BOWLING IN SOUTH AFRICA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21280, 25 February 1939, Page 16

BOWLING IN SOUTH AFRICA

Popularity of Game WOODEN BOWLS GOING OUT Mr A. E. Archer, of the Humewood Bowling Club, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Province, South Africa, is making a tour of New Zealand. Mr Archer reached the Bluff recently after having toured Australia, where he had the opportunity of playing on twenty different greens in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, and at Hobart. He also played on several greens in the South Island. He will leave Auckland at the end of the month en route for South Africa.

The overseas visitor states there are six clubs in Port Elizabeth with an aggregate membership of over 470. The Port Elizabeth Club, St George’s Park, was founded in 1882, and is stated to be the mother club of the Union. The first sod on the ground was turned by the late Right Hon. Cecil Rhodes. This club has four greens, two other clubs have three greens, and the rest two greens.

There are well over 140 clubs in South Africa, with a membership of more than 8000. The game is becoming very popular. Numerous new clubs are being established and many young men are taking up the game. The South African Bowling Association’s annual tournament, held about March, is always largely attended. Each club has a women’s section, and the women players have their own annual tourney at one of the large centres, such as Cape Town, Pretoria, Durban, or Bloemfontein.

Mr Archer states that the majority of bowls used in South Africa are of composition make imported from Australia, and that lignum vitae bowls are being steadily discarded. No testing of bowls is done in South Africa. This is interesting news, considering what importance is attached to the table test in Australia and the green test in New Zealand. Play goes on all the year round with night bowls under electric light in summer. Florida grass is the variety most favoured for greens.