BOWLING NOTES

Free Lance, Volume XIV, Issue 722, 2 May 1914, Page 25

BOWLING NOTES

By Wrong Bias.

HERE endeth the bowling season of 1913-14. Ushered in with an •parly spring and every prospect pleasing, the season did not belie" its -earlv. promise—in every way has it been .a successful one. The weather has been -excellent on the whole, and few indeed 'have been the Saturdays that weie marred by rain, though, of course, our gentle zephyrs will blow at all times. We were fortunate in.having good weatber :for our various holidays, and bowls'were • always a feature of those days. But the ■last days of the season saw, Jupiter "Pluvius "frowning on the pastime, and -the merry bowlers put away their compo. and lignum -vitae in their lockers, there to remain till the springtime once more fishers in the grand old summer pastime. . . Looking over the past season, we Wellingtonians can feel , proud ot .having won the highest laurels m the 'bowling world of New Zealand the rink -championship of New Zealand. Under the newly-formed Dominion Bowling Association. the first.New Zealand championship meeting was held at Dunedm, and there the Wellington Club achieved -distinction in carrying -off the first' New Zealand rink championship. With the -doings at that tourney all Wellingtonians are familiar, and warm was the praise, 'that was accorded to Grenfell, Erskine; 'Thom]Dsop, and Porteous (skip) for their -splendid victory. Of the doings of our Centre itself there is much to chronicle. It held a tourney at New Year, and a very suc--cessful one, tod. Here, too, did Porte■ous skip a team to victory, his comrades beinp- Kinvig, Manz, and Thompson. At "the Centre's tourney at Easter, Porteous • again won out, his team the same as at the Dominion tournament. Thus have thesei doughty men proved themsel■ves solid bowlers, and Porteous has shone out as our best skip of the season. The Wellington Club has ' thus a creditable record for- this winning of the Dominion rink championship and '"both the local tourneys. • The local champion of champions contests were keenly fought out this vear. The champion fours were won bv little Hataitai,- the team being Nicol. Martin. Barnes, and_ Laurenßon (skip). The ■champion piairs went to Victoria through ,the instrumentality of Hunt and Hues- ' ix>n (skip). Karori appropriated the championship, Crawford being the hero of the day. So the champion'ships are well distributed. ' The Pennant competition of the Centre elicited some keen play. Newtown won Section A and Petone Section B. In •'the play-off Petone secured the Pennant, and thus prevented Newtown from flying it for thei third year in succession. This is the first time Petone has won the Pennant, previous holders being Thorndon, Wellington, Newtown and Victoria. The Hill Pins, after being .keenly fought for during the season, are in the keeping "of thei Newtown Club. Strange to say, this is the only inter-club trophy Newtown hold as a result of the season's play. . The Edwin Feathers are fastened ; tightly on the hats of four Victoria Club These Saturday trophies fur-, nished good sport, and there should be plenty more games for them in the days .that are' to come. The holding team are North,. Hatch, Varcoe and Snaddon. Hataitai has proved its superiority over the other clubs in the matter of the ■diamond game, and retains possession of the Diamond Buckles till the call of the bowls next season. The stalwarts wearing the Buckles are Mitchell and Barnes (skip). One important feature of the past season was the visit of the Australian bowlers to the Dominion. Th£y gave us a .look-up, and incidentally defeated us as a Centre. • They would not have done so if the local clubs had been represented by their strongest players, and had not so much -attention been paid to the social side in the arrangement of the . teams. ■ The Wellington Club put in its strongest rinks in its game and beat the Australians. Why didn't the Centre do likewise ? The first competition this year for the Stansell Shield, which iB open tothe Hataitai, Lyall-Bay,. and Seatoun Clubs, and not under the control of the Centre, was won by Lyall Bay. ' Another competition not under the Centre's control was the Presidents' Cup, between the Petone and Hutt Clubs, which was agaiii won this year by Petone. The Jerusalem Cup, for. which the outlying Johnsonville and . Khandallan

Clubs compete, was won by the former, after each club getting in a win. The various club championships and competitions have been well fought out, but as I have not "the particulars available of the results of all club championships, I am unable to enumerate the several winners. However, I wish the various winners the best of _ luclc, and may they have a good time in the seasons that are to corfle. The membership, 1 of our clubs has gone .up during the past season, but there are still a number of who have not responded to the lure 'of the biassed bowl. To them I commend Elbert Hubbard'is advice under the: heading of "Ninety-nine per cent, efficiency." "We want to be very much awake in the daytime, and very much asleep in the night," he declares, "and in order to attain this we must do something that will_ keep us very much awake in the daytime and make' us sleep soundly at nighi." Try bowls;it just fills Hubbard's bill. "Live out of doors as much as possible, work, play, study, laugh, flavour all with love, and you have the key to ninety-nine per cent, efficiency.". That's bowls again. Now; ye knights of the biassed bowl, I join with you in putting away my paraphernialia until October ushers in the new season. We a:ll sympathise one with another at our enforced retirement from our beloved game, but we all look hopefully forward, . when a few short' 'months have rolled, to a happy reunion when again we shall; trundle on our trim green swards and wish each other good luck in the new-born season.