TESTING QUESTION

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 136, 5 December 1935, Page 29

TESTING QUESTION

HEAVY GREENS

WHAT OF NEW BOWLS ?

The heavy state of the greens'for a longer period than usual -this year has caused attention -to be< drawn-.to the testing question once more. . The long period of wet weather in the'earlier part, of the season must have made it impossible to test bowls with any degree of, satisfaction to anybody. Before playing in pennant matches—or any competition conducted under the rules of the N.Z.B.A. for that matter —bowls must be tested and stamped. In the last year or two.there has been a great accession of new bowlers, most of whom have bought. bowls, while many old bowlers have- gone in for new bowls, even, since last season. Have all.these bowls been tested yet? Were : they tested and stamped before competition, games commenced? If they were, not they should have been barred, and had they been barred that would have been a manifest, injustice both to the-buyers, and sellers of the .b0w15..... When a man buys a set of bowls he presumably has a desire to play with them, but if he cannot get them tested and stamped before the greens are in a fit state for testing to begin he is manifestly placed at a disadvantage. The agents for the bowl manufacturers, too, must have-a grievance if they cannot effect sales because of inability to have' bowls tested. Prima facie there seems to be a case for abandoning the green test in: favour of the table test. A proper test-1 ing table costs money, but what does that'matter if its acquisition, gives satisfaction? It may be that a good start has been made with! the testing of bowls this season, but on a recent Saturday the writer played against a new set of bowls that were as innocent of test stamps as a new-born babe is of molars.