BOWLING.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 March 1924, Page 13

BOWLING.

TARANAKI CENTRE MATCHES. , WEST END THE CHAMPION CLUB. (By “Toucher.”) Congratulations of all bowlers must go forth to the West End Club on their came about that Pihama were compettion the Taranaki Centre. They won the Northern Division of the competition in no uncertain manner, and as a fitting finale to their annexation of the laurel* of the Taranaki tournament in January, they have secured the victors’ shield in the inter-club competition last Saturday. The finals were competed for by the West End, Pihama, Inglewood. and Manaia Clubs, which had won their respective divisions in the Centre. West End defeated Manaia and Pihama defeated Inglewood in the semi-finals, while in the final West End Avon from Pihama. I do not intend to traverse the games as played, for they have been very fully and accurately reported in the Daily News by its Stratford correspondent. Suffice it to say, that the greens furnished by the Stratford Club were in excellent condition and that the best teams won.

One strange feature to me is how it came about that Pihama was competing in the final stages) That this club attained to that high position is a creditable performance, seeing that its total membership is but thirteen active players. But if the Centre conditions stipulate that a club must be represented by not less than three rinks, as I am informed is the position, how comes it that a club is permitted to take part with a bare two-rink representation? Either the conditions of the competition .should be strictly adhered to, or the conditions amended to suit the conditions of the Pihama Club or other like clubs. To carry the position further, why not allow a club, such as Rahotu, to compete with only one rink? Certain it is that the conditions of the competition are not quite right, as one cars see when West End has to reduce its strength to two! rinks hnd the other two rinks have to stand on the bank in the final, a* happened last week, in order to play Pihama. Some scheme must be evolved whereby all the country clubs will be able to take part in the competition, either by a classification method according to numerical strength or by some other system enabling all clubs to be on an equal footing. I hope to see Taranaki's bowling authorities take up this matter, as the present system i* nothing like unto perfection. Tlie West End Club brought the shield home to their pavilion, where it now adorns the walls. The shield has a neat centrepiece in silver showing bowlers at play, while across the top is a scroll containing the words “Champion Shield” and lower down the letters “T.B.C.” — Taranaki Bowling Centre— not “to be continued” as the printer’s devil suggests. To my mind the number of scrolls on the shield to carry the winners’ names is rather too many and spoils the general effect, but doubtless the shield was built for the purposes of lasting out the present generation of top-notchers, at all events.

The winners of the Centre competition since its inception in 1912 have been:

1912. —Hawera Club. 1913. —New Plymouth Club. 1914. —New Plymouth Club. 1915. —West End Club. 1916. —No competition. 1917. —Pihama Club. 1918. —No competition. 1919. —Pihama Club. 1920. —Hawera Club. 1921. —Fitzroy Club. 1922. —Stratford Club. 1923. —Hawera Club. 1924. —West End Club. NORTH DEFEATS SOUTH. The annual North versus South Taranaki match took place at Stratford on Thursday of last week, and resulted in a win for North by seven points. The games were of an interesting nature, the scores half way through Hing, South 103, North 88. The next seven heads saw the Northern player* creep steadily up until at the twentieth head only seven points separated the two teams, South having 156 and North 149 points. The final score* were: South 189, North 196. For North, Petty beat Foy by 2 points, Billing defeated Quinn by 5 paints, J. D. Sole accounted for Robb by 6 pointe, while A. K. Smart finished 20 points up on Christie. Th e other North skips were defeated. Stan. Smith went down to J. S. McDonald by 2 points, McNeill was 7 points under to Skoglund, D. H. Thomson was a similar number of points behind Gorki!!, while Johnson wa* defeated by Lyons by 11 points. These North and South games, which ar e always of an enjoyable nature, have now been played for three successive years, and the winners are as under:— 1922. —North. 1923. —North. 1924. North.

THE TARANAKI TOURISTS. BOWLERS FOR AUCKLAND. On Tuesday of next week 48 happy bowlers are to set sail for Auckland by the Rarawa, intent on securing the ecalps from as many Auckland clubs as they can lay their hands on. Of these 48 players 33 players have been nominated from the Northern division, 14 from the Southern and Western, and one from the Central. It is the intention to play 12 full rinks against the various Auckland clubs, but in the test, however, they ’would have to reduce this number to the usual eight. In regard to interchange of visits such as the above-mentioned and the recent Manawatu Centre visit, “No. 2” in the Wellington Post makes the following remarks: —There has been rather a marked absence of visits from other centres this season, so far as Wellington has been concerned. This may be du e in some measure to the fact that centres not infrequently find it a matter of difficulty to arrange tours successfully. There are those who consider that interchange of visits with outside districts is best left to clubs themselves to determine, because there is greater sommun-

ity of interest between players representing one club as a team than among a side which has been selected from among the different clubs in a centre. From the social point of view, it is no doubt made more pleasurable for players when they go on tour to represent their own club alone. A case in point is the annual ‘.Friendly Bowl” contest between ths Wellington and Christchurch clubs, which is always looked forward to with interest on account of the happy time which is spent by those participating in the matches. Such informal visits as that recently made to Wellington by a team of bowlers from Nelson are., .always enjoyable, and, ' besides, they do not entail an undue ■amount of trouble on the part of centres in arranging details. Bowls isi distinctly a social game, and, as a rule, players do not exhibit an anxiety to indulge in Test matches on the lines of cricket and football competitions, although in the case of oversea visits it is* generally found desirable to entrust the centres, in conjunction with the D.8.A., with the actual conduct of the tours. The Auckland and Taranaki centres, however, somehow or other manage to hold inter-provincial matches each year, and with a great amount of success. A few weeks ago Wellington essayed a centre game against the men from Manawatu, and came in for a good slopping, but when the Manawatu players were rafiged against the individual clubs they were not favoured with much luck. This week a team from the Victoria Club is on tour in the region of the Tararuas, having visited Pahiatua and other places, and no doubt they are having the best of good times. So far as bowling is concerned, it does seem better to allow the clubs carte blanche in the matter of tours instead of getting the selection business down to a fine art to find out which are the best rinks to put on a green to represent a centre. In bowls, to have a good time is a sine qua non of participation in the game.

GOSSIP ON THE RINKS.

\ • SOME CHIT-CHAT. The singles champion of the New Plymouth Club this season is H. Smart. On Saturday last the return match between the “has-beens” and the “nows” of Warea and Okato took place on the Vogeltown green, and the present resident* of that country district must now rest content with the fact that the previous residents of the country side are better at the game of bowls than the present “squatters.” Twice have the countryside been defeated, this time by a margin of 2 point*. Mace defeated Ansley by 3 points and Julian beat Muir by 5 points, but Looney went down before Coleman by 6 points. Thus endeth the second lesson! Some bowlers are anxious to make what they think an improvement in the game by urging the more strict observance of the Jaws of the game, and insisting upon competitorf in tournaments wearing the uniforms and colours of the clubs they represent. .Some visitors to Christchurch stated that the tournament committee was not sufficiently strict in seeing that these two requirements were carried out. This, they say, wa« particularly noticeable so far as the laws of the game were concerned. The umpire* were said to be very estimable old gentlemen who were very solicitous a* to the creature comforts of competitors, but were not so assiduous in carrying out their duties in regard to checking those who wished to step off the mat or do a little sprint up the green. The same critics also state that there were a large number of players who presented a very nondescript appearance so far as their uniforms were concerned.

A pleasing feature in the Rotorua tournament, says an Auckland writer, is that this year, for the first time, a banner goes to the winning team, and this they brought home in triumph, to display in their club pavilion. After the unfortunate result in the Auckland centre tournament last Christmas, where the winning team could not take the banner to Hamilton, because they came from another centre, and the equally unfortunate rules at South Auckland, where tlie Rocky Nook team were also debarred from bringing back the banner, the tangible part of tlie p.ward at Rotorua is appreciated all the more.

The claim that bowls is a peaceable game and does not involve any risk of danger to either players or spectators was upset by an amusing incident that happened during a pairs game on the Canterbury Club’s green (states the Lyttelton Tinies). W. F. Raphael, a well-known Sumner skip, with a reputation for terrific driving when he wants to “burn a head,” was responsible for two casualties. The first occurred when he drove his bowl with great force from the north to the south end of the green. The bowl missed the “head” it was intended for, smashed into the ditch, bounced into the air, landed on the toe of a spectator, then bounded into the air again and landed on the head pf another onlooker. The victims head sbon developed a big lump, but he was not badly injured, and regarded the incident philosophically.