BRITISH BOWLERS DEPART

Southland Times, Issue 23408, 15 January 1938, Page 13

BRITISH BOWLERS DEPART

PRAISE FOR DOMINION GREENS After a five weeks’ tour of New Zealand, the British bowling team sailed for Sydney from Wellington on Monday. It has played 14 matches and has won two of them. However, bowling is regarded as merely an interlude in a tour that has as its prime object sightseeing and the meeting of brother bowlers. Members of the team have expressed pleasure at their experineces in the country. Mr D. Gardiner, Belfast, vice-presi-dent of the Irish Bowling Association and captain of the team, remarked that on both occasions when the visitors won there had been rain an dthere was a catch in the green. Greens heavier than they usually were in New Zealand were what the men from the Old Country were used to, and playing after rain thus suited the less experienced of the players. Their greens were six to 10 yards slower than greens in the Dominion. “The greens are first class,” said Mr Gardiner when he was asked how New Zealand greens comoared with those of

Britain. “I consider them much superior to those at Home. The levels are perfect. I have travelled over England, Scotland, and Wales, and I have been surprised at the greens in this country.” The method of playing on narrow rinks, however, was bad. The rules of the International Bowling Board provided for an 18-foot rink, and that was for the slow greens at Home, whereas rinks 13 feet wide were used in New Zealand. It seemed farcical to use narrow rinks where there was plenty of space to make them wider, as had been, the case on some of the greens the team had visited. The minimum width of a green at Home was 40 yards, but usually they were 42 yards, and six rinks were prepared on them. The narrowness of a rink had once actually caused a member of the team to play to the jack that belonged to the adjoining rink. The jack had been moved to the side of the rink ad he had been talking to someone on the bank and had simply mistaken the neighbours’ jack for the one on his own rink. “The style of play in New Zealand is up to the standard at Home,” Mr Gardiner said. “I have been on the selection committee of the Irish Association for three years and I think that if a first-class team could be sent Home thev would come back with a record.

They would stand the test of meeting first-class players there.” The team will compete in the Commonwealth bowling carnival and some will be selected to represent their countries in the British Empire Games in February. After visiting Melbourne and Adelaide they will go to South Africa before returning home.