BOWLING NOTES

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 817, 25 February 1916, Page 24

BOWLING NOTES

By Wrong Bias.

THE conditions on Saturday afternoon were admirable for the annual match between Wellington (the mother club) and the combined forces of all the other clubs of the city and suburbs. It was a bright midsummer day, the greens were in tip-top order and keen as glass, and the only fly in the bowler's amber was the wind, which was tricky and fickle as Kitty herself. This annual fixture was instituted in 1905, and although it has been played every year since, the mother club has always come out on top. On the present occasion fourteen clubs responded to the challenge, Seatoun being the only one unrepresented. Each sent a rink of four players—not necessarily its best of course, for Victoria and Petone were both engaged elsewhere with Pennant matches —and Wellington put 14 rinks in the field against them, winning 13 out of the 14 games and scoring 360 points against 214. This is a truly remarkable result. Newtown's rink was the only one that registered a win against Wellington, and it certainly put its best foot foremost. Its team consisted of Roberts (not J. J.), Sexton, Jack Brackenridge, and Wylie, and against them were pitted Grenfell, Remington, Dixon, and E. J. Hill. They played on the upper green, and for 15 heads it was a neck-and-neck go, the scores being 14-all on the 15th head. Then Newtown put on a spurt, making a break of 4 heads for 1-6-3-3, which made the score 27 to 14. They never looked back, and the game finished 31 to 16. An even more remarkable game was progressing alongside the one just noticed. It was remarkable for the lopsided score, 40 to 6, and yet the Khandallah rink (skipped by the veteran J. A. Plimmer), which compiled the meagre half-dozen was not playing badly. Only the Wellington rink (skipped by Horner) was doing just a little better and playing in excellent combination. As a matter of fact, Plimmer and his men only scored in three heads out of the 21, viz., 1 on the first head, 4 on the sixth head, and 1 on the 20th head,' while their opponents steadily plugged away, their biggest contribution being one 5 and two 4's. But the total was. 40 to 6, and Horner had revenge for being rubbed out (12 down) by J. A. Plimmer in the first Pennant match of the season. There was one other peculiar lopsided game—played on the lower green—between Gooder (skipping for Wellington) and McArthur (skipping for Kelburn). Gooder's rink slapped on 45 while their adversaries were getting 11, and the 45 included three 6's and one 7 —one short of the possible. There was no room on the ditch side for the wide-drawing

bowls of the Kelburnites, and several times a lucky trail of the kitty gave Wellington a hatful. For the niost part the other games were very evenly contested. An exception was Geo. Brown's game against the Haitaitai four skipped by Hendry. They played alongside Horner's rink, and chalked up 25 to the Hataitai-ans' 9. Berry had a good win, 34 to 17 against Conlin ("'horndon), and Erskine was 9 up agaLi-.t Scott (Victoria), while Porteous and Andy Hamilton each had a score_ of 21 to 11 against Styles (Johnsonville) and Greenwood (Upper Hutt) respectively. McLennan of Karori gave the veteran Bary a good run (16 to 24), and Treadwell (Lower Hutt) kept the wary Sievwright going eyes out (17 to 23), while J. P. Brandon (Lyall Bay) .had "Webb strictly confined to business (16 to Webb's 22).' Bert Shortt for Eastbourne made the pace warm for Tom Ballinger, who won by the margin of 5. The closest games of all were put up by Marsden (Petone) against Moult (19 "to 22), and by Benzie (Te Hiwi) against Churchward (16 to 20). As usual, the utmost cordiality prevailed, and the Wellington Club pjayed the role of host right up to the knocker. * * * * The record of these matches is worth appending: — Wellington. Rest of Clubs. 1905 275 215 1906 266 263 1907 354 217 1908 350 249 1909 357 248 1910 325 324 1911 336 256 1912 312 305 1913 334 297 1914 290 255 1915 398 265 1916 360 214 * * * # Johnsonville is proving a hard nut to crack for those Edwin Feathers. Petone on Saturday sent Barnett, Dixon, Hutchinson, and Wakelin out after them, hut Johnsonville's warriors (A. Mills, Wackrow, Morgan, and Petrie) downed them by 23 to 13. In the Pennant series, Petone registered a good win against Victoria, 137 to 107, the go being six rinks a-side. Beynon's 30 for Petone against Norwood's 10 was the greatest pnishment. Coles was nearly as emphatic against Hemingway (30 to 14). The other four games were close and exciting. Hay 24 v. Snaddon 21, Melhuish 19 v. Redstone 22, Wearne 16 v. Langton 20, Stephens 18 v. Hunt 20. Kelburn won its match against Seatoun by 106 to 71. Dall scored 32 against Green's 12, Routley 21 against McGirr's 22, Tom Gray 16" against Fuller's 18, while McColl, with a full battery of electricity on, put on 37 against Webb's 19. * * * * The final for the Newtown Bowling Club's singles was decided last week, Jack Brackenridge beating Geo. Noble straight out in a best-two-out-of-three contest in which the games were anybody's up till the seventeenth head. Ex-cricketer and now enthusiastic bowler, Fred Laws, has presented to the Newtown Bowling Club a very fine enlarged portrait of its last year's president, the late Mr. James Trevor.

The likeness is a speaking one, and will serve to recal to all who knew him memories of one who was a man in every sense of the word. An eight-rink game between the club "ayont-the-tunnel!" and Newtown ended in a win for the Hataitai Club by 15 points—l4o to 155. Curious to relate, the Newtown total on each green was the same, 70, and there was a difference of one only in the total of the other, the Hataitains notching 78 away and 77 at home. At Hataitai, Mem Laurenson brought off the biggest win for the home rinks by beating Porter and Co. by 26 to 12. With three heads to go he was in a majority of 3, but after that -! "Dominie" Parkinson, for Newtown, received a somewhat similar "Gruar-ling" from Pryor, 11-23, but even here it was a run of scoring that did it, a 5, a 4, and a 2, being the tally to the Hataitai rink on three consecutive heads. The hefty Martin's rink went under to J. J. Flyger and Co. to the tune of 21-11. Jim was 2 down on the third head, 1 to Martin's 4. The next six heads added 10 to the Newtown score, and then Martin gathered in four singles. ' Flyger then put on 8 in the next four heads, ultimately winning as above. Toronto for ever. Williams, of Hataitai, "bit the dust" in his game against Newtown's Spiers, 17-26. Eight all on the fourth head (Williams got a 6on that head) gave place to 13-all on the ninth. The visitors had the better of the second half of the game and won. At Newtown, Joe Martin's home rink (with the veteran Geo. Prince playing as substitute lead) had too many guns for Penney, winning by 30 to 15, averaging two a head from the 10th to the 16th inclusive. Ex-Newtownite Peter put on 6 in the first four heads of his game against Popple, which the latter equalised in the next two. Score 9-all on the tenth head, 10-all on the twelfth, 14-13 on the seventeenth, and then "Pop" gathered in a handy 5. "Mac" could get singles only on the remaining heads, and lost, 16-19. Bailey, another old Newtown member, "came home" all right in his game against Walter Read's rink after a very hard-fought pame right through. T7p tft the thirteenth head there were only 18 points scored, each team claiming 9 of them. Four heads later Read was only 3 down, 12-15, but from then on the visitors scored another 8, the game ending, 23-12. The biggest "walloping" of the day was that administered by A. G. Claridge to Bert Tonks. On the tenth head the board read 16-0! and a very lopsided game ended up, 24-9. Grand totals, 155-140. A last season's junior rink from Newtown travelled out to the Lower Hutt and_ had a good day and a good game against a team skipped by the popular Tom Jones. On the 17th head the visitors were.23 to the Hutt's 9, but the home team got away on the last four heads, more than doubling their score, the game ending, 23-20. The Underwood Cup competition is giving rise to some great surprises on the Newtown green, some of the outsiders coining to light in great style. The Champion Pairs competition is almost ended up at Newtown, Crengel and Duff (skip) and Levestam and Wylie (skip) having each a leg-in in the final.

The triangular duel between the Wellington, Lower Hutt, and Wanganui Clubs for the Duthie Cup (two rinks a-side) has been decided in favour of ■Wangamii. In the first game, Wangamii beat the Hutt by 2, and in the second game Wellington beat the Hutt by 7. In the third game, Wanganui was 4 points too good for. Wellington. McFarlane tied with Berry, and London secured the major points against Moult.