Bowling Notes.

Free Lance, Volume XIX, Issue 1029, 18 February 1920, Page 22

Bowling Notes.

By Wrong Bias,

iTfie Rotorua Tournament. v g_J> OTORUA'S annual bowling tournament is a most enjoyable fixture. Its reputation has spread far -and wide, .and bowlers m quest of a real good time don't require any urgln£ to. "Be up." The 18th tourney of the series opened on Tuesday last, and 55 rmks lined up to hear President J. R. Reynold's opening oration. He mentioned amongst other tilings that the new bowling greens to be .laid off—where tennis has • hitherto been played (in front of the Sanato-rium)—-will enable Rotorua to compete for the honour of being chosen •as the scene of the Dominion Bowling Association's tourneys m future. He also took the opportunity of advertising Rotorua's curative waters. "Look -at me," he said. " I'm a living example of Rotorua's healing power.' When. I first came here fourteen doctors had examined me, and they were unanimous in giving me not more than a . month to live. ' Well, that's a good many years, ago, and I don't feel at all like pegging out even yet." : The 55 rinks that • competed at the tournament were grouped into five sections of - eleven rinks each,- and every rink was assured of ten games. Auckland ,Oity-; and Rotorua contributed a goodly share of the 1 rink's, and among •the rest were rinks, from Napier, GisT}orne, Hamilton, Tauranga, Te Aroha, Masterton, as wellas two from Wellington,, one - skipped by Geddis (Wellington Club) and the other (skipped 'by Jackson, of /the Victoria. Club) included such well-known Victorians as 3?red Townsend, Marcus Marks and •Keith. Geddis's rink comprised Csyril Tanner, Wilkie, and Major Davy. . The. usual iips and- downs ;of the .-game were strongly in evidence. In "the first round Norrie JBell (skipping a Hamilton rink) met his former clubmates of the Wellington Club. At "the 15th head, Geddis was 1 up and lying four shots, when' with his last "bowl Bell drove_ the jack into the . ditch and lay four himself. In other words that last bowl made a difference ,of •eight points, and . was the turning point in the game, Bell winning by 26 -to 16. ' In tlie next round Bell's Hamiltonians were pitted against Prag'nell's "Apostolic rink" "(Matthew, Mark,. Luke, and John), and after a strenuous game, Pragnell's Apostles got the "winning point in a sensational finish. The Apostles from Masterton immediately. afterwards .. were beaten by {Jeddis's rink by 29 to 13. : ' . Jackson's , Victorians started strongly "by winning their first three games.' They are in capital form, and ought to be well up in their section. ' . A game that attracted great attention was that between Noorian's Te Aroha rink (champions in a former ■tournament) and Professor Maxwell Walker's Ponsonby rink, which recently went South and carried all before them at both Wanganui and Wellington. It was a ding-dong "go" between the two champion rinks until the last "two heads, when Walker lost six joints in one head, and went down with a thud.. Walker, in one of his other made the possible (eight points) in one head. A feature of this tournament is the growing penchant for mascottes. Nor-, rie Bell's was a negro girl doll dressed in ajellow silk band —his club's col- . •ours being black and yellow, and this mascotte was fixed by a lady's hatpin ; "to the top of the scoring board. Cheek l)y jowl' with it was the opposing skip's mascotte—a "kewpie." Another rink's mascotte was a toy bulldog.

If this craze goes ou every club in time will have its emblem, and every rink will b'ej searching for mascc&tes;. Another ; thing ; that is growing amongst the bowler & is a strong determination to insist; that the oldfashioned plan . of playing three matches a day shall be knocked on the head for good and all. • Three "games a day makes hard work of what should be a- pleasure, and tells. severely upon aged players. The recent tournament at Christchurch put the last nail into the coffin of this old-fashioned programme. The "new idea is two games of •25 heads each day, and to cut "singles" out of the - programme, and, if necessary, doubles also. If two games a day had been the rule at Christchurch the £400 or £500 spent- upon catering would have been nearly all saved, and the bowlers would have been ab3t> to go to their hotels for. the _ luncnes which were charged up against them, but never eaten. _ The success of the Rotor u a tourney is largely due to the energy and personality of the secretary, Mr. G. Hunt, who is a born organiser, and a moot painstaking and good-natured fellow. The bowlers' appreciation is taking the form cvf a complimentary presentation. For the second Rotorua tournament,

FEIN IRELAND, Fortify their barracks against Sinn Fein raids with heavy "steel shutters, bristling with "rifles.

This giant ox was bred in the Taranaki district of New Zealand.' He is seven years old, stands 18 hands high, is 11 feet in girth, 11 feet 4 inches from nose to tail, and his prime weight is 31801bs, which i& claimed to be the live-weight record of the world. Mr Jeff Johnson owns tEe beast, which lie is taking to America via Australia next month, and will show him at the Argentine Exhibition, to be held next year at Buenos Ayres, South America. ; • e • . • . .

starting on. Monday, -23rd February, two Wellington >r rinks have : entered, viz., one from . Hataitai and a Welling Club rink skipped by H. W. Frost.