BOWLING

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18012, 24 November 1926, Page 3

BOWLING

NOTES FROM THE GREENS

By

“Toucher.”

Owing to rain falling on Fridaynight pennant games in Christchurch were cancelled last Saturday, but Saturday morning broke fairly fine, and, with a wind blowing the greens recovered quickly and most of them were occupied in the afternoon with club matches. The abandonment gave the clubs a good opportunity to get on with their respective championships* The greens were holding, but quite playable. The Southland Centre has forwarded the following recommendation to the Dominion Council in regard to bowl testing: The Southland Centre recommends to the Dominion Council that the year in which bowls are stamped be placed on the bowls and that this stamp hold good for five years. Mr J. Brackenridge returned from Canada some days ago, says the “New Zealand Times.” Conditions in Canada make it necessary for the greens to be remade every year. He brought a -message from the clubs there that New Zealanders would receive a hearty welcome any time they were passing through. ss Mr T. Forsyth, M.P., has joined the ranks of the Parliamentary bowlers, of whom there are not many. He has been enrolled at Victoria Club, Wellington, and'.Mr Robert Scott was assiduously- coaching him on Saturday. He has been playing for three weeks and.; is-getting quite enthusiastic. He has .not. indulged in any games since he played Rugby until now. He was a rep. :plavcr in his day. 55 :: Mr Alec Dey, Christchurch Club, and Mr Fred Thomas, United, were in. Nelson last wfeek, and had no sooner arrived in the city when they were snapped up for" a game. The Dominion president, Mr W. J. Hardley, was in Nelson and the clubs got together to give him a day on Nelson’s sunny greens. The late Louis Waxman’s (Melbourne) “Advice to Skips’* included these:—“Never play your men on a bad hand because it looks easy,” and “When there is one hand that ‘draws’ and one that does not, stick to the drawing hancL” Many a skip, to his own undoing, was led by appearances to direct his men-to play-shots which — on the day—were impossible. The advice given by the Melbourne player is well worth bearing in mind by thoughtful skips. Put briefly, it means—- “ Stick to the drawing hand so long as it is open, no matter how easy the other looks.” Following upon certain criticism Mr Claridge has resigned the position of sole selector for the Hataitai Club (Wellington) and at a special meeting of the dub held recently Mr Brightling was appointed to the position. He is to select the rinks according to a policy laid down by the directors, which broadly means that the best players in the club are not to be centred on any one inter-club contest, but are, as far as possible, to be distributed over the rinks taking part in all contests. *.• j.j 25 Mr Leon Cohen (formerly of the Thomdon andvTeTiiwi Clubs, Wellington) has returned ‘from a : trip t 6 Europe and America. It is understood that Mr Cohen is returnirtg to Sydney shortly. Wellington greens were mostly sodden last Saturday, but the scheduled games were played. Bowlers were more fortunate there than in Christchurch. K Auckland bowlers were, disappointed in that wet weather caused, a postponement of the first round of the pennant competition. . Dunedin also experienced adverse weather conditions last Saturday, but the games were gone on with and most of them were completed. The southern centre has experienced an- unsatisfactorv season so far. 11 55 1-1 The promiscuous use of club colours on local greens is tolerated merely. Everyone, or nearly everyone, thinks it wrong for . a bowler to .appear in a blazer that he probably wore a decade before as a cricketer or, oarsman, and it does not make for harmony oil the gnten. I have known players who invest an ancient blazer or a fearful old hat with the magic powers of a mascot. says a writer in the “DominTon,” and are never happy unless disporting themselves in this motley wear, but one asks, what w r ould a green look like if half the bowlers were to show such eccentricity in sartorial equipment? They have to wear club colours compulsorily in tournaments, and it would be better if players developed the habit of making their own club colours and costume their mascots.

Wellington, also, is to have a new club, an application having been received by the centre from Plimmerton. The new green and tennis courts are situated at the southern end of what is known as “Walker’s Flat,” and is overlooked by the road that curls down the hill from Pahautanui to Plimmerton —a sheltered valley that should make an ideal sports ground. Some of the members of the centre wished to know when the green was likely to be •- pened, and 1 whether it would be open for Sunday The chairman understood that the green was not likely io be opened before Christinas, and probably the club would advise the centre of the event. The existence of a new bowling and tennis club should give new life to Plimmerton.

A unique happening occurred recentlv in Australia. In the singles championship of a club there was an end in which neither of the players scored, and not even one bowl was left on the green when the end was finished. It happened this way: One of the players threw the jack to within a few feet of V diLciu hi* fust bowl he

got a toucher and carried the kitty closer still to the gutter, his bowl resting a few feet away. His opponent's first bowl, as well as his second, third, and fourth bowls of the second and third, went overboard. The first player did likewise. Then the opposing bowler—only one bowl (a toucher) and the jack being on the green—essayed to put the kitty into the ditch with his last bowl. He drove, struck his opponent’s bowl out of bounds, and went into the ditch himself. Then the spectacle of the bare kitty on the green and the eight bowls overboard was witnessed.

Copies of the revised rules of the Dominion Bowling Association have been issued, and are well worth studying. They are set out more concisely than hitherto, and are much easier to follow, although an index would have been useful. It is not difficult, however, to find the information wanted, but the umpire sometimes wants to find a rule in a hurry, and the index would have been useful in this respect.

'Under the heading “ Snobbery Breakers,” ‘ ‘Sydney Bowling Life ” says that the president of the Singleton Club (Mr W. J. Gragg) got off some good stuff at the annual meeting. H-e said that bowling clubs were now institutions which had grown up in many towns. They were not only institutions, but a necessity, and it was a good thing for men to belong to these clubs. The harmony and goodfellowship that existed in cities and towns where bowling clubs were established could not be excelled in any other branch of sport. Bowls was a game in which they found out not only, adman’s weaknesses, but his most endearing points. A certain duty devolved on each bowler, and that was to act the part of a bowler and be honourable and straight. When all professions, trades and occupations harmonised together in a friendly spirit and tabooed snobbery, it was a wonderful thing to believe that the bowling club had brought such about. Told as a true story.-r—An excited player, on being asked how the head lay, shouted out: “If you take that out we will, be a r-r hatful.” A parson was playing in rink, and every player (including the offender) was very sorry that such language should have been used. They went on playing, and a few ends later the parson was asked how the end lay. He quietly replied: “If you take that one out we frill have one of Mr Blank’s hatfuls.” 5: At the last meeting of the Wellington Centre Mr INI. Marks (president of the Victoria Club) raised the question of the manner in which rinks were selected for champion matches, and mentioned that it was time the centre should lay down rules under which each club would have to find its champion rink, pair and singles players. On the subject a Melbourne paper says:— “ This question of selecting club representation for champion rink and president’s trophy competitions is capable of much argument. And it generally leads to it. Some clubs nominate their eight best single-hand exponents, placed either with care or perfunctorily. Some meticulously place skips in skippers' positions, leaders in leader’s, scorers second and recognised No. 3’s third. Others give the coveted honour to the rinks having the best performances to date of appointment. In such a case it cannot be cailed selection. Each of the.se courses of procedure has logical support, and each may be followed as the best, after careful and honest consideration and conference. The object, of course, is to have or provide the best representation the club can get. Whether the retention of a ririk, as a whole, with the feeling of comradeship and confidence in each other that successful performance engenders, is better and more likely to lead to success than is the substitution of one or more of its units by some one or two players of more repute and better skill, is for the decision of the selectors. The respective merits of the available maximum of skill minus the lack of unity , existent in a scratch rink, and of a lower grade of skill, plus the comradeship and confidence of which I have made mention, should be carefully valued and decisions made thereon.’ In any case, whichever course selectors follow, their work will be severely criticised Provided it has been carefully and honestly performed, they need not mind. In a club of twenty men probably there will be fifteen different and honest opinions.”