BOWLING.

Otago Witness, Issue 3671, 22 July 1924, Page 28

BOWLING.

By

Jack.

The long spell of mild weather has been responsible for the greens in the Dunedin Centre being in a very forward condition for this time of the year. It is too early yet to venture an opinion on the relative strengths of the various clubs, but it is fairly safe to prophesy that a change in the system of playing the four-rink championship games will be made. From the talk one hears among bowlers the system o-f playing the four-rink games on Saturday afternoons will have to be scrapped, as the feeling against it is strong. No doubt some satisfactory method of playing these games will be evolved, as I am sure the majority of local bowlers would not like to see the competition dropped. Some young fellows were guilty cf a particularly mean action lately in sealing the fence surrounding the St. Kilda Club’s green and using the green as a football ground. The result, of course, was that the surface of the green which was top-dressed at tho close of the last season, suffered severely from the effects of the football boots, and while the damage is by no means irreparable, a lot of needless work on the part of the greenkeeper will be necessary to bring the green back to its normal state.

Mr Walter R. Piddington has been specially honoured at the annual meeting of the St. Clair Bowling Club. He is retiring from the secretaryship after a very successful term of office, and to mark the club's appreciation of his work as president and as secretary, as selector, and as a. friendly helper in many ways, the members made him a present of a dressing case, adding a flower bowl for Mrs Piddington. Mr T. Smith made the presentation, and remarks which gratefully acknowledged Air Piduington’s labours were also made by Messrs A. Kilpatrick, Langley Pope, J. H. Hancock, and J. R. Rodgerson. In his reply Mr Piddington said he thought that the club had done enough when it made him a life member three years ago, and he felt very grateful at this fresh expression of goodwill from the members. The use of straight woods, commonly known as “pokers,” was the subject of keen discussion among bowlers at the end of last playing season, and also of considerable correspondence in the press. It w 7 as straight woods that cost Tillie the Caledonian singles championship alter he had gone through the competition undefeated. Writing on the subject of straight bowls, Air G. T. Burrows, in a recent article in the London Daily Telegraph, says: If the wind should blow strongly from the sea on to the White Rock greens at Hastings, when the single-handed tournament is due to be decided, there will be a general outcry against the use- of so many straight woods. It is possible, at Hastings, in the worst of winds, to put a wood up to the jack, under bias —i.e., so thin that it is narrow ere it leaves the hand—and the w 7 ind will pull it back to a straight, edge, upon which it will continue until it reaches the object white. Now, men with thinly-biassed woods can take far more liberties with the green, under such conditions, than their fellows whose woods may be up to the standard three bias, or approaching four. As the Hastings greens are- always shaved down to the bare bone, as it were, readers will better understand what I mean when I say that it is possible to play so “narrow” into the wind with these thinly-biassed bowls that the man with a straight eye and an average knowledge of billiards can so lay his woods that his opponent, taking land with his bowls, can have no chance of beating them. This is the last year, however, during which the .man with straight woods will be able to play in the open tournaments at Hastings or elsewhere. This winter his bowls have got to go to a reputable maker, who has a floor for that purpose, to be tested, altered, and stamped as being a standard three bias. If they cannot be altered to a legitimate bias, they will be returned to him without the Rose stamp of the E.8.A., and accompanied by a letter to the- effect that they are illegal for match play. The E.B.A. has just obtained its Rose stamp from the authorities, and -this stamp will be issued to all makers who possess a standard bowl of the association, and a proper testing floor upon which the woods they make can be tested against the official wood. The Rose stamp of the national association is akin in design to tha

badge worn in internationals, and upon tha stamp will be found a certain mark in such a position that the association will be able to tell which maker was responsible for tha now woods made after the issue of tho stamp, or for the testing of the old woods sent up for alteration This winter should prove a busy time for those manufacturers who have conformed to the wishes of tho E.B.A. in this regard. Thousands of pairs of woods will have to bo tested fer tho simple reason that men will refuse to play in club championships and handicaps in 1924 unless the woods used against them are legal in bias. The use of straight w r oods in club contests has grown into little less than a scandal. The lockers of all our pavilions are filled with woods which, if they were sent up to the manufacturers, would be immediately rejected. The real cause of tho scandal, however, has been that men for years past have been asking makers to send them woods as thin in bias as possible, and a thin three means a two, and even a, straight- wood upon some of those green where the grass and other growths are matted and are never shaved down with a scythe The narrow biassed wood player had a good innings at Bournemouth recently. He could get where it was impossible for a man with generous biassed bowls to beat him. The thin biassed wood played there was helped bv the stiffness of the new greens at Meyrick and Richmond Parks. Wisely the superintendent of the public greens at Bournemouth decided that, owing to the newness of these two swards mentioned, they should not be eroppd too closely, and they carried a goodly top of grass. Nothing tends to rain a new green more than closely shaving it and leaving ifc to (he mercies of such sunshine as Bournemouth has basked in during the past fortnight, Under the conditions mentioned the man with narrow biassed woods had nothing to do but crawl up to the jack bv tho straightest way and remain there. Thnso bowlers who had been training over closelyshaved greens were helpless in solving the problems set them under such conditions. Tnp use of so many straight woods at Bournemouth was the only blot upon a wellconducted affair. A better spirit of sportsmanship in this regard will prevail after this winter, one feels sure; hut there will still remain with us that ancient clubman who will resolutely refuse to be bothered with the “new-fangled notions” of the progressive player.