BOWLING.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 12 February 1921, Page 4

BOWLING.

TARANAKI TOURNAMENT.

(By Five Down.)

The executive of the Taranaki Centre are to be congratulated upon the manner in which the recent tourna-j ment was run, and needless to say 'their efforts were flilly appreciated, by assembled bowlers.' It was a jovial gathering, and those who failed to score many wins were compensated by meeting real good sports and cracking jokes as play proceeded. The whole of the greens were exceedingly fast, and this resulted at times in large .scores being recorded against rinks that failed .to estimate their strength. , Thus rinks that had been coming out well presently struck a green that puzj zled them, and went down badly. It was all in the game, however. »

, One little incident that occurred on opening day at West End is worthy of mention. Players were somewhat astonished to see the president (Mr J. Sole) bring out an old fowling-piece and lean it against the pavilion pre-, patory to making a few remarks.-After congratulating bowlers on the weather, etc., he went on to allude to a few rules that it was necessary to observe —such as keeping at least one foot on the mat, the retirement to the bank after delivery of their bowls of firsts and seconds—and, pointing to the gun, said he hoped there would be no necessity to use it to enforce these rules. Bowlers were tickled, but the gun carried weight, as there were no infringements bf the rules.

It used to be considered that the game of bowls was one exclusively for elderly men, but year by year the younger element is creeping in, and unless some restrictions are enforced there i.» reason to fear that ere long grey-haired men will be conspicuous by. their absence. The pity of it! Unless physically unfitted for the more strenuous games of cricket, tennis, etc., no young man should be encouraged to join bowling clubs. I hope these few remarks will have the desired effect. It should not be altogether a question of increased membership.

At the social evening held in connection with the tournament—a most enjoyable affair of song and speechmaking—Mr Christie, of. Wanganui, in replying to the toast of "The Visitors,' 5 touched upon a matter of interest to bowlers, and that was the compulsory- stamping of bowls. He considered the question of whether a bowl took sufficient bias or not was one that might safely be left to the honour of bowlers. Were this the case the man with "narrow" bowls would mighty soon replace them, as players continuing, to. use su\;h bowls would be marked men. Mr Christie referred to golf as an illustration of his argument, and said if men returned incorrect cards once or twice that would be an end to their careers on the links. The very fact of placing men on their honour ensured good sport without compulsion.

A pleasing feature of the tournament was a "Diggers" rink—boys who had done their bit on the battlefields of Europe, and now thoroughly entered into the enjoyment of 'kissinp; "kitty." They put up a good fight, and received three rousing cheers when eventually put out by one point in the semi-finals.

Could we but see ourselves as others see us on the green, we might excuse the antics of the other fellow after the delivery of a bowl. It affords intense amusement to onlookers (especially non-bowlers) to watch the different attitudes of players, and even children will rehearse before their parents the comicalities they have witnessed. - But perhaps the player.who follows his bowl right down the green is the one who should be taken seriously; he becomes an intolerable nuisance. In th% gun incident referred to above that portion relating to leads and seconds geting on the bank after playing their shots might be followed with advantage outside of tournaments. Oftentimes a third finds the greatest difficulty in getting near a head to instruct his skip—the lead or second man will do" all that for him. Every man who takes up bowling! should be made acquainted with the! rules of the game at the start. j

As already recorded the final (after postponement) was played on Monday afternoon.