BOWLING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19800, 27 May 1926, Page 4

BOWLING.

By Jack.

At least one rink from Dunedin will take part in bowling carnival at Suva In July. The players who intend to make the trip are:—W. Elliott (Caledonian), J. H F Hamel (Caledonian), J. Hutchison (Dunedin), and D. Scott (Caledonian). The good wishes of all bowlers will go with the party, who will leave Auckland on June I? \v. S. Culbert has put up a good record bv being skip of the winners in the NorthEast Valley Club’s doubles for two years in succession. The handicap billiard tournament promoted by the St. Kilda dub last winter was not brought to h conclusion till last week, when W. Ormond, who conceded 10 points in a gam.e.of 250. defeated Leedon in the final. It is a remarkable fact that these players contested the finish in the previous year, on which occasion Ormond also proved victorious. . It is unfortunate that J. Tonkin was unable to be. present at the borch-Eaßt Valley Club’s social on Tuesday night, when his fine record during the season was referred to in highly complimentary terms bv several speakers representing different clubs Mr Tonkin had’ an attack of lumbago on Tuesday morning, and as a result was confined to his home for k L a %Th p t re oTt^r y games. His record last season ™ 'Hnmng the championship L champion one of which any bowler might be proud That : is^a tact that 1 he‘has wChls club championship fi Th o e r a S rendered by the ladies to tbfNorth-East Valley Club was acknowledged in felicitous terms by on Tuesday niS • f irs t occasion on than the.precedent " as a £° o “ rize . wirj ners in of champions contes . • posisecured second place,, had nuea uc e billiards, snooker, and Chinaman handicaps and a championship co ™£®fVl "hour The annual report ol the .Vest Harbour Club states that the Prccn again plaj ed well during the season, visitors lrol “ other parts speaking in very good terms about ft, especially at the Dominion tourn3According to a ruling given to the New South Wales Association, M “’ p " jee or about a bowling club in the State can be worked over 44 hours per week. b The spectacle of third-rate players takink out rinks to contest a Stab- rink championship is making a far « of l !°" ] (savs the Svdney Referee). Some ot the scores 1 in the New South Wales rink championship support this coulention Last season the Auckland Bowling Centre comprised 46 clubs, including file which had just been formed. An increase V in view- for next season four new clubs having come into existence. One of these is at Rawene, on Hokianga. Harbour, one at Mangere. one at Hillsboio , and the fourth at To Papapa. Mr M. E. Myers, an enthusiastic bowler of Brisbane, pronoses to persuade a party to come from Queensland for the Now Zealand tournament next January, as he was delighted with his experience at Rotorua and is hoping that the two tournaments will be held near enough together for the Australian visitors to do them b °The late Mr John Young held office as president of the New South Wales Association from 1880 to 1906. Then Mr W. Dt’Leod took the reins till 1909. The late Mr George Raffan follow a for 18 months, and Dir Finlay Munro (five weeks) and Dir R. rv. Bell (12 weeks) succeeded him. Mr John Spence was in the chair from 1911-12 to 1922, and then Dir James Wall till 1926. Now Dir John Scott is president.

“I bless the day that you ever persuaded me to ploy bowls. It has put 20 years on my life, and I know hundreds of men I would never have met otherwise.” Thus spoke a certain "hairdresser and tobacconist,” of—it doesn’t matter where. He confided to me (says “Boomerang” in the Sydney Referee) also that he got 150 customers extra in his business by joining the club. The Grey Lynn Club (Auckland) marked the conclusion of the summer season in an unusual manner. Sixteen fours took part in a competition, each team comprising two ladies and two men. and prizes were awarded only to the ladies. The first prize was won by Mrs J. Malam and Miss Montgomery, and the runners-up were Miss Lye and Mrs Bright. Miss Blamires and Mrs Swanson secured the highest aggregate score, Mrs Binns and Mrs F. Baildon being run-ners-up.

Rome months ago two or three bowling clubs started in America. It seems that there must he a few live wires who are determined to get it going, for it is being tackled, in the usual American style. With the object of popularising the game, printed matter is being scattered broadcast throughout the United States, and a hook of " 58 pages has been published, giving the rules of the game and other interesting information. If the interest in New Zealand is sustained till next season, which Mr J. W. Hardley and Mr Arthur Parsons found during their recent visit to Australia, there may be a large contingent coming over for the next Dominion tournament (says “Trundler” in the Auckland Star), introducing quite a new era in New Zealand bowling. If 76 men will travel from Perth to Sydney, with a certainty of only one same, it ought not to _ he very difficult to persuade several rinks to travel the much shorter distance from Sydney to Auckland, when they are assured of at least eight games, especially if the Rotorua tournament is thrown in. Melbourne (Windsor) recently won the V.B.A. pennant from 63 others, the run-ners-up being Middle Park. The growth of the game in the south has been remarkable (says “Boomerang” fn the Sydney Referee). In the Eastern Suburbs alone there must be the best nart of 30 clubs, and in the metropolitan area it would be possible to car it to 60 odd clubs at intervals of two or three minutes. To win a Melbourne pennant, a club has

to win about 20 .games, and as 'Windsor has won it two years in succession, its performance has been remarkable. A remarkable record was put up by Professor Maxwell Walker, of the Auckland Club, during the past season. Professor Walker won the club championship, Anzac Cup, Diamond Jubilee Cup, and was the winning skip in the club pairs. In addition to this remarkable success in club competitions, he was skip of the winning team in the Rotorua tournament and the Auckland Centre’s Easter tournament, with Dr Moir he won the centre’s pairs tournament, and he also became champion of champions for the 1925-26 season by winning the singles competition, open to champions of clubs affiliated to the Auckland Centre,

The spectacular success of the champion of Auckland during the season has had an. interesting counterpart in Invercargill, where Dir D. H. Thomson, of the South* land Bowling Club, annexed seven valuable trophies. These were the championship singles and pairs of his club, the championship pairs of the Southland Centre, the rinks championship of Invercargill, the Easter pairs oi Oamaru. and runner-up in the Daman: fours. But what Mr Thomson probably values most highly was hi* position in the Dominion tournament, where he was runner-up to the Dunedin rink skipped by Harraway, who gave him both his losses, in the sixth and eighth rounds. He gained this fine series of wins during his first season at Invercargill, having previously played at Dunedin and New Plymouth.

An analysis of the entries at the Sydney carnival in February shows that the bowler* of Australia are not at all averse to travelling, even with the indifferent programme of bowling to attract them to Sydney, It seems to be frankly admitted in some influential quarters in Australia that their programme will have to improve, and that the “’sudden death” principle will have to be altered at the next carnival, which is to be held in DJelbourne at Christinas, 1827. If we can once get a good contingent of Australian bowlers to attend the Dominion tournament in Auckland next January (says Trundler in the Auckland Star), there will probably not be much difficulty in persuading them to adopt the New Zealand system. Dir D. N. Alexander, of the Waverley Club, Sydney, who was a member of Dir Vic. Casey’s winning rink at Rotorua last year, was so taken with the much more interesting system of play in New Zealand that he came over again for the Rotorua tournament this year, and he hopes to come to the Dominion tournament next January.

Messrs George and J. C. Redmond, of Wellington, who usually spend the winter in Australia, propose to continue the propaganda in tire interests of the Dominion, tournament in Auckland next January which. was commenced by the Auckland competitors in the Sydney carnival last February. It looks as if the seed is falling on fertile soil, and that Australian bowlers are already taking a keen interest in New Zealand, so that it ought not to take much more nersuasion to bring over a good party. One o! their most prominent bowling critics, who writes for the West Australian, under the name of “Noah Little,” and who was manager of the West Australian bowling team of 95 men who went to Sydney for the carnival, accompanied by 45 ladies, writes as follows on the Auckland champion : —“Arthur Parsons was one of the carnival personalities, and he is a great bowler. His first 10 heads against Cyril Bower provided as great a bowling feast as I have ever seen. He was machine-like, and if he could have kept it up he would have beaten anyone in the world, but when Cyril swung him into long heads he failed to gauge the cut-over on a tricky rink. If that is the impression his play created, and it has been confirmed in other quarters (savs Trundler in the Auckland Star), there may be a good many sufficiently curious to come across_ to see how many more we have like him in New Zealand. • New Zealand is apparently not the only place where trouble has been caused through the rules not being sufficiently explicit, for a fine old row has recently taken place in Australia, where a match was decided by whether a jack was dead or alive, and that point had to be decided bv the definition of the boundary of the rink. Nobody in New Zealand can say definitely where the boundary is (says “Trundler” in the Auckland Star), so that as soon as there is a fine measure for a line bowl or a line jack, the inevitable argument ensues. When the rules were all in the melting pot last year, a OU rr<-estion was included in the list of Auckland recommendations which would have fairly well defined the boundary, stait for some reason it eyas turned down B- the Dominion Council. Only one of Die three Auckland members could attend the committee meeting when those recommendations were adopted, so that only one heard the arguments which led to this and similar suggestions of importance. The result was that while the Dominion Council adopted unimportant suggestions which will not come up for argument once in 19 rears, and would make no difference ifnhey did, an important question like the boundary of the rink, on which the fate of a match is hinging_ every day, was calmly brushed aside, leaving the rule in its old indefinite state.

In Sydney the discussion hinged on whether the jack was alive when it was driven to the extreme edge of the bank, on the boundary of the ditch, because there ■tvns no pop! to denote the boundary of the rink, the ditcli edge being accepted as the outside boundary of the end rink. If there had been a peg there would have been no’ trouble, for Australia is_ ahead of us in one respect, in that their rule provides that ■'the outside of the peg shall he the boundary of the rink.” In New Zealand nobody knows whether it is the outside, the inside, or the middle, thus leaving open the door to endless argument on a fine measure. But in Australia another door is left open. Their rinks must he of “not less than 17 nor more than ‘2O feet in width, except that on a ditch rink there shall be at Hast nine feet six inches between the middle peg and the ditch.” Now, the rink in question was the minimum width. 17 feet, and therefore nobody could say whether the boundary was the ditch edge, in which vase the jaok would be dead, or whether the boundary waa nine feet six inches from the middle peg, or disc as we call it, in which case it was alive. Here was a pretty kettle of fish, and it will be interesting to see what ruling the Australian Bowling Council will give on two rules which apparently clash. If another lesson was wanted for New Zealand, here it is, and the matter should be settled before the Dominion tournament is played. Fortunately, we are not in doubt about the ditch boundary, for a recent rule provides that “ the side limits of the outside rinks shall be at least three feet from the edge of the ditch.” IJut we should certainly settle which part of the peg is the boundary.