that the members of the Wellington Club would keenly Jook forr ward to the next visit from their Christchurch friends. ' Cheers were then exchanged between the two teams. ■ Eastern Suburbs Tournament Controversy is still keen anent the decision of the Wellington 'On'm • refuse permission to the eastern suburbs clubs to hold their usual iws>u.. tournament this year in order that the ■centre may hold a pairs tournament. Some bowlers who had contemplated nominating rinks for the eastern suburbs gathering feel so aggrieved over what the centre has done that they have resolved to boycott the pairs tournament if it takes place. The idea in Mr. Meadowcroft's mind in proposing that the centre should hold a pairs tournament at Easter was that the centre might recoup itself in some way for the heavy expenditure it has been put to in entertaining the British bowlers. He explains that he is in no way wedded to the pairs, and is quite willing that a rinks tournament should be played, but maintains that it should be conducted by the centre, which will be in need of the revenue. On financial grounds no doubt Mr. Meadowcroft's attitude can be justified, but why spoil what has now become an j annnal event in the eastern suburbs? If the centre funds, need replenishing' surely the 1400 bowlers in Wellington would not object to a small levy-being made on each of them in order to meet the cost of doing honour to our distinguished guests t It is utterly impossible for the Britishers to meet all the bowlers in the centre, but that is no reason why bowlers as a body should hesitate in assisting the authorities on this special occasion to do the right thing by the visitors. Nothing should be stinted to make the stay of the British party in Wellington as bright and happy as possible, and as levies are not often made by the centre, there ought to be no reasonable objection to one being sought on this occasion. A general levy is democratic, and in the present instance it should not be irksome. If bowlers are the "sports" they so often pride themselves on being when toasting one 'another's health, they will surely contribute a mite to the funds of the centre if these prove to have been somewhat strained (but never drained in a better cause) and allow.the eastern .suburbs elnbs to do business as usual. "Come with a Bun.** A humorous incident occurred at the Seatoun green one day last week when the surface was like glass. "Come with a little bit of.a run on this one" was tho instruction received by a perplexed player. "Come with what!" queried he who was about to deliver his bowl, but who was fully aware of the fiery state of the green. "A run—just about a foot over," was the reply. It is not explained whether this valiant effort was ever executed..