BOWLING NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20889, 3 June 1931, Page 13

BOWLING NOTES.

WINTER GAMES POSTPONED. UMPIRES' ASSOCIATION MOOTED. BY SKIP. The wet weather on Saturday caused the first postponement of play for* the winter season. The tournaments set down for to-dav have drawn very good entries, considering the stage of the year and the counter-attractions. Onehunga seems to liavi) drawn the most entries, but Mount Albert is not far' behind it. Two important [joints were raised at the recent meeting of delegates to the Auckland Centre and it is more than like.y that further action will be taken in regard to both of them. The first matter was in regard to the need of placing umpiring at the important centre tournaments on some sort of a footing and to this end the formation of an Umpires' Association was suggested. It must be said that any action taken in this respect will do much to solve the problem of how to more strictly enforce the rules and, further than this, will relieve the centre officials on whose shojlders most of the responsibility is now thrown. Independent action such as would result from the appointment of official umpires by a separate association would undoubtedly be satisfactory to players and centre officials alike. The chief point, however, is to discover not only competent persons, but also those who would be willing to serve 011 such an association as suggested. In football or any of tho more active forms of .sport the umpires or referees arc drawn from (hose who are past active participation in the game, but seeing that bowlers can play bowls to a good old age it would be impossible to have the same line of action. It would, therefore, be necessary for. a certain amount of sacrifice to bo borne by a section of the community, anr; it remains to be seen if theie are sufficient people outside Ibe scope of the tournament population who will come forward and be prepared to act. Tho suggestion to pay actual e.\penses to umpires is, of course, only natural, as these men could not be expected to tour round at their own expense. The centro tournaments arc a good source of revenue and could well stand taxation in regard to this item.

A point that has often been hinted at was the matter of club upon the centre executive. Tho notice of met ion to the effect that one sitting member of the executive should retire each year and that no club should have mora than one representative on the oxfcutivo will no doubt be keenly discussed at tho forthcoming annual meeting of the centre.