FOWLING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 929, 30 January 1924, Page 2

FOWLING.

[By “Wrong- Bias.”) Competit ion matches on the Palmerston North Club's green , have been held up by tho holidays. The A grade pairs competition lias reached the semi-final, but a number of matches remain to be played in the singles. Other competitions—champion pairs and champion ririles —havo hardly commenced and yet th© season is well advanced. Comments have, from time to time, been made that bowlers do not study th© rules as they should, especially in tournament play. A ('hristchnrch paper the other day made pointed reference to the habit of some skips altering score cards so as to make a defeated darn’s score look better. Such a practice hu nothing to commend it and should bo i .topped. The Manaw atu Centre s Easter tournament will be held very soon now and “Wrong Bias” would like to see tho centre have the umpires appointed arid thoroughly coached in the rules before play commences.’ To see a bow-ler deliver his bowls with two feet off the mat and running half-i'ay up the green after his wood is very -tu d and the umpires should be there to stop such practices and, after the warning, i r the rules are again broken, to disqualify the players guilty. Ail incident which, the writer is informed, occurred during the New Year tourney is one that should be stopped if it happens again. A rink commenced badly and suddenly, without a request to the opposing skip, two players changed positions and afterwards played much better. As it happened, the opposing t jam won, but only aftei a tight match th> position of the gome being totally alter id’ when two players reversed their place i in the defeated rink. One of tne features of the week-end play on tho Ea tbourne bowling green is the antics of a fix terrier, "Scamp,” who invariably accompanies his master to the green (savs a Wellington paper). Nothing gives the" dog more pleasure than to be ulloived to play with one of the bowls lying about, which he DUshes with his nose around the banks of tie green. If the bowl should be accidontall i propelled by him on to the playing aiea, “Scamp” patiently waits for a kindly (imposed player—and they are all his friend, —to deposit the bowl again on the bank so that he can once more play with it an 1 talk to it in the canine tongue. “Scamp” is a well-trained dog, and ne knows that he must on no account trespass on the snmed playing area. A rumour is on foot according to the Post) that Dunedin is endeavouring lohave the next dominion tournament held there instead <-f in Wellington, because the South Seal Exhibition will then be m progress It is unlikely that any ohange will bo made in the locale of tho tournament more especially as bowlers from the north who have this year made one trip to die South Island will not he anxious to go farther south next year. No doub. a South Island tournament would be an additional attraction for the Dunedin Exhibition, and it so happens that it will b© permissible for the South Island to run a tournament next veur when the Dominion gathering i§ being l eld i n th© North Island. The meat discussed bowler at the Dominion tournament was the veteran W. Carswell, irorn the Taien Club, who won the singles championship. lie is the hero of many a hard-fought game in bygone tournaments, and, after participating for over t.hirt' years in first class bowls, he is at present (says an exchange) playing as we as ever. Ile played with remarkable skill m liis two final games for green winner o.i the Edgeware green, and his play was quitq, an education to the joungei g oration cf bowlers who were looking on. The following is a list of singles ohainplot,. -1814, Carlton, J. Kffsour; 1915, Pousonbv, M. Walker; 1916. Roslyn, it. Fountain; 1917, Wellington C. R- Iterate; 1913 Calt doman, W. Foster, 1919, r \ son by M. Walker; 1920 Dunedin E. T r-irr'Lwav • 1921 Newtown, J. INI. Brackenndgo ; 1912 North-East Valley J. C. Rigby f'1923, Ponsonby, M. Walker, 1924, Taieri- W. Carswell. The’firs: Rotorua tournament conimences on Monday and the second a fortnightlatei.