THE SPORT OF BOWLING

Taranaki Daily News, 7 November 1935, Page 9

THE SPORT OF BOWLING

ON AND OFF THE GREEN

FIRST SHIELD SERIES DECIDED.

KEEN GAMES; NO SURPRISES.

(By

“Running Shot.”)

In direct contrast to the conditions prevailing during the week Saturday dawned fine and springlike and the opening games in the Taranaki shield competition were played under nearly ideal conditions. The greens, however, were holding and devoid of life, due to the soaking rains experienced, and this militated to some extent against fine play. This did not detract any interest or keenness from the games, and although the results were as anticipated decisions were not reached without a struggle.

Fitzroy Avenges Defeat. With visions of last season’s defeat still fresh in its memory Fitzroy returned the compliment with interest on Saturday, and left no room for doubt as to which was the better team. On the day Awakino did not produce the form which characterised its match-winning efforts last year and had to submit to a 23-point defeat. For Fitzroy, Okey’s rink was in splendid form and handed out a severe trouncing to Northern, who could score only an occasional single. On the sixth head the scores were 5-4 in the Awakino skip’s favour, but here the opposition petered out and the Fitzroy rink piled on the points with consistent regularity, to win with ease by 27 to 11. Bartlett (Awakino) on the other hand did not submit as readily as his clubmate, and it was only over the last two or three heads of an evenly contested game that Coombes got the upper hand. Twenty-one points apiece were chalked the first 17 heads, and a two and a single on the next two heads gave Bartlett a slight advantage. Fitzroy then put the pressure on, and in the run home scored nine points to win a good game 31-24. Playing against Urenui the Fitzroy team had little difficulty in notching the double by comfortably dismissing Urenui by 97 points to 53 on the aggregate. All three rinks won their games, Williams accounting for Des Forges by 35-17, Price-Healy 30-21 and AbbottBrown by 32-15.

West End Opens Well. Encounting solid resistence from four of Waitara’s six rinks West End emerged with a clear-cut victory by 29 points after a good tussle. As was to be expected the green was on the heavy side and many of the players had difficulty in keeping consistently good length, short timber causing considerable trouble on both sides. The standard of bowling on the whole was fair. For West End the honours of the day must go to Lobb’s and Petty’s rinks, which registered decisive wins of 29-13 and 31-21 against L. Sampson and Brough respectively. In the PettyBrough game Fraser (third) proved a thorn in the side of the West End rink and saved his rink repeatedly by finely executed shots. But for him Petty s score would have been considerably larger. The other four games were very evenly contested, each having to fight out the last head for a decision which went mainly in West End’s favour, for two wins, a draw and a loss. Douglass defeated Moyes 28-24 after playing two great shots on the last head to save the game, Christoffel scored a two and a single on the 24th and 25th head to win from Weir by 22 to 19, while Billing and Chittenden ended with honours even, 23-all.

Hamlin was the only Waitara skip on the right side of the ledger and his win against Boulton was veil merited. Throughout the game he was always a point or two in front, but with a five c- the 23rd and laying four more when Hamlin had one bowl to play on the 24th, Boulton had visions of a victory. Jlar-’iri was not done with, however, and with his last bowl he trailed the jack to ring the changes from four down to four up. The final score was Hamlin 29, E-ulton 25.

New Plymouth Defeats Vogeltown. Large scores and fluctuating fortunes were the main features in the New Plymouth-Vogeltown match played on the New Plymouth club’s green, the home team scoring 19 points more than Vogeltown. Other attractions caused defections on both sides and several of the rinks were not as originally selected. This to some extent weakened what were formally good combinations and, as a result, strong rinks met disorganised ones and one-sided games resulted. For New Plymouth A. K. Smart was the most successful skip and he raked his opponent Ross fore and aft to win a decisive victory by 31 to 11. On paper the Vogeltown quartette looked a fairly good combination, but there its strength ended. Of the 25 heads Smart took 16 and Ross nine. The Moore-Gernhoefer encounter provided another landslide and a. win for New Plymouth. Gernhoefer opened up well with a four on the first head, but Moore retaliated with twice that number on the next five. Heartened by their success Moore’s men settled down to their game and played so well that Gernhoefer had no chance of saving a big defeat. The final score was Moore 27, Gernhoefer 13.

Griffin and Boon also contributed to New Plymouth's total, but in Reube and Cawthray they found much sterner opposition. Griffin and Reube had a dingdong go all the way and it was anybody’s game till the last. Griffin won 21-19. Boon and Cawthray also tried for 15 heads to find a weak spot in each other’s defence, the scores at this stage being a point in Cawthray’s favour. Boon then shot ahead with three threes, a two and a single, and although Cawthray came again he failed to pick up the deficit and lost by seven points. The Higgs-Bishop and McDonnellHarvey duels produced prolific scoring, but this time it was Vogeltown’s turn to hand out a drubbing. Bishop and his rink matqs did remarkably well to defeat Higgs, Horton and Co., by 34 to 25, while Harvey’s 15-pointer over McDonnell was a great effort. Harvey previously played for Fire Brigade, but this year he has linked up with Vogeltpwn and should prove a useful skip.

Fire Brigade on Top. Although Fire Brigade has only a small membership its rinks as selected on Saturday were much too good for Paritutu, which had to submit to the visitor’s superiority. Fire Brigade’s winning skips were Goodwin, Lowe and W. Roch, and they accounted for Adam 23-13, Jordan 28-11, and Roberts 28-26 respectively. Blincoe, however, failed against Thompson by the narrow margin of three points.

Unusual features of the match were Jordan’s failure to score on the first fifteen heads while his opponent Lowe registered an overwhelming lead of 23 points; Roberts fine up-hill battle to fail by two to square his game after being down 21-7 to Roch on the 13th head, and Blincoe’s similar performance against Thompson after being 10 points behind on the 14th head. Bowling has evidently lost none of its glorious uncertainty.

Paritutu v. Leppcrton. Paritutu’s second leg pi the double

proved more successful and against Lepperton the team recorded a win. The country club is a comparatively new one, but although beaten it was by no means disgraced. Giddy gave Fluker a big fright and was unlucky to lose by one point. A four to Fluker on the last head was needed for a win and luckily he got it. Peek also played well for Lepperton and it was only <.n the last four heads that the game was lost to Marr, 23-1” Newell, however, could not foot it with Vincent’s fast scoring, and was down 18-4 on the 13th head. This the Paritutu skipper increased in ffie sr- nd half, and he was never seriously roubled to enhance the aggregate total by .11 Pennant Competition. The innovation of a pennant competition which commences next Saturday and will be played fortnightly is creating considerable interest among North Taranaki bowlers, and if street talk can be relied on its success is already assured. The draw as announced last week has apparently received careful attention and the grouping together of the smaller clubs, thereby enabling big clubs like New Plymouth, West End arid Fitzroy to field their full complement of players, will be a big improvement. The first series of fixtures is as follows:— West End v. New Plymouth, home and home. Fitzroy v. Waitara and Urenui, at Waitara and Urenui. Vogeltown and Lepperton v. Paritutu and Fire Brigade, at Vogeltown and Lepperton. Maxwell Walker in Town. A prominent figure in Auckland and} 1

Dominion bowling circles to visit New Plymouth during the early part of the week was Professor Maxwell Walker, and in honour of his visit several games were arranged. On Monday he played and renewed acquaintances at West End, while at New Plymouth on Tuesday a keen game was witnessed. By his exhibition here the professor has lost little of his skill and fine touch and can still be recognised as one of New Zealand’s best bowlers. Hawera Club Matches. The Hawera club was most unfortunate in striking very wet weather for its official opening. With the exception of the Park club most clubs in the southern division carried out their official openings under cover. Owing to deaths and removals from the district the Hawera membership has fallen slightly, and it is straining the club to enter three teams in the banner competition. The two Saturday teams were in action last Saturday, the No. 1 team going down to Park No. 2 and the No. 2 team being defeated by Kaponga. At Kaponga three of the home rinks were successful, the only home skip to lose being Dawson, who went under by three points to Maslin. In the TyackMurray match two threes on the first two heads were registered by the Kaponga player, who kept in the lead the whole way. Tyack, as usual, played a very aggressive game and even when Hawera was lying, the opposing skip rarely failed. Fallows defeated Rudge in a game in which the Kaponga side was too good for the visitors. Cran (23) was just a little too strong for Winks (18), and although the scores at times were close

the Hawera skip could not feel the green ■ for the deciding shot. Entries for the Hawera clubs compe- ; titions close this week and there is a very heavy programme for the season. A new event this year will be for the Corkill Memorial Cup, which will be ; held by the first or second year player who, in the opinion of the match committee, has shown the greatest improvement during the season. The late Mr. T. Corkill was one of South Taranaki’s best known bowlers and one who was noted for taking particular interest in new players. > Even Scoring Games. In the match between Park and Ha- . wera No. 1 the games between Colman : (Park) and Squire and J. W. Thomas (Park) and Fletcher were very , even. On the ninth head Squire was 2 up on Colman and Fletcher the, same on Thomas. On the 19th head Squire was 11 up and Fletcher was 10 up, the final scores being 26—20 in both Squire and Fletcher’s favour. Teams skipped by promoted players in W. Thomas and A. Barnett did credit to their club with a win each. Thomas never looked like being beaten by Foy, his score including three twos, three threes and three fours, the game ending 32—17. Barnett’s game against Bardsley up to the 14th head was even, 12 all. From then on Bardsley added only two singles, the game ending 29—14 in Barnett’s favour. Tire Park green again this year Is playing wonderfully well and congratulations to the new greenwarden, Mr. W. Thomas, and the greenkeeper, Mr. Reg. Hollard, were extended by visiting players.

Park v. Patea. The defeat of Mason (Park) by Burke (Patea) 46—8 must surely be the worst this well-known skip has had. Playing an uphill game right through, it was not until the 11th head that a score was registered by .Mason, and then the board read 24—2. From the 17th to the 23rd heads another 15 points were registered against him. Brett (Park) also. suffered a big defeat at the hands of White’s rink. At the 16th head the board read 15—4 in White’s favour. From then on Brett added only eight more against White’s 18 points. Two more of Park’s new skips in Villars and Riley both did credit, to themselves with wins, Villars team beating' Sheehan 21—14 and Riley’s beating Pat- . terson’s 22—19.