BOWLING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22810, 20 February 1936, Page 5

BOWLING

' By Jack.

V ; ; FIXTURES • ■ March 7.—Otago v. North Otago. March 7 and 9—Champion of champions. March ,14. —Otago v. Southland, at Invercargill; shield matches to be played the same day. March ,21. —Otago v, South Otago. March 21 and 23. —A dees . Shield matches and leads and seconds tournament. Marches.—Otago y. Canterbury, at Dunedin. . ■'■■■: ‘ ■ 'V April 10,.11, 13, and 14. —Easter tournament. ; !. ■■. FOUR-RINK championship The e : conditions for the final game in the Four-rink .Championship between Dunedin and St., Kilda 'on Saturday afternoon were ideal for a real test between the two clubs. The Kaituna green, on which the game wag,, played, had gone a careful preparation, and this, combined with the. fact that is is well .sheltered from the' wind, gave the. players, every opportunity to give of their ■ best. As was only to be expected, the surface was certainly not keen, fairly heavy rain having fallen earlier in the week. Probably few* contests, in the. history of the fo\ir : rink championship, have provided a keener or more closely contested game. In fact, it was not until the last bowl had been played that the honours were wrested from the holders—-Dunedin. The game between H. Gardiner (D.) iuid„J). -&L Stuart :(St. K.) was evenly, contested- in the-first half.-: Gardiner took' a single 'on each of the first three heads and-Stuart'evened , the scores with a single and a 2 on the next two heads. A 3 to Gardiner was followed by a 2,1, 2, and 1: 'to St; Kilda. and Dunedin, securing, a 3 oil the* next, made-the tallies eight all on the. ninth head. The St. Kilda men then began to get the upper hand, and after the scoreboard ‘ showed 12—10 in Stuart’s favour on the twelfth head,-St. Kilda * held the .‘mat for five successive ends: to lead 17—10 on ’the seventeenth. The final score was 18—11 in St. Kilda’s favour.- • 1 ’ - The game betwen J. Dowland (St. K.) and W.; Anderson (D.) was remarkable for-the-fluctuating nature of the scoring. Dunedin’started off well by taking the first .four heads to lead 6—o. The St. Kilda men then put in a strong run and, scoring 3,2, 1,4, 2 on the nest fiveheads, led, by 12 points to ,8. Anderson them notched a single, but. another • 3 to Dowland made Dunedin’s - prospects anything but bright. A 2 to Anderson and a single and a 3 to Dowland gave ’ the latter , a lead of ,19 —9 on the fourteenth head. The Dunedin men then put in a strong challenge and:-scored a 2.2, 4, and 3, in succession to lead 20—19 on the eighteenth head. Two singles to* Dowland a single to Anderson on the remaining three, hea'ds made the tallies 21' all on the twenty-first’ head. G. A. Nelson (D.) started Off promisingly against P. Edwards (St.-K.), and led by'seven' points to . two" when -five heads had been played. ’ A 2’and a 3 to Edwards was followed by a pair to‘pun--t-din, and another single to St. Kilda was followed by a 3 to Nelson, giving him a lead of 12 —6, on the eleventh head. The. next two heads enabled Edwards to reduce his deficit to , three points, but Dunedin then held the mat for six ends in Succession, the score being 22—9 on the nineteenth head. A single and a 5 to Edwards on the remaining two heads left him "seven points, in arrears. A - closely-contested game all the way was witnessed in. the- game between J. Hutchison (D.) and G. Adess (St. K.), the fonrier holding a slight advantage up till the fifteenth head, when he led by--16 points to 12.. A 2.4, and .1 to Adess on the next'three ends reversed the positions;- St. Kilda .leading by , 19 points to 16 on the eighteenth head. Two singles to Dunedin and one single to St, Kilda" ,eft the latter, with a winning margin of two point's. ’• : The Four-rink Championship wps instituted in 1919, arid has, therefore, now been played for on 18 occasions. Dunedin has been successful 10 times, Caledonion three times. St. Kilda twice, and Otago, St. Clair,- and ■ Taieri -once each. The winners, in addition to holding the Holmes Feathers, hold the Australian Friendship Clock until beaten.- • The following table shows the results of the games played to date:- >* 1919—Otago.. V/ ’ 1920 —Caledonian. ... 1921 —Dunedin. ... . 1922 — Dunedin. 1923 — Dunedin. 1924 — Caledonian. 1925 St. Clair. 1926 — Diinedin. ; I*927 —Dunedin. I,92B—rSt. Kilda. 1929 —Dunedin, ' 1930 —Dunedin. 1931—Dunedin. •• ■ ; 1932 —Dunedin. 1933—Caledonian. 1934: —Taieri.1935 —Dunedin/ • 1936 —St. Kilda.. • CENTRAL OTAGO NOTES The Clyde-Alexa'ndra Shield match was placed on Wednesday evening last at Alexandra. The evening was very pleasant- for bowls, and having the lights turned on early helped to modify the sudden change. . Each club won a section ' In section 1 Miller, after having a good lead of 18—7 on the thirteenth- head, failed to'score again, Hewitt securing 11 to tie. George and Marsim were 14 all on’ the fourteenth head, but a single to George and nine to Marshn gave him a win. - ' • . In section 2, Paulin’s rink administered one of those good “hidings which come to all players sooner or later. ine Clyde rink registered 39 to Tom Sunderland a eight. Davidson was well down against Simcoe at the thirteenth head when Alexandra was leading 16—5, but the CL de rink was not finished with, and played well to finish two down,-21 19. Scores (Clyde names first):—Harris, C°P' ie - Holt, Miller 18. Willsteed, -Mitchell, Gardner, Hewitt 18; E. George, Edmonds,

Mollison, W. K. George 15, Hinton, M’Nish, Hamilton. Marslin 23. Totals; Clyde 33, Alexandra 41. Larkirig, S. Steyens, H. E. Stevens. Pauliq 39, Skene,. R. Hewitt, Watt, Sunderland 8; Orr, Ross, Harlow, Davidson 19, Laing, Campbell,. Milne, Simcoe 21. Totals: Clyde 58, Alexandra 29. The Champion Singles of the Clyde Club are being played ' off steadily. In the first life Lopdell beat Holt, Millei beat Harris, Ofr beat Mollison, Pauli.il beat Edmonds, W,. Ki George beat E. W. George, Davidson beat Harlow, Larking beat Arndtt. Lopwell beat Miller, and Paulin beat Orr. In the second life Harlow beat S. Stevens. Miller beat Orr, Paulin beat Lopdell. Edmonds beat Holt, E. George: beat Arnott, and Paulin beat Miller. . , In the Jolly Cup game against Millers Flat, played on Friday, Tom Sunderland (Alexandra) made up for his defeat by Paulin (39 —8) on Wednesday evening by scoring 35 points to Stewart’s nine.

SOUTHLAND RINK CHAMPIONSHIP The Shield Rink Championship, the blue riband event of Southland bowls, always attracts considerable interest. This year’s Championship 'writes “Jack-high’ in the Southland Times) was not the exception to the rule, and both on the Wednesday, when the preliminary rounds were played, and the Saturday, there were large galleries at all times throughout the day. Southland’s win gave this club five wins in 28 years. Only one club (Gore) possesses a better record. It has won the shield six times since 1909. when the Championship was first instituted. Invercargill and Bluff have each won the honour five times, arid Northern!, once. Four shields have been competed for. It is noteworthy that the old style of selecting teams to represent clubs-by competition was resorted to by most of the city clubs, and it is to the credit of the winners that their team was found this way. There have been many arguments in recent years about the best method of finding the strongest rinks in the club. 100 many times have four skips been in “ selected ” teams, and too often have these teams failed. Selection by competition cannot be faulted. Every player gets his chance. Nothing could be fairer. D. K. Torrance, skip of the winning rink, has .been a member of the successful winning rink on three occasions. In 1929 and 1933 he was lead in the Southland rink which won the shield, and this rear he skipped the rink. Similarly. W. Stewart has occupied a position in the winning rinks on three occasions. He was third in 1929 and 1933 and second in the rink which won last week. Torrance played good bowls throughout the competition, and while he received much pood support from his team, there is no doubt that his play carried the rink to victory. He has been playing bowls for 14 years now. and during the past five or six years has played consistently well.