BOWLING TOURNAMENT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9643, 19 January 1903, Page 4

BOWLING TOURNAMENT.

(Per Press Association.) PALMERSTON N., last night. The bowling tournament tcrnjinaU'd yesterday with the playing-ofi of the lust rounds "m Huddarb-Parke-r trophy competition. There, were sixteen competing teams, and Newtuwn, the present holders, and Palmerston No. 2, the winners of the championship, were left m the tinal. After a kuen competition Newtown gained a deserved victory by a bare single, the scores being 25 to 24. At one stage of the game PalmersUm was leading by thirteen. A scratch match was played during the day by a. team of visiting pressmen, and some members of the local clubs. The pressmen won a finely played game by 32 to 22. . The visiting bowlers speak m the highest terms of admiration of the hospitality extended by the Palmerston Club and members. * The tournament is regarded as the most successful ever promoted by the North Island. Bowling Association. One of the most interesting games m the eleventh round was that between Thorndon and Gisborne, For the first few heads Thorndon went rather behind, but the team managed to pull up after a bit, and at the eighteenth head the score was— Thorndon 16, Uisbome 14. Thorndon then got m four, but Gisborne replied with a similar score, and a*, the end of the. twentieth head Thorndon had a majority of only two. When tlu^ skips went down to play m the last head Thorndon was lying oiie, Gisborne having the next four. The Poverty Bay skip, however, dislodged the shot, and as Sievwright could not get another bowl the game concluded m favor of Gisborne by three points. Newtown had one of the most remarkable games of the twelfth round with Whataupoko. The game was all m favor of the latter up to the ninth head, when Newtown forged m front and kept increasing their lead up to the fifteenth head, when the score stood 19 to 7. Simson then began to get desperate, and started to drive at the jack for the purpose of making dead heads. In this he was eminently successful, and the temptation to do the same could not always be resisted by Price, with the result that between tliem thirteen times the "kitty" was knocked out of pla.y, the game occupying nearly four hours. This was apparently all m favor of Whataupoko, for they scored on the last five heads, und when the game finished there was only a difference of 3 points, the figures being — Newtown 21, Whataupoko 18. Kaiti easily disposed of Hawera., the veteran Witty scoring no less than three s's and one 4. The final game to decide the championship created the utmost- interest. Both banks of the green were crowded, and the spectators frequently cheered the excellent play of the competitors. A stub-bornly-contested game finally resulted m the victory of Palmerston as the champion club of 1903, the score being, Palmerston 27, Newmarket 15. The winners were warmly congratulated, as they well deserved, on their play throughout the tournament. The record of the Palmerston Club is a particularly good one. Their rink won the championship at Wellington m 1893. At the tournament m Napier hi 1898 they won the banner and shield, and at the last tournament m Wellington they tied with Wellington for second place, and secured third honors on the play off. One of the club's rinks won the Commercial] Travellers' trophy at the same tournament, and a week later two of the club's members won the pairs at the Nelson Jubilee tournament. Following were the position of the clubs at the end of the thirteenth round : Palmerston 10 wins 2 losses, Newmarket. 10 — 2, Wellington. Maslerton, Hastings 9— 3, New Plymouth B—4, Napier B—s, Victoria, Wanganui 7—5, Feilding 7—5, Whataupoko, Ponsonbr 6 — 5, Thorndon, Newtown, Stratford, Waverley 6 — 6, Gisborne 5—6, Dannevirke, Patea, Petone 5—7, Kaiti, Auckland 4 — B, Upper Plains 3 — 9, Pahiatua 2—lo, Carterton I—lo, Hawera I—ll. The points prize goes to Hastings with a record of 285. In the Huddart-Parker Cup contest the play did not produce anything of special interest. Feilding scored an easy win over Gisborne, and Whataupoko * jpi.ve Upper Plains a handsome beating. Wellington easily vnnauished the veteran Witty and his Kaiti men, and the second Palmerston team entered by Cottle went down before Masterton.