A THREE POINT WIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 584, 9 February 1929, Page 5

A THREE POINT WIN

ROTORUA BOWLS FINAL HAMILTON RINK'S SUCCESS (From Our Oxen Correspondent J ROTORUA, Friday. Always in the lead, but so little that his Australian rivals were continually pressing hard, the Hamilton veteran. Bell, ran to match points in* the final of the bowling tournament to-day, winning by 22 points to 19. The teams in the final were as follow: —Hamilton. —Smith, Jones, Bell, jun., Bell, sen. (skip): Sydney—Harkins. Hamer. Hosking. Harrison

kins, Harper, Tlosking, Harrison (skip). HAMILTON'S BRISK START In the final the Hamilton rink led off with a four on the first head, and was eight up on the third. Harrison caught up, and was only one behind at the ninth, but on the fourteenth the score was, Bell, 16, Harrison, 12. It was a fine display of bowling. On the seventeenth the Waikato men still held a four-point, lead. On the last few heads, excitement was intense, the Sydney rink creeping up to within two of its opponents, 20 —18. On the last head Harrison needed a four to tie. The Sydney rink, however, lost position, and Bell won a great game, 22 —19* EARLIER GAMES In the eliminating round Bell beat Lamb (Carlton), 19 —13, on the twentieth head, and defeated Letham (Ponsonby) in the semi-final, 19 —18, on the twenty-second head. Harrison earned the right to meet Bell in the final by disposing of Kerr (Masterton), 25 —IS. A RINK’S STATUS BREACH OF RULES ALLEGED The following letter has been received from a competitor in the recent Rotorua bowling tournament: (To the Editor.) Sir. —■ . As one of the 240 players taking part in the leading bowling tournament, of the year. I venture in the interests of the bowling fraternity to protest against the treatment accorded to competitors by the management. AVe pay a substantia; entrance fee and we are entitled to demand respectable conditions of play and a strict adherence to the laws of the. game. Now, in the first place, one of the three greens was quite unfit for tournament bowls. It was my personal lot to be compelled to play three of my ten games on a green not many degrees superior to anv ordinary grass paddock. More serious still, as a member of a team which strictly adhered to the laws of the game, I was compelled to compete against a team which as flagrantly defied them. I refer to the "Sydney team, not one of the members of which belongs to a Sydney Club, and not tiio of the members of which belong to the same club. Taxing one of the Management Committee with Permitting this at the expense of the -06 competitors who paid their 2os on the understanding that the recognised laws of the tournament would be adhered l 0 x received the answer that the management, being accustomed to deal with bowlers and sportsmen, had accepted a cheques arid a practically blank entry in all good faith. This may excuse the management's preliminary blunder, but surely it does not absolve it from its duty to the other 236 competitors. The so-called Sydney rink should have had its entry cancelled the moment the personnel was disclosed, not merely as a matter of justice to the other players, but as a curt intimation that in New'.Zealand bowline these things are not done. It is • a thousand pities that the first skip who met the Sydneyites did not, without more ado, claim the game and force the management to take action. It is still open to the management to show’ its disapproval by reporting the matter to the Bowling Association, which may be trusted to deal faithfully with, the question. * FAIRPLAY. The Sun’s bowling contributor, "Jack High.” says that the poster for the Rotorua tournament stated that all members of the respective rinks competing in the tournament should be members of the same club. However, the skip of the Sydney rink was a visitor to New Zealand for the first time, and apparently the tournament committee waived the usual conditions in this case. In the recent Dominion tournament the Svdnev skip captained a rink which included only two Australians, and on that occasion the entry was accepted.— Ed.. The Sun.