Bowls

Northland Age, Volume XVIII, Issue 40, 22 February 1949, Page 1

Bowls

MIXED FORTUNES IN BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIPS Excellent progress was made or Saturday to find the champion single: bowler and also the champion pa ; rs of the Kaitaia Bowling Club. At the close of play, the singles had been narrowed down to three : R. D. Hanlon (with both lives still intact), H. N. Freeman and V. Kingdon (both one-lifers). Freeman has now to play Hanlon, who took a life from him in an earlier round, and if successful will await the winner of Hanlon and Kingdon in the final ; if Freeman is not successful, Kingdon will hav e to defeat Hanlon twice to win the title. In the pairs, the final will be fought out between G. Surman and H. N. Freeman, and R. Michie and C. F. \\ erner, both pairs being one-lifers. Though the weather was well nigh perfect, the greens were holding after the week’s rain, making the task of getting close to the elusive kitty much easier than when keen and dry. This fact, too, enabled the more mod- ! erate player to compete on comparatively even terms with bowlers of higher reputation. The Pairs The biggest surprise of the day j :ame from K. Fyfe and J. Steen when hey defeated a much more favoured pair in R. D. Hanlon and M. Hammond. The latter pair had just scored i very comfortable win over Clark md Crosby, who had come into promnence with a series of successes in he N.Z. tournament, but could find | 10 counter for the remarkably con- ; dstent drawing of Fyfe (only a first .•ear player, substituting for North- i vood, who was absent sick. In fact t was Fyfe’s match, with his veteran >kip Steen giving the required sup>ort. They held the advantage hroughout. R. Michie and C. Werner were the inly pair to complete the day unbeatn, rising to all occasions with care- 1 ree harmony to eventually defeat he last remaining two-lifers, Surman ! ind Freeman, and enter the final. i They commenced proceedings by iefeating last year’s champions, F. 3raith waite and W. Parker, in an exiting finish. Parker started the last lead with two to the good on the )oard. but Werner made n 0 mistake vith the last bowl in using his two ounters to make three and the win. he next game was against D. Simms ind F. Weber, the latter substituting or L. G. Thompson, and until the ' 12th end Weber had a good grip on he match, but lunch intervened, and he president lost the initiative, Werler winning six heads in a row. Werner got away to a flying start igainst Freeman, thanks mainly to he enterprising play of his lead, R. ilichie, who without hesitation would ise any one of his three bowls to un the shot off whenever he failed o draw—and what’s more, he seldom ver missed. Werner led 12-4 on the •th, but Freeman reduced the deficit omewhat when he secured a nice our on the 18th and a further three m the 20th to enter the vital last .nly two points in arrears, 20-18. •urman drew close with his first, but gain Michie obliged by sliding just nside and stayed there, helped by excellent blocking by Werner, dthough Freeman tried with all his night. Surman and Freeman then defeated ' yfe and Steen 20-13, with accurate fitting by Freeman and every point laving to be worked for. The Singles Three singles matches were played md as well might be expected at his stage of proceedings they were ight up to standard. In fact, *he Freeman-Hammond clash was a classic, and it would seem that if one or ■ he other was in a different club the : Champion of Champions contests would be all the better for having j both these outstanding bowlers in ac- j tion. However, with the present setup there can only be one winner, and Freeman again turned up trumps — 1 but only just ! Hammond* having had a previous | game in the pairs, scored the possible in the first head, and keeping up the pressure led on the 7th, 12-3, but Freeman then took a hand to score 10 in five ends to lead 13-12. Hammond, drawing beautifully, again took ' the lead 15-13, Freeman responding to lead by one on the 16th, 16-15. Hammond’s turn came next, he scoring two. In an attempt to put Freeman off, Hammond threw a full length head, but Freeman out-drcw him to gain a valuable three. It was

again Hammond’s turn on the 20th, and he evened the score with two 19 all and the last end. Hammond’s first was only six inches away, but Freeman drew just behind right in front of kitty, and Hammond missed narrowly in his atempt to run it off. The two-lifers Hanlon and Clark also staged a dour struggle, with the superior hitting powers of Hanlon swinging the balance in his favour, there being four or five dead heads during the game in all of which Clark was well to the fore but Hanlon’s “bash bang” tactics came off. Hanlon scored ten consecutive one’s to lead 10-5 on the 14th, to go on and win 16-9. Clark then played Kingdon in a remarkably even game in which they evened the scores on no less than five times, to enter the final end 17 all. Clark held the shot until his second-to-last bowl, when in playing right up to the kitty he forced it away slightly to give the shot away. It was typical of the bad luck that had followed him throughout the day, first in the pairs then to lose both lives in succession. Kingdon, however, made no mistake with his next, and Clark’s atempt to draw was short j and Kingdon had made the grade into j the last three. After losing a life to Simms in the j first round, Kingdon has gone from | success to success, and with his 1 greatly improved form this season j has the chance of a lifetime in front' of him. The Draw Anderson, Murray, Carr, Hoskin j 19 ; H. Crene, L. Masters, Kumcich, Crosby 18. Stansfield, Stensness, Hart, Durney i 28 ; Puckey, Morrison, Sharon, Beazley 18. Millar, N. Masters, Wright, Lewis 24 ; A. W. Masters, Borovich, Mclntosh, Dyer 10. Booth, Gardiner, Watson, JoM 19 ; I Vegar, Gaudin, Gale, Dykes 16. Sanderson, Tunnicliffe, Kendrick, Colebrook 14 ; Jackson, West, Bird, • Sanders 13. McDonald, Theed, McKenzie 27 ; Paulson, Cave, Atkins 11.