FINAL OF FOURS TODAY

Southland Times, Issue 24339, 21 January 1941, Page 6

FINAL OF FOURS TODAY

DOMINION BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIPS MUNN MEETS BESLEY (United Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, January 20. The New Zealand bowls championships will conclude tomorrow. The position in the fours is interesting in that L. W. Besley (New Brighton), a hitherto unknown skip, Iras, by his own play, taken his team into the finals. A member of a club where the opportunity for hard, competitive bowls is limited, Besley has shown himself capable not only of ranking among the best players in New Zealand, but also of being one of the best skips seen in action in these contests for a long time past. No matter how hopeless a shot may come up the green from one of his own men, he never gets upset, but plays each end as it lies. During those important pre-final games that have meant so much to his team, he has lemained steady all the way through, and in critical stages has been able to give them the shot that counted. Tomorrow Besley and his team will face heavy odds in meeting P. Munn (Canterbury), in that few cases are known in which a one-lifer has beaten a two-lifer twice. Munn’s team has already had one close victory over the New Brighton four. RESTORED AFTER REST Meeting Besley on Saturday afternoon, Munn had the advantage of skipping a young team against one in which the average age was nearer 60 than 50. In the game on Saturday Besley’s team admitted that they were tired and did not expect to win. Sunday’s rest restored them. They had one bye in the eighth round and will be completely rested when they take their places tomorrow morning. 1 In today's game with T. F. Mitchell (Blenheim) Munn was fighting all the way against a skip who has won high honours during the tournament by his propensity for saving a situation with his last bowl. On the last end today Mitchell required two to win, but Munn’s men outdrew the Blenheim players and gave Canterbury a 19-15 victory. Besley indicted a crushing 26-14 defeat on J. Ure (Northend. Invercargill) in the semi-finals. Tire other semi-final game produced an easy win for T. F. Mitchell (Blenheim) who beat H. S. Maslin (Hawera) 22-15. Playing conditions were difficult with a strong south-west wind blowing I across the line of play. BESLEY’S EARLY LEAD The result of the New BrightonNorthend game was never in doubt and play stopped at the nineteenth head with the Invercargill team in a hopeless position. Ure started badly by letting | Besley stand 13-2 at the ninth head. The New Brighton men were playing good bowls, finding the jack and getting length consistently. Their opponents were ragged and all over the place. Northend took five on the thirteenth head, followed by a pair and a single and the score then stood at .18-14 against them. Over the final three I heads, however, Besley countered with { a pair and two threes to put the result beyond doubt of 26-14 in his favour. Mitchell was five up on the final head against Maslin and a concluding pair gave him a good margin. Hawera made all the pace till half-way through the game, the score standing 10-2 against Blenheim early and narrowing till the fours were level at the sixteenth end. After this Blenheim never looked back and put on pairs and singles on every succeeding end while Maslin’s score stayed at 15. A three on the nineteenth and a pair on the twentieth ended the game. PAIRS SEMI-FINAL In the pairs semi-final Williamson and Joseph (Canterbury) beat Piper and Hadwin (Hutt) 19-18. The Canterbury players are third and second respectively in Munn’s unbeaten four. The game opened spectacularly, ; Hadwin securing a six on the third head and a four on the sixth to put him 11-. Joseph recovered slightly and i began to narrow the lead with well- I scored singles, a two and a three until at the fifteenth end the score stood I 14-15 against Canterbury. Hadwin took a two off the next end and here he stopped while Joseph put on singles J till they stood 17-all at the nineteenth. I Joseph got a two on the next head and on the final head Hadwin was lying ] three shots to win when Joseph rested ( two out and left Canterbury the winner by 19-18. It was a great game and under difficult wind conditions provided a fine display of drawing. ( TODAY'S GAMES ( 1 The times of Tuesday’s games all < depend on the result of the 9 a.m. t game between Munn and Besley. If j Munn wins he gets the championship j and the win automatically releases f

Williamson and Joseph to meet Maslin and Squire for the final of the pairs. On the other hand, if a second game is necessary between Munn and Besley this will be started between one and two o’clock and the final of the pairs cannot be played until about 4 o'clock or a little later. The Canterbury pair will meet two players, Maslin and Squire, who already hold a New Zealand championship, their win being at Wellington in 1933. Wins by Munn in the fours and Joseph in the pairs, would mean that all three titles would be won by Christchurch players, equalling the record established last year when Auckland men took all three. Play in the fours today resulted in Mitchell (Blenheim) getting third and Maslin (Hawera) fourth. Today’s results are: — FOURS Eigth Round —P. Munn (Canterbury) 19 beat T. F. Mitchell (Blenheim) 15; L. W. Besley (New Brighton) a bye. Fourth Prize —H. S. Maslin (Hawera) 25 beat J. Ure (Northend, Invercargill) 18. PAIRS Fifth Round —D. H. Joseph (Canterbury) 19 beat W. F. Hadwin (Hutt) 18. Semi-Finals —M. J. Squire (Hawera) 24 beat T. A. McClymont (Ponsonby) 9; Joseph (Canterbury) 22 beat J. T. ! Calder (Phoenix, Oamaru) 18.

WAIHOPAI CLUB’S TOURNAMENT WIN FOR GEORGETOWN TEAM The annual rinks tournament of the Waihopai Bowling Club was held yesterday in good playing conditions. Sixteen rinks from city clubs participated and at the end of an interesting day’s bowls two Georgetown rinks contested the final.

The winning rink consisted of A. Whitley, L. Johnstone, A. Swanson and D. Johnstone. It beat the rink skipped

by A. McKenzie by 18 points to 16. Following are the details of the games: SECTION A First Round: Invercargill (Ellery, | Smith, Holmes, Grant) 15, beat Georgetown (Haydon, Drummond, Sefton, McKenzie) 10; R.S.A. (Galt, Fraser, Buchanan, Dixon) 22, Waihopai (Cuthbert, Parsons, De Latour, Pickford) 21; Te Rangi (Hinton, Froggatt, Andrews, Froggatt) 18, Invercargill (Robertson, Jones, Millar, Gardiner) 17; Waihopai (Boyes, Foster, Wilson, Speirs) 23, Georgetown (Smith, Brown, Marshall, Glover) 12. Second Round: McKenzie 21, Pickford 14; Dixon 20, Grant 13; Speirs 16, Gardiner 11; Glover 18, Froggatt 14. Third Round: McKenzie 17, Dixon 13; Pickford 14. Grant 13; Glover 18, Gardiner 1; Speirs 17, Froggatt 15. SECTION B First Round: Southland (Findlay, Cowie, Fortune, Torrance) 15, Te Rangi (Dyer, Batcheler, Lopdell, Halligan) 12; Georgetown (Whitley, Johnstone, Swanson, Johnstone) 19, Waikiwi (Buxton, Patterson, Barron, Watson) 8; R.S.A. (Brown, Breen, Lang, Tisbury) 22, Te Rangi (Frobarth, Marshall, Taggart, Donald) 8; Waihopai (Tomlinson, Blomfield, McKay, Morrison) 27, Northend (Reid, Morton, Scandrett, Keast) 8. Second Round: Halligan 25, Watson 15; Johnstone 15, Torrance 14; Donald 21, Morrison 14; Keast 20, Tisbury 16. Third Round: Johnstone 16, Halligan 12; Torrance 31, Watson 9; Donald 17, I Keast 15; Morrison 22, Tisbury 11. Section winners: R. G. Speirs (Waihopai) and D. Johnstone (Georgetown). SECTION TIES McKenzie (Georgetown) 13, Dixon (R.S.A.) 4; Morrison (Waihopai) 6; Donald (Te Rangi) 1. SEMI-FINALS McKenzie 12, Speirs 2. i Johnstone 14, Morrison 4. j I FINAL Johnstone 18 beat McKenzie 16. WAIKIWI v. R.S.A. Waikiwi beat R.S.A. at Waikiwi by

87 points to 57. Scores: W R Patterson, Meadows, Brown, C. Watson 22 — Stone, Cowley, Millar, O’Brien — 15 Irwin, McLeod, Sievewright, McPherson 20 K. Smith, Jukes, Hagen, Kynaston — 11 Allan, Murray, Buckingham, Thomas 14 — Falkner, Harrington, O’Toole, Macklam — 20 Buxton, Coster, Thomson, E. Watson 31 — Rudolph, Kingston, Heslen, McKenzie — 11 TOTALS 87 57