BOWLING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12478, 23 January 1904, Page 7

BOWLING.

The Northern Bowling Association's tournament was brought to a closs 011 Tuesday last with the finals for the Citizens' Trophies Match, the plums ill this, as in the interclub matches, bring parried oil by one of the visiting tew "s, Aucklanders, however, do no*'- begrudge the Southern bowlers their well-won bono,.is, and arc quite satisfied to know that their efforts to provide the brotherhood from other parts with an C; _ ~y-able able time and good bowling were successful. On all 1 anils the visitors expressed themselves delighted with theii stay in our lair Northern city, voted the tournament of 1904 the most successful in the annals of North island bowling, and spoke in most flattering term., of tho hospitality of the local men and the excellence of the greens on which they played. Thus we are amply rewarded.

Before :-aching on the main features of the tournament it is clearly my duty to place on record an appreciation of (he untiring efforts of those at tho head of affairs, tue gentlemen ,vho were mainly responsible for tii' general management of the 1904 gathering, which passed off without a single hitch. First and foremost comes Mr. J.

11. Mentiplay, the popular and courteous secretary of the Northern Bowling Association, who looked to ihe detail work and mapped out tho programme. Those duties could not wall have been in better hands. He had everything 'at his finger-ends, and day in and day out the tournament went on as smoothly as possible. A worthy lieutenant was Mr. B. J. Esitm, secretly of the Auckland Association, who was ever at Mr. Mtntiplay's elbow anxious and ready to lighten

the burden oi his chief, while others to lend valuable assi tauee . were Messrs. J. Carlinv, C. New la net. and A. Sneddon. Those who assisted to entertain the visitors have already claimed mention, but I will, no doubt, l>e pardoned for again referring to the garden party arranged by Mr. and Airs. Kirker, at their beautiful home at "Tarn," Pon onby. This was the crowning piece as far as the entertainments were concerned, and host and hostess must have felt rewarded for their efforts when they heard the flattering references made on all sides to the success of the function.

And now to the tournament, the chief honours in connection with which went to Wellington. Giving a fine exhibtion of the game all through, tiie bowlers from the Em-

pire City carried everything before them, eventually reaching the final for the coveted N.B.A. flag, in which they were opposed by tho Po-sonby representatives, It was a rare battle between them for the interclub honours, a neek-ani'.-iieek struggle in the closing stage;-, from which the visitors emerged triumphant, and deservedly sc. Ballantyne's I'onso.iby 'aain carried too many guns for the Wellington men skipped by the well-known ex-Aucklander, Neil Me-

Lean, and it was left, to the veteran skip, Lcckio, to turn the tid? in favou l ' of the visitors. His comrades on tin adjoining rink had retired defeated (I'd to 15), but tnis only nerved the old gentleman for a •u----preme effort. The aggregate scores on the completion of the twentieth head were 34

to 33 in favour of the visitors, leaving the Ponsonby team skipped by Kirker with one point to get to tie and two to win. The local players got a couple on the jack, and everything depended on tho skips. With his first liOckie failed to alter the position, but, drawing beautifully with his second, he rested on the shot, bowl, leaving Wellington one up. Kirker then tried to draw allot, but came up rather narrow and failed, leaving Wellington victors on the aggregate by 35 to 33. Thus it- was that the N.B.A. flag for 1904 was lost and won, and it came as if surprise to see the Wellington men in their enthusiasm carry the -veteran skip shoulder high to the pavilion, as he, and he alone, had won them the- day. Although defeated the Ponsonby men made a gallant bid for the honours, and deserve a warm word of praise for the splendid uphill fight they made, after starling out so badly. Lookie is a paymaster in the art of drawing, and, though not a believer in the driving game, can drive with the best of them when this course is doomed necessary.

Next in importance to the inter-club contest was the competition for tho handsome trophies presented by the citizen of Auckland. As in the ease of the championship the loading prizes were carried off by visitors, the winder in this match being tre representatives of tho Dunedin Club Messrs. McDonald, Buchanan, Payne, and Allnufc (skip). Team after team went under to tho bowlers from the South—who, man for man, played a sound and -insistent game—and that their win was full of merit may be gathered from the fact that in tho tii>al they were opposed to no kss a formidable lot than the Wellington quartette (McLean, skip). The Dunedin men jumped away with the lead, but their opponents began to close up alt.or the third head and when two-thirds of the game had been completed had ?.4 points on the board to Ounediu's 16. Dune-

dinites then set their t' jth, and Allr.utt. and

Payne doing good wo"k when Wellington looked dangerous, the scores were 26 to 16, ) in favour of De.uedin when the twenty-li -st head was commenced. MeL«an, whoso' driv- J i"K was dtiadly, had been making desperate efforts to save the sifciatioa for Wellington, but, veil though he played, i: was now pract'u.ily certain that Dunedia wo aid win, aj serun noints were wanted to reach them, arid the possible to win. Wellington died game, improving their position by two points* but, as McLean had sent up 'his lust, the Dunedin skip wisely d«.'iri.;d to ic».ve " well'' alone and wasted bis final Ixnvl, the match thus ending: Dunedin 23, Wellington 18. Oa all hands the winners were warmly congratulated on their success, which was in every w:>y meritorious and well deserved. In presenting the trophies AT-. Kirk,er said the Dunedinites had all through tho piece proved themselves hard nub. to crack, and a facetious individual it? tho crowd caop<-d this with All mitts." Space is valuable this week, but j cannot close without reference u, a pair of very old Ixiwls that Mr. H. King brought back with hun oh his return irom »'•«■ Mother Oauntr;,"recently. Naturally »« a bowler he made a iioi.it of visiting the K.-gluh bowling greens, i,it>luding that belonging to the Southampton 01 üb, where, on pitrodii'-ing himself ,->s a member of th'j fraternity from far-away New /faland, hu was ma le welcome, and everything possible was done to make .".is tisit to the green enjoyabH. In order that the occasion might be kept green in the memory of thf guest one of the officials suggested iliat r. pair of old bo vis m the club's possession might bo ptable to the guest. The Auoklander willingly acquiesced, and had presented to hit) a pair of bowls upwards of 100 years old. Though rather smaller the bowls were otherwise very similar to those now in use, beyond the foot that the were of mother-of-pearl instead of ivory. Tho recipient had a box made for them in r<ondoti, and. O.i his return home, presented them to the Auckland Club. The bowls I'pve , been given a i>iaoe in she clubhouse, whore

(hoy may be seen at any time by those interested. it may be mentioned that the .Southampton Club's green was in existence a? far back as 1299, and 13, therefore, upwards of 600 years old.