BOWLING TITLES Runanga Four: Unbeaten In Six Rounds

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 February 1947, Page 4

BOWLING TITLES Runanga Four: Unbeaten In Six Rounds

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 12. With six rounds completed in the championship fours tourney at the Dominion bowling tournament, 18 unbeaten fours have qualified for the post-sectional play and two rounds to-morrow and’ Friday will bring the section play to a close. Forty-one fours with five wins each are well placed to qualify. Conditions proved very trying for the players to-day, the temperature being the highest of the season, with little wind. All greens were exceptionally fast. The 18 fours which qualified with six wins are: Corby (Ellerslie), Mitchell (Blenheim), McClymont (Ponsonby), Bremner (Epsom), Fleming (Newtown), Henry (Sydenham), Johnson (Port Ahuriri), White (Runanga), Wilson (Mount Eden), Raffles (Onehunga), la Frenz (Maitai), Hawkins (Paritutu), Wyatt (Karori), Cullen (Thorndon), McCullough (Frankton Junction), Lambess (Whangarei). The fours with five wins are: Wardrop (Victoria), Higgison (Featherston), Mattar (Thorndon), Spearman (Christchurch R.S.A.), Gardner (Invercargill), Haworth (Wanganui East), Reid (Masterton), Taylor (Hataitai), O’Neill (Runanga), Squire (Hawera), Spurdie (Inglewood), Hadwin (Hutt), Gray (Kelburn), Reid (Lyall Bay), Adams (Karori), Giles (United), Love (Port Chalmers), . Rolls (Featherston), Sherwood (Seatoun), Skoglund (Otahuhu), Gleeson (Papatoetoe), Armstrong (Gonville), Barton (Kia Tba, Hastings), Fuller (Waitara), Mclnnes (Temuka), Scott (Seatoun), Dyson (Hallyburton - Johnstone), Williams (Edgeware), Harris (Wanganui), Dykes (Seatoun), Hotter (Okato), Bell (Patea), Field (Karori), Besley (Sydenham), Velex (Onehunga), Adams (Phoenix), Dickson (Khandallah), Kingsland (Nelson), Ritchie (Inglewood), Claridge (St. Kilda). After losing his first two games, R. Haworth (Canterbury) has had a string of four wins and still has a possibility of qualifying. -His hardest match to-day was against A. Needham (Wellington), who led 11-6 on the tenth end, but failed to score again till the twentieth end. By that time Haworth led 19-11. On the twenty-first end, a five to Needham enabled him to get within striking distance. He required four on the final end to win, but could only notch one. A Sensational Game. One of the most sensational games of the afternoon round was between H. E. C. Dickson’s Khandallah four and F. Furnell (Epsom). The latter jumped to a flying start, including a seven on the second end, to lead 14-0 on the fifth end,- and 16-1 on the seventh end. On the next seven ends Dickson notched 17 points to

halt his opponent’s' run, but Furnell retaliated with 10 points on the next four ends. On the eighteenth end Furnell led 26-18. On the nineteenth end Dickson went back one up, but dislodged his opponent’s second shot bowl to lie four, and added another with his next bowl, making the scores 26-23 in Furnell’s favour. The splendid fight put up by Dickson’s four had its reward, as Dickson took the lead shortly after to win by 33-29. The match lasted for four hours and a quarter, during which 62 points were scored. C. D. Bennett (Hastings) failed to maintain his -good form of the earlier rounds. C. Madsen (Opawa) won his morning game comfortably, but went down to J. Proudfoot (Paekakariki) in the afternoon, and requires two more wins to qualify. W. C. Franks (Balmoral), a former champion, is out of the running. T. A. McClymont (Ponsonby), skip of one of the unbeaten fours, is a former New Zealand Rugby League representative. He has been playing bowls for seven years, but has a fine tournament record. He has as his No. 3 his father-in-law, E. Jury, who skipped the New Zealand champion fours in 1919 and 1921. A. E. Gardner (Invercargill) killed nine ends in a match with C 7 A. Haworth (Wanganui East), but the effort was unavailing. This was Gardner’s only' loss. . McCullough’s unbeaten Carlton four had a very hard game with Caley (Central Petone), winning by one point on the final head. Seven Days Ahead. There appear to be seven playing days ahead ,and players are discussing the possibility of speeding up the annual fixture by applying the same two-life system to the fours as is applied to the pairs and the singles. In these events a player has two lives only in the preliminary play. He is • out as soon as he is beaten after that, and one reason for the use of the two-life system in preliminary play is that more than 1000 players have come hundreds of miles to compete, and that it is disappointing to return without having had a I fair number of games. In Australia I there is no two-life system, and half the fours return with only one game. The players have commented upon the unprecedented good weather. If it had been otherwise, the congestion would have precluded any i accurate idea as to when the tournament would end, and one day’s rain during the singles would have meant that 150 players would be left instead of six at present. It had been intended to play the outstanding first-round game of the first section singles between F. White (Runanga) and E. P. Exelby (Frankton Junction) on the Karori green to-day, but White’s long match in the afternoon prevented such a couise.