BOWLS Without BIAS

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12602, 12 November 1926, Page 4

BOWLS Without BIAS

It was not too pleasant & Saturday for file opening of the pennant and shield primes, aftd quite a number of clubs were disappointed in not being able tc finish the play. Some did and some didn't finish, and there were cases where the home team finished but the away team’s game was abandoned. What happens in this case is a nice question for the oentre. Do the finished games count, or do the whole of the lour rinks have to play again? From what can be gathered several of the games might have been finished with a little bit of ginger. They have played in much worse weather than it was on Saturday. Wellington Club was by no means doing well against Newtown, and as the games were abandoned they will live to fight another day, when they may do better. Tlio Lyall Bay rinks which visited Petone were doing well until play ceased. The skip was resting five when piny was stopped. Hataitai men were not very happy on Newtown green, which is not at its best yet. So. 6 rink is reported to be very uneven. A lot has been done at Newtown green during the past winter, and by Christmas time they hope to have it in first-class order. • • * • With all due deference to the fact ihat it is necessary to take care of the greens, Hataitai ground superintendent must not be too hard on the members. He bad some of them grousing a few days ago for keeping thorn off the green when, many thought it was fit to play, quite as good as it was on the opening Saturday. He is very proud of the green, and is anxious that it should have every chance to get in good nick. It is a good green, too, with very nice surroundings and a growing family in the aviary. It is usually one of the greens in demand for the centre and other tournaments. # • • • Now that some of the pennant and shield rinks have had a try-out I wonder what some of the selection committees or selectors think of their choice. Some clubs have entered only four rinks in the pennants, possibly with a view to concentrating their best plavers in one section. Those with eight rinks, therefore, suffer a little bit of a handicap, as players who have played in one section cannot play in another. At the end of the season Thorndon may win one section, and do nothing in the other. Another club which has entered only four rinks mav win another section. Wb*»o the finish \n played off, whv should Thorndon, or other club, be prevented from selecting the final rinks from any of their players, whether they have played in another section or not? Or why not pi&ke the finalists play eight rinks instead of four? This would be a fairer proposition to those clubs which have entered eight rinks in order to make up the sections and so support the centre competition. This is a matter which the centre should consider before the season is too far advanced • * • • Colonel Hall is one of the keenest enthusiasts at Thorndon green, and thoroughly enjoyed his little game in the Roses. Ho is a good friend of the returned soldiers, and the Diggers have a warm corner in their hearts for the old colonel. He is president b£ the R.S.A., and is always watchful

of their interests. He is a busy man, too, and m recent months has been actively engaged in the work of the Free Marketing League, which has been more than a little interested in the doings of the Dairy Control Board, and ia very anxious about the outlook for the future. • * • • President Herron, of the Island Bay Club, was not playing for his club in the pennants on Saturday, but he was taking part in other local activities—the opening of the season by the Island Bay Surf Club, of which his son is a worthy representative. It is to be hoped all the fish-heads had been cleared off the beach for the occasion. • • • • Island Bay green is in splendid trim, aid they are better off than most clubs, having 13 rinks. They liavo a nice piece of green from which to take turf for repair work, too. They were playing Lyall Bay in the shield, and were also entertaining rinks from Seatoun and Kelburn. • • • # The question of whether the champion rinks tournament has any title to be so described is no new one, but it was raised at the centre meeting by Mr Marcus Marks on Tuesday evening. Taking the clubs altogether, it looks a« if any old way meets with the approval of the cenfrS, and the fact remains that few of the rinks which

do play in the champion of champions havo earned the title of champion rink of the particular club to which they belong. This in a lesser degree applies to the champion of champion pairs, but in the singles the player is usually the club singles champion. • • • • Mr J. Mackay, ex-Government Printer, is one of the veterans of Island Bay Club, and now that he is resting _on his laurels finds bowling as a pastime a pleasant alternative to gardening. Born at Dumfernline in 1851, he came to New Zealand with his parents nine years later, and they settled in Milton, Otago. After finishing his schooling he started in the printing trade, finishing his time in a Dunedin office. He returned to Milton for a short time, and then opened in business for himself in Dunedin. Some time later he sold the business and made a trip to the Old Country to get

some experience ,n papers. Coming back to New Zealand," Ke took charge of the jobbing department of the Dunedin “Star,” and from there came to Wellington to take office as Government Printer. This was in 1896, and he held this office until 1916, when he was succeeded by Mr Marcus Marks, also since retired, and who also claims to have a slight knowledge of the game of bowls. Printing must he quite a healthy occupation, for there are many retired Government and private printers on the membership rolls of the various clubs. • * * * In some cases the champion rink is found if possible, or the rink which has achieved the best results Is selected, but in the event of one of the players not being available a substitute has necessarily to he found. It is a difficult problem, for there ore many bowlers capable of proving themselves champions who cannot possibly get the time off to yh\y, or on the other hand may be away on holidays and are not available. It bristles with difficulties, and we cannot see any probability of every club entering the rink which has proved its claim, to ho the champion club rink. Obviously, therefore, the title “champion of champions,” is a misnomer, pnd the best way out • seems to be to allow clubs to nominate rinks for the centre rink championship, and drop: tho “champion of champions” idea so far as rinks are concerned. • •• » , The idea of official rinks £fi>m the centre visiting greens in various parts of the centre is an excellent one, and will do a great deal to improve relations between the centre and the clubs. Four rinks are to go to Otaki shortly, and a little later on will probably attend the opening of the new green at Plimmerton. - » • • Wouldn’t the piece of ground between Riddiford swimming bath und the Plunket rooms at Lower Hutt make a nice bowling green? But the Hutt green is only a stone’s throw away. The vagaries of the weather played havoc with the pennant games on Saturday, and it wai not surprising that the matter came up for discussion at the centre meeting. Several ideas were expressed as to what should be done. Some thought the scores of rinks which were finished should stand; others that the unfinished games should be played at the end of the season. In the end the chairman gave a ruling which settled tSe matter. He decided that unless the four rinks had completed play the game was not finished, and all four rinks would have to play again, and not just those which abandoned play. The four rinks make the game, and the game is not finished until all haye played. So those who played two rinks on one green and abandoned the other two are no further forward than those who did not play at all. One member, who said he put up with the discomfqrt. of playing in his overcoat to finish his rink, appeared to b« very disappointed with the decision. It is unlikely that any but odd rinks will represent N.S.W. at the Auckland tournament, as it is the worst time for bowlers tp be away (say* the “Referee.”) Country week and pennants will keep them home till February at least. The ether States will, however, be well represented, bar Victoria. Teams of bullocks could not drag the average Victorian player away from tho pennants, and, as a matter of fact, the talent, taken, as a whole, that will visit the Dominion, will not represent Australia's best. Tho Dominion has to thank the Redmond brothers for doing a great deal for New Zealand on this side. They are the greatest living enthusiasts, and are very popular in all States, where they are well known. Mr Melbourne Orchard, in the course of an interesting account of a bowling match between Australia House and tho Royal Household, savs: “What strikes mo in the bowling world, more thnn anything else, is the great service of a disinterested nature

given by men of all walks of life, from tho King down to the humblest subject. A game which commands such is worthy of all the good things we can say .about it, and also is worthy of all we can do for its general progress. I want bowlers tho world over to use howling towards the uplift and cementing of our glorious Empire. A good start has been made bv the interchange of visits, and it will not be long before these visits are put upon a proper basis—not only as regards time and place, but also as regards numbers participating in them. “There were representatives from every State, except West Australia, while two representatives wero from New Zealand. .The ladies wore well looked after. With so many Australian and New Zealand bowlers in London. the want was felt of a bow-ling headquarters.” Discussing the one-life and two-life system in bowling tournaments, “Boomerang,” .of the “Referee,” writes: “It is a pity that the mere mode of playing out a competition should he responsible for keeping apart the bowlers of Australia and New Zealand. Outside of an occasional visitor to and fro, competitive howls is practically unknown between them, and, considering that there are no bettor bowlers in the world than are to he found in both places, it is regrettable in the extreme. “I think the two-life system has a lot to recommend it, and will be in a position to say more about it after taking nart in the big events in January. However, I gave tlie Dominion timely warning that they had the job in front of them to convince the V.B.A. that the two-life_ system was workable in A.8.C.. carnivals, apart from the principal involved. “As n matter of fact, where the number of entries lends itself to the two-life system, it is a very sntisfnetorv wnv of running a competition. Mnnv of tbe best single-banders jrnout on a bad rink, or green, in tbe initial round, when all sorts of surfaces ars (of necessity'* requisitioned. The samo npplies to rinks, and there is always tho certnintv that some hundreds of men will he looking on after the fir.»t day. when it is tor. Into to arrange any other outing. The New Zealanders claim that, win or lose, tbnir gives every entrant su*-fl'-ien* Kiwi* to satisfy. It certainly does that.”