BOWLING.

Grey River Argus, 15 December 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

BOWLING.

(By “Straight Wood.”) -At a meeting of the Committee of the Greymouth Club held this week it was decided that the first rounds of the (’hampion Singles and Champion Pairs Competitions must be completed by December 19th and the first rounds of the Club Pairs and Handicap Singles by December 22nd. As far as the Champion Singles and Pairs are concerned there should be no difficulty whatever in getting all the games off as by far the large-t . portion have already been played and if any players are cut out on account of not having played their matches they will only have themselves to blame. In connection with the other two competitions however some difficulty will be experienced in completing the first rounds as no great number of matches have yet been played. In the Handicap Singles each player had fiv e games to play and in no section has any player completed his matches, and quite a few have only played two and a number have not yet played one game. In the Club Pairs, at the time of I writing, only two games have been played, o it is practically impossible

to get all th e games off by the date fixed by the Committee. Under the circumstances it might be wise of the Committee to extend the time for completing the first rounds of these com petitions to the end of December. Entries lor the Dominion Tourna nient to be held at Wellington in January, close to-day. What has happened to the West Centre? It is n.,w ihe middle of December and the programmes for the annual tournament i.» be held early in February have not yet made their appearance!

A recent champion of England, a Londoner with a whimsical way of talking upon all things 'that have to do with bowls, was discovered sitting on a bankside watching the final heats of an important single handed tournament the other day. Asked why he had not entered for the event this season, he replied: “My woods won’t permit me; they have gone on strike by order of their Union.” Pressed to explain himself, he expounded this whimsey, that, in consequence of lending his full set of woods to a novice (who performed so badly with them that he was obliterated by an even less experienced player) the woods had reported the matter to their union, who instruct ed them that they were to adopt the ca’canny policy and give their real owner a bad time. “In other words.” said I. “you wish to infer that in conseqence of lending your woods to a novice, who played a bad game with them, you fancy you cannot play any more accurate bowls with them?” And this Londoner, who has won everything in bowls, even the single rink at Hastings, had to confess that that was the state he was in at the moment. He had fallen out with his tackle and all the trying in the world will not give him confidence in them. Why does this curious state of affairs happen? Is it temperament, or is it actually that the woods have changed and become less accurate? I believe it is both. Once a player believes that his woods are letting him down he may as well get rid of them. Woods do change, as I have reason to know. One of my complete sets, during the present spell of hot weather, became unmanageable. N o 2 began to take more land than was his habit, and No. 3 wobbled and showed his well drilled “eyes” in an alarming manner. I took them to a manufacturer’s weighing room and found that they had all become different in weight. Placing a set of calipers over them disclosed the fact that No. 3 was badly warped, and so had lost its balance. No. 4 was pulling two feet (on a 30ft trial) more than its companions. They ar e now being reduced to a set of ladies’ bowls. This goes to prove that there is some wisdom in the periodical tests of bowls which the E.B.A. have enforced upon competitors in the leading events of each season. Unconsciously. many men are playing with woods that have either become straight or have changed shape., and so become possessed of more bias than they need bear under the rules of the game.

Mr Marcus Marks, president of th? Wellington Bowling Centre, was in good form at the opening of the Lyall Bay Club in Wellington. After the usual congratulatory remarks about the club, its president, and its green. Mr Marks told a story. He related, from out of his store of fiction, that when he was in London some years ago. he was fascinated by the manner in which the traffic was so admirably controlled by the metropolitan police. One member of the force, who was on duty at Oxford Circus, enchained his atention by the regularity in which he not only attended to the motor traffic but also those on foot. He would wave his hands in a certain way, and then change th e action and call out “Pedestrians!” and on each occasion the people who were walking trooped over in safety at his invitation. This was repeated several times, and on each occasion the people who were walking trooped over in safety at his invitation. This was repeated several times, and on each occasion when he gave the word “Pedestrians” everyone who wished to cross the street at that busy junction walked over except one old lady who wore an anxious look on her face and seemed ready to make the venture of crossing on each occasion. After the third call to “Pedestrians!” the old whose patience was quite exhausted, shouted out, “For the love of Mike, whin are ye goiu’ to give the Roman Catholics a chance?”

Th e usual Progressive Tournaments will be held on the local green on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Names to be in the box at 9.45 and commence at 10 o’clock each day. RUN AN GA BOWLING NOTES. Great interest is being taken in the Mclntosh Badges and Rae Buttons. Players taking part have shown keen interest in the games. The following

are the results: —Mclntosh Badges: Halliday’s rink beat Southward’s. In the fololwing round Halliday beat Rae and Leach beat Halliday; the latter are now the holders of the badges.

Kroening and Armstrong are the present holders of the Rae buttons. It looks like the veteran Nat eLaeh meeting his Waterloo this season for the Singles Championship with some of the players. Leach just won on the last head in his game witn Kroening, a last year colt. We wish to thank our Greymouth friends for the very flattering remarks regarding our green.