BOWLING TEAMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20740, 6 December 1930, Page 17

BOWLING TEAMS.

METHODS OF SELECTION. PLAYERS RETAINING PLACES. THE VALUE OF SPECIALISATION. BY JACK O'GHEEN. Lately wo have heard a lot about, Empire Freo Trade. I certainly like an idea tliafc has reached that bright paper Powls News from Canada. The bowler who tells of it went from England to Canada, and ho is impressed by tho method of choosing teams adopted by tho Alexandra Bowling Club, his new club there. The first point of the method is that the selection committee allots a mender a position. He remains in this for tho whole season. "Once a second, always a second" —at least as far as ono season is concerned.

In rink competitions tho committee makes up the list and posts it to each member of tho club. Each player, therefore, knows his skip and the composition of his rink for the season in the rink competition Pairs and doubles competitions are done on the same lines.

On days when no competition is being played a blackboard is used. As each player arrives on tho green his name is called out and entered. Rinks are compiled from tho players present and tho number of the rink on . which the gamo is being played is marked. In addition to this there are no tea intervals, except on special occasions. Tho whole strikes me as being excellent, apart from tho lack of intervals.

The idea of allotting each bowler a position in which he is to remain in all rinks as far as possible throughout the season is not a new one, but it is interesting. It cuts clean across our own ideas of the need for versatility and votes frankly for specialisation. What Specialisation Does. Specialisation does win championships, there is no doubt, about that. When tho leader, the second, the third and the skip are all complete specialists at their jobs a rink of four skips collected from different clubs may bo made to. look like a scratch team. A n d after all they aro a scratch team. That is one objection that has been levelled at English county and international selectors. In making up their rinks they look for the men with tho widest reputations, who are usually skips. If they looked for specialists in the four positions they might collect better teams.

That, at least, is a view put forward by critics. I am not absolutely sure that I agree with it. Certainly, a team of specialists should beat a team made up of men who usually all play in the same position, but tho skip should bo a man who knows every shot in the game, and, that, being so, if he is chosen to play second, he should be as good a second as any—provided he is willing to play wholeheartedly as second, without any eye on the privileges of tho appointed skip. Tile dangers of specialisation to tho individual player must be considered. I have noticed that many bowlers who habitually lead in rinks of four will play to the jack with shots of characteristically fine draw. This is possible strategy on the part of a leader with a clean run, but it is not so easy for a later player. There are skips, too, who are inclined to overwork the firing shot. In fact, it is often possible to tell the favourite position in a rink of four of any player by his methods of drawing to tho jack. Knowledge of All Shots.

A player who aims to become a matchwinner must know all the shots in the game; at least, he must have known them once. My personal view is that a bowler in his early career as a player should get as much experience in various positions as he can. Afterwards, when he has real hopes of making his mark in the game, he may specialise. A small club that can field a team of specialists will often defeat much larger clubs fielding teams not made up definitely until the last moment. The most striking example of this recently was a village club that won its English county finals. The team was not even drawn from the village. It consisted of a farmer and three of his workers. They bad practised together as a team until they formed a combination more ttrtm usually difficult to beat. They defeated in the county final a club that could draw for its rink on five or six hundred members. .

Four players who study and practise together as a rink and get all the match experience they can against the rinks of equal and better standing, should eventually reach the higher flights of the game, no matter how small the club from which they come. The first player must cultivate a deadly knack of drawing to the jack—a few inches behind, or level, or occasionally an inch or two in front. He must never be short of the jack, except by previous understanding for the working but of a team tactic. The second player should have the same ability at the draw, with the added willingness to draw wherever ho is told to lie. The third player must add a sure touch in rooting out a wood to the talents of tho,other two. The skip is, of course, tactician-in-chief and a player of allround skill.

Bowls is the one game that a player can keep up throughout a lifetime. He is not too young at twenty nor too old at sixty. That is why real study of the technique of the game must result in tho attainment of a degree of skill that adds interest to your pastimo and a zest to your life.