VARYING VIEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1937, Page 24

VARYING VIEWS

WOOD OR "COMPO." ?

"Boomerang," the bowls writer ;in the "Sydney Referee," misses no opportunity to have a tilt at New Zealand. In the latest edition to hand of his paper he returns to a subject to which he has devoted reams of space to prove that composition bowls are superior to wood. In this instance he uses recent Dominion tournaments in an endeavour to prove his case. This is what he says:— "In the face of the fact that composition bowls in Australia and New Zealand have exclusively won every-" thing, as big bowls go, the following from the pen of R. Higginbotham, of Auckland, will be read with astonishment. He writes: 'To the bowler who essays to draw the shot all the time, composition bowls in rink play are, in my opinion, not so effective as a good drawing wooden bowl.' "In making such a statement as that, anybody necessarily must look to the results accruing from month to month, and year to year. Speaking for Australia, it is 100 per cent.—the very possible—and crossing to New Zealand, what do we find?

"Kink play or pairs, singles, or anything else, the same shots appear, and have to be brought off. Engebretsen won 14 consecutive games the season before last in the Dominion tournament, then Frank Livingstone added his 13 or 14, both unC&feated, while all the rest had two lives.

"Letham and the runner-up at Auckland a few weeks ago put Ihe lid on the argument—if one exists outside Mr. Higginbotham. New Zealand's greatest player (with many others), Arthur Parsons to wit, turned in the finest set of woods in the Dominion to play with composition, and at once succeeded.

"I personally have won every N.S.W. classic, plus A.B.C. pairs, with Henselite. which is composition, and they comprise rinks and pairs. At Mr. Higginbotham's door an Australian beat Brackenridge and Foster, in the

Auckland - Dominion championship, using composition, while they used wood. Jock Best soon after turned to the composition.

"In spite of Mr. Higsisi^ib^m's statement, New Zealand is 'going composition,' and tons of wooden bowls are becoming curiosities of the dear dead days. He says nothing of their drawbacks, known to the milkman of every bowler's family.

"Our good friend is drawing largely from his imagination when he declares that, for certain shots, wood is best. If 'quite a few players' say they 'cannot get round a head with anything but wood,' they need either to come to Australia or travel a bit locally. I saw somebody 'get round a head1 to trail a jack at Perth that would have been a tonic to Mr. Higginbotham's outlook, and it wasn't a wooden bowl.

"Queensland was the stronghold of wooden bowls in Australia. Get this: In the past years the rink championship has been won there with compo. Currey the Boldery brothers, and all eight men in both rinks this year used composition, and formerly used wood."

Commenting on "Boomerang's" views, "Jack" in the "Otago Daily Times" states: —

I am not going to argue the relative merits of wood and "compo." bowls except to say that I changed a season and a half ago from woods to Henselites, and have no hesitation in saying that I prefer the latter. Still, I cannot agree .that "Boomerang" has proved his case by taking Dominion tournaments as. an illustration, as he never at any time makes reference to any classic event when it is won by woods. The recognised big event in the New Zealand bowls world is the annual New Zealand Rinks Championship. R. Howarth, of Christchurch, has skipped the winning rink in the 1936 and 1937 tournaments, and has used woods on each occasion. He also used woods when he skipped the winning pair in the 1936 New Zealand championship tourney. It would not be difficult to quote many other big events that had been won in recent years by woods, just as "Boomerang" can quote the "compo." victories. It will be noticed that he quotes "Jock" Best as having turned to composition. One. certainly has to go from home to get news, but even Jock's club mates will be surprised that he turned some time ago to "compos." Certainly he gave Henselites a good try-out a couple of seasons ago and then went back to his old trusty woods.