BOWLS

Southland Times, Issue 20014, 30 October 1926, Page 19

BOWLS

(Bj

"Bias.”)

THE WEEK’S FIXTURES. The last name indicates the green on which the game shall be played: To-day:—Bluff v. Te Rangi. Waihopai v. Invercargill, M aikiwi v. North end. Woodlands v. Southland. —Eastern District.— Wednesday: Mataura v. Edendale. Gore A v. Gore B. Hokonui A v. Hokonui B. Wyndham—a bye. . Secretaries of clubs, more particularly in country districts, are invited to contribute items of local interest for publication in this column. Correspondence should be addressed to “Bias” c/o Southland Times, P.O. Box 30, and should reach the office not later than mid-day on Thursday for insen ion the following Saturday. lhe imer-ciub competition commences to-day in the Southland District and on U ednesday next in the Eastern District area. -he A and B grades 4-rink championship marches commence on Tuesday evening, November 16. If matches on the Tuesday evenings are postponed they are to take place if possible on the following Thursday. ’Hie weather during the past week has practically kept the members of the respective clubs confined to the club houses. A large number of players were noticed on the greens on Saturday and Monday last but barring perhaps Tuesday evening the greens have been practically deserted all the week. It is to be hoped that the weather clears for the opening of the inter - club competition. Entries for the Invercargill Club’s competition close on November 6. So far the entries have not come up to expectations but this may easily be accounted for by the fact that players have not yet had a chance to secure many games and have neglected to get in touch with the secretary ( Mr W. J. Miller). On Labour Day progressive doubles were played on this club’s green when a large number of members and visitors participated. The Dominion Bowling Council has approved of the application of the Southland Centre to hold the annual tournament at New Year time. The system of play will be on the same lines as last year. The Centre has made arrangements to conduct Mr Hardley (president of the New Zealand Council I round all the clubs in Southland during his visit nearly next month. Both the Eastern and Western Districts will be included in the itinerary. Owners of bowLs which have not yet been tested are advised to get m touch with the official tester (Mr Battin) at the Southland green.

A meeting of the Te Rangi executive is to be held on Monday evening next to make the draw for the club’s competition and to decide upon the date of commencement. In this column last week Mr Steans, of the Waihopai green, was inadvertently referred to as the greenkeeper. Mr Steans is one of the latest recruits of that club and is an enthusiastic horticulturist. He has spent a great deal of time and expense on beautifying the surroundings and we regret our error.

The Waihopai green is playing remarkably well and has a splendid even surface. The weed which was planted there has not yet, of course, started to spread, but in the course of time should develop into one of the best playing areas in Southland. Some of the delegates to the Southland Bowling Centre have called a special meeting to enter a protest against the lack of provision for any Wednesday competition. They consider that it is distinctly unfair that they should be debarred from playing in inter-club matches. If bowlers would stir themselves out of their usual grooves this should not be so hard to accomplish. This competition is useful in permitting bowlers of the different clubs who have their Wednesday afternoons free to meet in a friendly way every week. Some suggestion has been made that something of a tangible nature should be set aside for which the players in this competition could compete. The idea is all right in a way but the difficulty is to decide on something which would not exactly be a trophy but yet would ferve to stimulate interest in the competition. It would be regrettable if, with the idea of always putting thenstrongest rinks into the competition, dubs selected men who could and would make it a practice of leaving their respective businesses on Wednesday afternoons in order to play. “Pot-hunters” should be eliminated —they can look for all the glory they require in the Saturday competition. At the meeting to be called the questions of the shield rink competition and bowl testing will also be brought up. “Bias” has heard from members of other dubs that a marked improvement is noticeable in the playing surface of the Waikiwi green in comparison with its state last year. When any town or country clubs visit that centre to fulfil engagements they can rest assured that there will be no cause of complaint so far as the green is concerned. The Wai kiwi green was opened last Sat-

ueday by the president, Mr Buckingham, who spoke a few words before calling upon Mr J. H. Loudon, the representative of the Dominion Bowling Council. An excellent afternoon tea was provided and the opening was marked by unprecedented enthusiasm. Some 14 to 16 ladies were among the players including several of the lady members of the Te Rangi Club, who seem most enthusiastic over the game. At the annual meeting of the New Brighton Bowling Club a proposal was brought forward that the green be open for play on Sundays. As the finances of the club were not flourishing several members thought that Sunday play /would be an inducement for many more members to join, and so repair the club’s fortunes. After considerable discussion,, however, it was decided to go on the same old way. At one time ladies played bowls in Wellington, but of late years their worst halves have had a monopoly of the game, writes “Number 2” in the Evening Post. Johnsonville, however, has decided to revive the ladies’ interest in bowls beyond the stage of wondering how long it will be before their husbands get home to dinner, and on one afternoon in each week the green is to be set aside for the ladies. Those ladies desiring to learn how’ to roll bowks and earn for themselves the title of “Toucher Queens” will have expert advice placed at their disposal. When ladies’ rinks commence winning the Senior Pennants it will be time for the daddies to go home and look after the fowls.

At least one club in Wellington has adopted the wise policy of appointing club coaches and that is the parent club, Wellington, slates a Wellington exchange. There may be other clubs in this centre who have done the same thing, and if they haven’t, then they ought to get busy without delay. The number of trundlers continues to increase each year, but it is only by the good offices of kindly disposed players that the new players can pick up the rudiments of the game. Too often a new player has difficulty in getting anyone to "take him up,” and the consequence is that he is liable to fail into grave errors. Unless one starts out in the proper way at bowls, it becomes a matter of die greatest difficulty as the years go by to acquire anything like a decent style, and good shots are often as not as much a matter of good luck as good management. If a cluo has plenty of bowling material, but not a wide variety of experts, then it surely becomes the duty of the club, if it wishes to have any sort of good fortune in competitions, to request the experienced and competent players to train up the others in the way they should go. The subject of coaching was touched upon by "Boomerang” in the Sydney Referee recently, and his remarks are worth repeating here. “It would make one weep,” he said “to see some of the cripples (who turn out not to be cripples but healthy men) employ all sorts of attitudes to get on the white.” He went on to describe the crouch and said such a man would never make a bowler. He urged as a remedy must make a beginning somewhere for the sake of the future generation of bowlers. That means the novice who joins

your club to-morrow or next week. The present method is to let him find out for himself, and he will invariably find out a wrong way. Or he may get a lesson from a member who is badly in need of one himself, and good-bye to the brilliant future of the novice.” The bowling season for the year has now I started, and bowlers will doubtless be interested to read what “Boomerang” has to say in the Sydney Referee on the question of driving. There are two distinct camps in bowls, just as distinct as the Tory and the Communist in politics, says “Boomerang.” On the one hand there is the man who abhors driving in bowls, and the other man who takes the opposite view. Young players will learn much by a careful study of these opposite camps. The man who doesn’t believe in driving is invariably the man who has either never practised it, or who finds himself incapable of succeeding at the art. He is the fox without a tail. The croucher, the kneeler, the squatter, would take driving out of the game because they began wrongly themselves. Nothing disgusts them more than to see their well-drawn bowls scattered in all directions. “Skittles, not bowls!” they say. But we can only regard those who hold these views with compassion. If they had started out correctly—that is to say, had they adopted a proper stance and delivery, they would be enthusiastic about the drive in bowls. This is where the new player must get and learn his first lesson. “Which camp do you want to belong to?” I would ask the beginner.

No bowler can succeed to the highest point of efficiency without the drive. The drive consists of a variety of firm shots, from moderate strength to very fast. The art of finding out when to use your skill in driving, and when to leave it alone enters largely into the question. It comes instinctively to the John Love type of hitter. When they have two bowls left and a drive is the game, it’s a shade of odds on that there’s going to be an alteration— not always, of course, do they succeed. Any legislation that aims to restrict driving in bowls would be fatal to the game, it would then develop into an old woman’s pastime. To all young players I would say : “Practice this branch of the game. It is a great and valuable asset. The dead draw shot man in 31 up has to waste 20 to 30 bowls as back wood if he is beating his man. How does he fare if he is not beating him on the draw? On the other hand, the driver can keep on his draw shots with the knowledge that the other man won’t or can’t hit.”

In Dunedin, “Jack,” the Otago Daily Times bowling writer, has been emphasising the need for coaching. “The coming season,” he says, “will see many new men on the several greens and it would be a sound move if each club appointed a coach to take the beginners in hand. If a player is allowed to develop a faulty delivery at the beginning of his bowling career it is extremely difficult for him to change his style later. From a hygienic viewpoint bowls is perhaps the best game played when a correct stand and easy delivery have been attained, but the crouch prevents the stomach muscles being brought into play. In the graceful swing of arm and body in unison there is more pleasure for the player, better ability to play, and a much finer exposition of the game, than the stiff, stodgy crouch adopted by some players. Of course, there are cases where, through some physical disability, a player cannot attain the easy swing, and such players are not to blame, but through a bad start many are handicapped; so it is the plain duty of clubs to have someone able to teach new players.” A Sydney newspaper man (“Bowling Life”) who accompanied the State team to Queensland, where it was defeated, after more than hinting that the Nev/ South Wales players did not agree too well, goes on to say: “The Queenslanders were not a happy family by any means. One rink in particular in a test match could not have been better constructed to upset the apple cart. It was lovely to hear the second and third calling each other pet names in language that was decidedly cardinal. They quarreled over the skip’s directions, too, and snarled at each other’s play. The third man gave the skip a rosy time. When directed what shot to play, the third continually held up the game to ask whose bowl was this, that, and the other—all of which he should have known. Nothing was more calculated to put the skip off his game; but we were happy to see that the skip was made of sterner stuff, and he pulled his side through with some wonderfully clever shots.”