SHORT HEADS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9790, 5 March 1910, Page 6

SHORT HEADS.

NEWS FROM TPTTC BOWLING GREENS. (By THIRD PLAYER.) The Championship Singles competition of tlio Sunnysido Club has been won by I>r Gow, who beat Brackenridge, who has been selected to represent thq club, in the Maddison Trophy Competition after a tough game. The president and secretary of the Canterbury Centre arc making strenuous efforts to obtain a team to undertake the proposed tour to the West Coast. Mr F. W. Johnston is in communication with several motor-car owners, with a view to making arrangements for the conveyance of the team, and the trip should prove a very enjoyable one. The West Coast bowlers are noted for their hospitality and are looking forward with keen anticipation to a visit from a Canterbury team, so that it would he highly regrettable were their invitation to be disregarded.

Entries for the Mitchell Bowl Handicap Singles competition of tho Canterbury Club close 01,1 Monday. Amongst tho entrants to date are A. Lowry, who requires only another win to retain the trophy, having won it last vear, and L. H. Campbell, White, J. Thompson and Neave..

In the final round of the Canterbury Club's Argyle Singles competition G. Baker (handicap 7) will meet A. Lowry (scr) or Hadfield (4). In tho same club's Championship Singles competition J. Thompson 'is matched with Neave, while in the Bowker Rinks competition Saxton's team meets White's, and Graham's toam will • meet either Campbell's or Neave's. The most closely and evenly contested match of this season was undoubtedly the A. Pennant Match between St Albans and United at the United Green last Saturday. It was anticipated that United, having the advantage of playing on their own green, would win the match, but the St Albans team proved it could play as well on a strange green as it could at home. At no time in the match were there more than five ponits between tho tovo teams, and on the last head on the last rink to finish play United were one point in the lead. Tho St Albans rink, however, rose nobly to the occasion and gained thenteam a three-point victory. An interesting r-ingle-handed contest was that fought out between John Brown and Wolfe, the two best singlehanded players of the United Club, which took place on the club's green a day or two ago. Wolfe, who represented his club in the Maddison Trophy competition last year, managed to beat Brown by a narrow margin after an interesting game, and will again rcpiesent the club in the Maddison Trophy contest. Last year ho was runner-up to Campbell in the final round of the competition.

On Tuesday the Inter-club Challenge Badges competition was continued on the United green, the Christchurch Club sending a team skipped, by C. D. Hardie to meet a United team, skipped by Wolfe. On the first half of the scoring board the game was a very even one, but Wolfe then gained three points in three successive heads, bringing the game well into his own hands, and eventually winning by 23 to 13. United Club holds the badge this season, and in view of the iact that its members play particularly well on their own green, it seems improbable that at this late stage of the season any club will he, successful in wresting the badge from them.

The feeling aginst the continuation of the Pennant matches next season seems to bo spreading rapidly, and expressions of opinion against these competitions are to be heard from all quarters. The difficulty which the Canterbury Centre is experiencing in obtaining a team for the West Coast tour is felt to bo chargeable to the existence of the Pennant fixtures, which practically tie players down for the season. There seems to be a fairly general consensus of opinion that the Pennant competitions introduce too strenuous and militant a spirit into the game, and that it would be better to replace them with mutually arranged interclub matches, in which all the members of one club could meet all the members of another on equal terms. In tho absence of the restrictions of Pennant play, too, it is considered that young players would have a better chance of constant play, and that tho older Players, many of whom dislike travelling from green to green, would be far better.

The double-handed tournninent of the Sunnyside Club will be commenced at the club's green next Thursday afternoon. A large number of entries have been received, and the event promises to be one of th© most interesting and successful ever conducted by the club.

The Ilnngiora Club's Pairs Competition has been played out, and for the second year in succession H. J. Gulliver and Gibbs Jordan (skip) are the winners, having lost but one game out of ten played. T. Hughes and J. Angus were the runners-up. The Singles Competition is still in progress, but AV. Efford, who is tho club's representative for the Maddison Trophy, has established such a strong lead that he is not likely to be beaten. The Rinks Competition has been closed, although Rome of the teams did not play out all their games. The win nine rink consisted of Hughes, Boyd, Webber and Jordan (skip), and their score was four wins out of fivo games played. A start has now been made with the Champion Pairs and Rink Competitions, but being so near the end of the season, interest in the games is not very keen, and the entries are smalL