BOWLING NOTES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 4846, 18 April 1918, Page 7

BOWLING NOTES.

(By “Toucher.”)

To-day the tournament arranged by the local bowlers in aid of the Red Triangle Fund takes place on the green of the Kahutia Club and it only requires fine weather to make it a success in every way. Already its financial success is bowlers have seen to that. _ I venture to assert that there are no followers of any branch of sport keener to 'see the war through to a triumphal conclusion than the. followers of the biassed' wood. They have been keenly patriotic right throughout. There are many in the local ranks of bowl_erdom who have given their sons to the great <eause of freedom, and they have seen their sons’ sons also go forth to do battle for the right, some of whom will ne’er return. The bowler himself is generally wet] beI yond the age limit, though the few who are within the age have mostly gone forth to the great battlefield. He wlio lias been left behind lias .to keep the_ home going and the. business also. At the same time, he is keen to assist the war to a triumphal conclusion, and he is ever ready to dip deep into his pockets for that object. Local howlers have assisted, individually, every effort put forth to raise funds for war relief purposes, and on divers occasions have acted collectively. On this occasion howlers are conjointly assisting the Red Triangle Fund, and I venture to assert a substantial sum will accrue as the result of their efforts. Germany by this time is no doubt alive to the fact that the House of John Bull is well represented in the remote parts, and stocks “goods” equal to anything the Homeland can produce. I have travelled up to Karaka, and I’ve been to Okitu, And I heard of Epsom Salts and Beecliam J'Pills. I have greeted Billy Massey and the man from AVaiapu, And I’m glad I’ve met the boys m Gisborne’s hills. I have heard of Tino, and I’ve cursed! at Kaiser Bill. .. And. I’ve read the skite of lirpitz , and his crew. J have swallowed tons ot oysters, feasted at the Picadil. But I’ve met the patriots of Gisborne, too. They didn’t wait to argue, and they didn’t “want to know,” And they ..didn’t want their pockets lined with “down-” They simply “paid the dough” and they started off their show, Oh! these merry bowling boys from Gisborne town.“AVhat have the bowlers done in connection with the war campaign?” said Mr J. Spence (president of the New South Wales Bowling Association) at the close of a match at bowis the other afternoon. “Up to the present- they have contributed 000 or £14,000 for the boys a: the front. Could they do better than keep on doing this in a proportionate way?” Since the commencement of the war to date the Christchurch' Centre had been instrumental in raising, approximately, £I2OO to £ISOO. for patriotic purposes. In view of the fact that the Vietorian Bowling Association has placed an embargo upon the young eligible and ruled that he cannot play bowls while his country bleeds, it would be interesting to know (says a Melbourne writer) how the young man feels who rushed into the uncertain stream of matrimony long after tlie guns began to roar —and still plays bowls. Of course, he can’t leave his little 'wife and family, but there’s one thing he can do. He can sit back and regard the situation with characteristic calm, for will he not soliloquise thus?—“Good boy, Charlie! You knew something when, with outstretched arms, you took Arabella Matilda to your loving breast! You ‘snookered’ your country behind the ‘pink, 1 didn’t you, Charlie, old .boy? Ha! ha! ha!” In lift/ years from 1912-13 lie will have to tell the biggest lie he ever told in his life. “Yes, it’s our golden wedding. AA T e married just a year or two before the war.” The V.B.A. might have gone a little further, and placed the embargo upon the man who got behind “the pink” after the war opened. Always-provided that the physically unfit' are taken into consideration. We doubt if there are any about; but if there are, we should know them by their blushes. A soldier bowler, writing from the trenches in France, says —“There is not the slightest doubt about our beating the Bosches —we are beating them every day; and when numbers are anything like equal they invariably come off second best. ~At the same time,” he continues, “progress cannot be made without casualty lists, and if we don’t get- reinforcements more than equal to the men who are constantly going under, you might as well turn your bowling greens into concrete emplacements for big guns, for that is what it will come to if those butchers, ever get tlie upper hand.” This is an extract taken from a letter handed to me. Nothing that I can say can add to the meaning. Thanks to the generosity of many enthusiastic bowlers, a green for returned soldiers has been completed in the Angas College grounds, North ' Adelaide.

| The K'atoomba Club had an attrac- ! tive tournament running at Easter, I which included trailing, drawing and ; driving contests. Something of a | similar nature will take place to-day j on the Kahutia green. _ At every tournament. Dominion or ! otherwise, there is trouble over spectators sitting in the ditch at the ■ back of players. The practice is I wrong, and should be firmly prevented. I know a skip (and doubtless there are others) who find their green by a mark, imaginary or otherwise, on the bank, and with the bairn obscured by moving legs they are handicapped seriously in a big game. Another thing, the pegs .are sometimes covered up, and this is not a fair thing to the players. >n the Burton trophy competition at Napier trouble arose through a driven jack striking a spectator in the ditcn, and consequently being burned. Who can tell how far such a happening may harm one side or the other? It may mean the loss of the championship. No one should' be allowed between the pegs of a rink when a game is being played. When one considers the strenuous play at tournaments, it is marvellous what staying powers some old players possess. Maybe it is the exercise of bowling that gives . them them remarkable vitality. One old trojan of a Napier Club, took his hat on on the Monday on account of being heated by the exertion of the game, but as he said you must play ’n your club colors-he .took the band olt his hat and put it round his head looking like a Roman victor. lutt e humorous incidents like these show the stamina and pluck of the individual, and is a good! example of perseveiance to the younger player There is one t>omt I would like to remark upon in connection with a local tourney. Players! when . they enter a tournament should be prepared to see the thing through arid Sot disappear from the green after one day’s play. Some players at Easter when their., chances were vusnie did not put in an appeal ance second day, and this put the committee to a.lot of trouble in securing substitutes, and caused heartthat the committee on futur , jons "W penalise plajers so offendm The Pairs competition of * *!- hutia. Club is matans: steady progr ■ . . JTSEinCVfet 9 SXtca, and Spiersband Leydon are lead,ng an the section.