FACTS, FIGURES, AND STRANGE FLEXURES'

Northern Advocate, 13 March 1948, Page 4

FACTS, FIGURES, AND STRANGE FLEXURES'

THE OLD MAN'S GAME . . .

(By Anstruther) “PHEW! . . . and they call it an old man’s game!” This weary remark was made by the winning skip in the recent Doel Pairs tournament at Whangarei. He had received his trophy, responded to the president’s congratulatory speech, and then emitted the above words as he slumped heavily on to a seat.

No member of the bowling fraternity would elevate his eyebrows on hearing such a statement. He knows only too well the toughness of this “senile” game, so often decried by non-participants as reserved “for the enfeebled, the tottery, and the aged.” Years ago when the sport, like golf, was more or less exclusive, this may have been partly true. Today the bowler has to call up all his physical and mental reserves to carry him through an ordinary day’s play in a tournament.

The placid bowler does not have to resort to the use of. shin pads, face guards, or other impedimenta, appertaining to the hotter-blooded pastimes; nor is he in danger of receiving thick ears or of stopping swift jabs to the short ribs.

drive, plus the muscular and cerebral energy expended during a game, may be more clearly grasped after a study of the following basic facts taken from one day’s play in the recent Doel Pairs tournament.

(1) Forty-eight two-man teams participated in six games of 15 ends, each man using three bowls. A small daughter (Std. 2 status) doing home lessons, aided me to reveal that there would be: (a) 96 players, (b) 288 games played, involving 4320 ends; (c) 51,480 bowls lifted, delivered, guided by remote control, and then kicked to the next starting-point.

(2) The unit of work is the footpound; that is, the effort expended in lifting one pound of weight through one foot of distance. Lifting the bowls preparatory to playing shots would alone require 725,760 foot-pounds. Put another way, this operation would burn up 1320 horsepower.

The execution of nifty footwork, necessary to evade hurtling spheroids of Henselite, lignum vitae, etc., after a