BOWLING New Zealand Pairs Championship

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 February 1947, Page 5

BOWLING New Zealand Pairs Championship

First Rounds Played Yesterday (R’A.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 5. Some prominent players, with several major tournament honours, met when the pairs championship at the Dominion bowling tournament began to-day. There was a large attendance. G. Littlejohn and-W. F. Hadwin (Hutt) beat A.. Murdoch and -T. T. Skoglund . (On'ehunga). There was great interest in the match between C. H. Elsom and C. Shaw (Canterbury), both of whom have gained New Zealand honours, and A. E. Edwards and G. H. Claridge (St. Kilda). The Canterbury pair won by 1 point. H. J. C. Burd and T. A. Barrow (Seatoun), runners-up in the - pairs last year, had a good win over C. Spearman and J. Whyte (Christchurch R.S.A.). - - , - . Two rounds were played during the- day’in the A and B sections. At the end of the day, 130 two-lifers and 260 one-lifers remained in out of the original 520 entries. The weather was fine and the greens fast. Play was occasionally tricky because of a fairly strong breeze. Hadwin—Skoglund Match Hadwin’killed the first head of his match with Skoglund and later in the match, Skoglund killed live times. Skoglund led off with four and was 8-4 on the' sixth end. On the eighth end, Skoglund killed when three down, and on the replay Hadwin, when two down, lay three shots, but his opponent saved two. The score was 8-al I on the tenth end and Hadwin led for the first time on the eleventh by 12-8. He was 16-10 to the good on the fifteenth and on each of the eighteenth and nineteenth ends Skoglund killed twice. On the replay at the nineteenth Skoglund lay three, but Hadwin saved two. Skoglund was relying on his driving, particularly at the end of the match, but Hadwin's drawing more than equalised it. The leads were fairly evenly matched, with Littlejohn, if anything, better. Hadwin finally won 20-15. The contest on the Wellington upper green between D. Keyes and T. Stevens (Waimate) and A. S.- Dignan and C. E. Clarke (Mount Eden) was one of the best of the day. Keyes and Stevens were 10 down at halfway, but drew up to 21-all at the close of the twentieth end. Stevens burned the twenty-first head when two down. On the replay, Keyes drew shot to win 22-21. At Island Bay E. Jury and T. A. McClymont (Ponsonby) were beaten by H. Todd and W. R. .Fleming (Newtown). Fleming won the Wellington Centre’s champion pairs last year with A. R. Hastings. Todd last year won the- Wellington- Centre junior singles, and was in the semifinal of the Wellington Centre champion singles. Jury was the winning skip of the New Zealand fours in 1919 and 1921. McClymont is usually prominent in New Zealand tournaments. • Prominent Winners Among the winners of both their rounds were G. C. Claridge and W. Bremner (Epsom). Bremner was lead to C. E. Hardley in 1932 when they won the. New Zealand pairs. He was skip of the winning New Zealand four in 1924 and 1929. Maslin (Hawera), who led for Squire when they won the New Zealand pairs in 1933 and 1938, is skipping successfully, having J. C. Thomas for a lead, and on the Kelburn upper green a Iwo-liier was E. E. Somervell (Poverty Bay), who is a member of the New Zealand Bowling Council. A. C. Mclntyre (Otaki Railway), playing with O. S. Symons, with whom he won the Wellington New Year pairs last month, was in good form on the Khandallah greens. In the same section are D. McCormack and J. Squire (Hawera), the latter having skipped the winning New Zealand pair twice when partnered by Maslin. A. Keast and C. H. Manning (Timaru) lost a life to S. Winthrope and T. Ryan (Porirua). Manning skipped the runner-up pair in 1937, when D. Hunter and J. W. Lowry (Petone) won. A. T. Percy and F. H. Fredericks (Karori) had two wins to-day. Fredericks skipped the winning Wellington Centre New Year pair last year. Haworth in Form R. Haworth, who skipped the winning New Zealand fours in 1936 and 1937, showed good form at the Petone green. A Karori pair, R. W. Cox and J. H. Wvatt (runner-up in the open singles in" Wellington last month) lost one life in a close game with W .Ure and H. Bockett (Auckland), and the other life to •A. Elms and A. Simmonds (Wairea). W. R. Wenham (Feilding), who was third in the open tournament in New Plymouth last month, skipped L. H. Rodgers to two wins. L. W. Besley (New Brighton), who skinped the runner-up four in 1941, lost a life to B. Jaffares (Avon, Stratford). In the B sections, which were played in the afternon, the standard of bowls was as high as that in the morning, when the A sections were played J. F. Benson (Balmoral), who played No. 3 in the 1939 New ■Zealand champion four, maintained his form with two wins on the Eastbourne green, although A. H. Parsons (Woburn) pushed him closely to 20-19. H. L. Brighting (Hutt),who has a gold medal for five centre honours, has MacDonald for lead, and appears to be striking form.

Post-Section Play In Singles (P.AJ WELLINGTON, February 6. Brilliantly fine weather favoured the continuation this morning of the New Zealand bowling tournament, though most of the greens obviously could do with some heavy rain. To-day’s play marked the commencement of the post-section stage of the singles and some brilliant bowls were seen when prominent two-lifers met. . . J M. Squire, an ex-champion, met T. T. Skoglund (Otahuhu) in the most important match of the day. There was a contretemps at the outset when it was found that these two prominent contenders each had bowls with identical markings. _____