RINKS BOWLING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 45, 21 January 1939, Page 10

RINKS BOWLING

THE FINAL STAGES. FRANKS BEATS DEAIIE. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Jan. 21. In the final play of the New Zealand bowling rinks championship to-day, the teams were:—Carlton.—A. Taylor, D. G l . Fraser, J. Bird, G. A. Deare (skip). Balmoral.— C. F. Robertson, H. Franks, J. F. Benson, 4V. C. Franks (skip). The latter skip had two lives to Deare’s one.

Franks won by 32 points to 11 on the 18th head in the first game. The final will be played at 2 o’clock. On the first head Taylor held two, but Franks, junr., boat one for his first, and then trailed one for the shot. Fraser went through, and Bird drew a measure for the shot, but Brown settled it by tipping the white. Deare’s first trailer was a perfect toucher, and his second stopped in front. Franks used it to rub in on the jack, his toucher going too far to beat Deare.

The Carlton players drew first blood (1-0). On a great opening on the second head Franks landed on the jack to cut out Deare’s shot, and the Carlton skip could only replace his own bowl with another second shot (1—1).

The third end saw Balmoral four points down as Franks ran through with both howls when Carlton was lying four. The latter side had three counters on the fourth end when Franks smashed the head and moved the whole three, but he turned the jack, too, for Deare to count with a wide bowl (Carlton G—l). Franks had to fight hard to get one hack on fhe fifth head. The sixth was another disastrous end for Balmoral, as Franks moved three bowls with a drive, only to leave Carlton still lying a couple. He dropped short with his final bowl, and Deare’s last one promoted Fraser for a three (Carlton 9—2). Franks reduced the lead by two on the seventh end, and there was a great fight for the eighth, on which Franks’s perfect trail carried the white well past Bird’s protecting bowl, and Deare was wrecked on a short wood (Carlton 9—5). Tlie Balmoral skip next promoted Robertson’s opening howl to give him a two on the head (Carlton 9—7). Deare used his final bowl on the tenth to drive the jack into the ditch for a single (Carlton 10 —/). The eleventh head was all-important. Franks, junr., heat Taylor for the shot, and all missed until his father put one on it. Bird was over, and Deare was narrow with his first draw, and over and wide with his run. Franks played a perfect draw for a three to level the score for the first time (10 —10). BALMORAL GO AHEAD. Franks went into the lead on the 12th head, when he took advantage of a difficult opening to add a second after Deare thought he had made it safe for a single (Balmoral 12-—10). This was the beginning of the real end for, although the Carltonians got a point on tlie next head that happened to he their last score in the championship, for tlie Balmoral team by the 18th head had added another 20 points, making the score 32—11. Deare did not hesitate to then “call it a day.” as he would then have required 53 points (out of a possible 24) for victory on the next three heads. Franks, in his second year in Auckland. won the rinks championship at Christmas, 1935. This was his second year here, prior to which he had played for the Featherston and Masterton Clubs. His son Howard (No. 2) gives every appearance of being a worthy successor to one of the finest bowlers this country has produced. The final between 4V. C. Franks and A. Colinew (Mt. Albert), who is still the open champion of Auckland, is timed for 2 o’clock to-day. From the end of the sixth head Franks had scored 30 points to his opponent’s 2, probably a record recovery anywhere in the world.