BOWLING NOTES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 4597, 28 June 1917, Page 7

BOWLING NOTES.

(By “Toucher.”) Drake was a sailor bold In days of old, , Aiid we are told • Ye bowles he rolled. There is no doubt this historical fact has given the game of bowls to “tone.” Theoretically, Waterloo may have been “won on the cricket fields of Eton and Harrow,”* but the connection between bowling and the Navy has been established forever. A Queensland bowling friend, Mi Rabbits, in Ills bowling song, records the incident: Far down the ages runs a bowling story, How Drake, was playing, bowls at Plymouth Hoe, And said, when ordered out for nava] glory, “I must conclude tins game before I go.” Don’t blame poor Drake for his procrastination, AH howlers know what fascination means But ere. the Spaniards reached then destination, ' He turned their Dreadnoughts intc Submarines. For bowling is a grand, old game—i Through every :age ’twas just the f ' same. I It cheers the halt,, the side, the lame • Does the good old game of bowling If a man is tired of business strife Or henpecked by a scolding wife, The thing that makes him stick tc I * life i Is the grand old game of howling I If Drake had not wiped) out the Ar ; mada, we might be attending bul 1 fights, instead of fighting amongs ourselves over knotty bowling prob lems of verv little consequence «: compared with “the greater game.’ If our modern sailors had not guard ed our shores, we might to-day b< playing skittles in bier-gardens am eating saurkraut between times—ugh! , . There is hardly a howling dub n New Zealand but lias on the walls o its dub house a copy of the picturi of that famous game- of howls playec at Plymouth Hoe what time th< i Spanish Arma'dia took on the after noon of July 19th, 1588, and was £ single-handed game between Sir Fran ; cis Drake and Sir John Hawkins The latter is believed to have won tin rubber. It is safe to say of this epi sode that no other game has evei loomed so large on the pages of his tory as this game of bowls played d„ these tough old English sea-dogs. | “Ye Olde-Tymers” of the Grsborn< Club were again rubbed up the wrong way last week, when the “Young ,On S ” of the modern school rompec over them for the second time tin: season. Evidently the Gisborne players do not believe that bowling is an old man’s game, for the men or modern years now triumph ovei those of ancient lineage- Last lira srlnv out of six sanies the old gentlemen only won two. Thelwall defeating Beatson bv, 2 points, and Hnestoi beating Smith by 8. rhe four "inobtained by “Les Enfants were secured! by Martin, Lyme. Bullock and Seymour, at the expense respectively of ‘Ponsford, Thacker, Robertson and Crawford. The marginal difference of the total points was 1/ m tne “Young JUns” favor. , i. Another game was played last " eek for the Graham Stars at the j \-ahutia o-reen and Craig’s team still retainpossession. This-team seems to be unbeatable. They have already held the. stars against the best part of dozen challenges. „„ nnTl . A bad.feature on our local gieen during tlie- season now paving to close has been the practice of lag dead howls lying m the ditch, during the progress' of the t,ame There is always the danger of h bowls or tbe kitty, coming into co"Si S’tbcirlSnSioJf" T* of the adjoining rink. , > “Skip” writes:— Deal ioucnci, as a constant reader of yours notes [ S ed 1 penalty for disobedient piny eis. Th-c? brought vividly to my; mind ar episode that occurred m Meibom nt in pennant play some Joars •Without going into pcrsona iamc - l ai .„ the facts will bo of mtetest- a. bearing trpoo yoer pomtec remarks concerning, tbe supremacyof tlri. £ Enportant one, and the scores close after about 20' ends bad gone. » vlritinv skipper called upon his No_. - to draw tlm shot after the opposing leader had pub both howls within nine indies of tile jack. The position wm ptavJ S withent 3 any' ‘ question drove P oi nt the end. Astonished at 8S? tbe skip .topped up- the gre« n few feet and warned the pbQ e that he must obey the directions "octnd 16 bowf, after being carefully f UI h °U wa° S Ut conidec from the nitty. . flni the action was drastic, but tna U would not have disturbed! tbe end ■irid was done by the skipper F ule to Illustrate that he b? T^£ oi Se poi ’T™Jd°S ( ErTpESonTbe oncstion V«hops I can anticipate it, vm., tbal the player should' be reporiedl to the committee, etc., et . oi r ‘""Sf SSjruToA momdi irons? I ll © t wo uld like tf' aS Drkstic a deeds require drasric Look the daast m y mind ri.S have made a rule to purust the case qu° te d the thu d a -1; tho inck wfth hm lust, Sew %’o more, giving th| d7tiU such action, bub it has be e n an unwritten law apparently since the beginning of bowls in tins pail Dm world Since as far back as mv association with the game extends 1 “can remember slaps saying tl to had the, authority to throw a ho"l delivered against then- instructions Tibi green. I have l !+ iflbne once. lhe. offendei . tlici, ■took his gruel kindly, and explamec that he offended unknowingly. I appeared! to him that more m fth have been done on the hand otlici than that indicated by the skip No real sportsman and no man, as the term man is understood, would 0, could,.be guilty f skip • no matter how he- himself nu»l seeVe head. Often have I played as ordered when it seemed distinctly ■clear there was a better chance the other way, and found out that I "a, rShi And! I have seen others , acl to +ho -.samo way. I think a howlei who would ’deliver his wood m oppo. sition to his-skip’s desire should he dropped by his club, especially "hu his transgression occurs in an intc club match. Such mean and paltry action—neither term is too harsh—is unbowlerlike, and might seriously affect the side’s prospects.. Though the game has only beer going in South Australia since IJuO there- are now 19 city and suburimr clubs and nine country clubs affiliatec i with.the 5.A.8.A., with a total, membership of 1800.

A comparison between the losse: dlie to war and to mortality anion*: the infant life of the. nation wa made by Prof. D. A. Welsh, in ar address to the recent conference ii Sydney oil infant and child welfare “Throughout the two and a-hal years of war, to the end of 1916, Australia has been -losing her best mei at- the rate of 20 lives each, day,” hi said. “During the sapie period sh< has been losing her infants, undei one year, at the rate of 25 a day. Ii wo extend the figures to include cliil dren under five years of age, we fine that we are losing these little live; at tho rate of 35 a day. . When we include the unborn that might have been, the grim total rises to some un known figure, which cannot bo lost than 40, which may be more than 5C representing the children lost' to oui small population every day. Sucl is Australia’s present effort to make good the losses of her finest men.”