BOWLING

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18088, 23 February 1927, Page 6

BOWLING

NOTES FROM THE GREENS

By

“Toucher.”

Christchurch bowlers have been favoured with a remarkably long spell of fine weather this year,, the conditions on most Saturday afternoons being almost perfect. During the past few r days the weather has become unsettled, but it cannot be said that prospects are unfavourable. Some of the greens which had become parched will benefit greatly as a result of the rain, and, provided the weather clears soon, no one -will suffer any inconvenience. ♦♦ ii An excellent start was made with the centre's champion of champions pairs competition last Saturday, and the standard of play was uniformly high. The majority of the games were closely contested, the issue being in doubt until the last few heads. One of the best -games was that between Christchurch (J. Ainger and W. 11. Macdougall) and the new Shirley club (W. Kington and M. Saunders), which resulted in a win for the former by 19 points to 14. The Shirley pair played a wonderful game, and gave their opponents a very hard task to win, a rather luck}- 4 pocket ” of five in the nineteenth head giving the Christchurch players an unexpected advantage. Another splendid game was that between Akaroa and New Brighton, which, lifter a remarkable change of fortunes, resulted in a win for New Brighton by a single point obtained after a. tie in the twenty-first head. After the „ thirteenth head, Akaroa was leading by 19 points to 9, but New Brighton slowly but surely overtook them in the remaining heads, equalising the scores at 21 points in the twenty-first head. The extra head was watched with the closest interest by the spectators oil the green. The competition will be continued on the Sydenham green next Saturday, when the third round and the semifinal will be played. The draw for the third round is as follows:—New Brighton plays Kaiapoi W.M. Club, Sjpreydon plays Cashmere, St Albans plays Papanui, Christchurch plays Edgeware. Entries for the champion rinks close with the secretary on Monday next. A strong Canterbury teard has been selected for the annual cight-rink match against Otago for the Redpath Shield, which will be played on the Opawa green to-morrow. According to a cable from Sydney the party of New South Wales bowlers leaving there on Friday week will comprise twenty players and ten ladies. They will arrive in Auckland on Tuesday, March 1. The South Australian party are not coming till next year, their secretary having written approving of the date suggested. March, 1925. The itinerary will be left to the new Council. Among those nominated as new members of the Thom don Club is Sir John. Findlay, and when he is elected, this club will be able to boast two knights and a baronet. Sir John Findlay, Sir John Luke, and Sir E,. Osborne Gibbes, Bart. « « Competitors in the Easter tournament will be glad to know that the centre executive have decided to appoint independent umpires for the future, writes “Trundler” in the Auckland “Star.” As was remarked at the recent Christmas tournament, and in* deed at all previous tournaments where competitors were acting as umpires, these cannot possibly perform their duties wthouit neglecting their team, and it is not a fair thing to theit\team, nor to their opponents, that they should continually be called away to perform work which is quite enough in itself to occupy the undivided attention of one special man on each green. It was found at the Dominion tournament that there isample talent available in the various clubs from which umpires can be selected, without bothering the competitors, and the executive will probably find that they can

get more volunteers than they are able to utilise. Umpiring is a very important duty, far too important to pass over to a man who has quite enough to do in looking after his own game, and if the very capable officials who were entertained by the Dominion president after the recent tournament were kept together as an umpire reserve, it would not be long before we would have uniformity in the conduct of all our tournaments. A Boundary Question. An incident occurred in Sydney the other day which seems to give additional proof to the contention that the Dominion council were unwise in refusing to accept the suggestion to define more clearly the boundary of a rink. Over and over again, practically in every tournament, a match depends on whether a bowl or jack is alive or d£ad, and that in turn depends on whether the inside or outside of the peg is the boundary of the rink. The council have frequently been asked to define the position, but they always ignore it, and the result was that at the tournament there were the usuhl arguments whenever there was a line bowl or jack, never satisfactorily settled. All the council have to do is to say which side is the boundary, and everybody is perfectly satisfied. However, to return to Sydney. In the second round of the Metropolitan singles championship, the Sydney “News” describes a remarkable contest between R. T. Harrison, the Waverltfy crack, and T. Griffin, a Rand wick champion, the latter starting off so w T ell that at one time he led by 15 to 2. However, the tournament is being played 18 points up, and Harrison pulled it off by 19 to 17. But the incident which called for comment was a line bowl played by Harrison, which the marker was going to remove. Challenged by the player, the marker called the umpire, and he made the bowl dead, declaring for the centre of the peg, when he put the line across the gre.en. Amongst the spectators was “Exeelite,” the bowling critic of the “News,” and lie was asked for his opinion, which he gave in favour of the outside of the peg, but the umpire refused to alter his verdict. Apparently they have no provision in Australia like we have in New Zealand, for the decision of the umpire being final, “except on a point of law. which carries with it the right of appeal,” so the competitor had no redress. The decision, however, was absolutely absurd, for the latest copy of the Australian rules states: “For the purpose of sighting to determine if a bowl or jack is out of bounds, the outside of the pegs arc to be taken,” and the sooner we introduce a similar rule in New Zealand we shall stop the arguments which invariably arise whenever a bowl or jack is on the line. It does not really matter very much to. New Zealand players, whether the inside or the outside of the peg is taken, so long as it is definitely fixed in advance, but as the outside has been chosen in Australia we might just as well fall into line and adopt the same system. Hasty Decisions Dangerous. A competitor in the Dominion tournament was ridiculing one umpire for having to look up a rule before giving his decision. As a matter of fact he could not very well pay him a higher compliment, for probably nobody knows all the rules, and it is surely far better to look up a rule than to run the risk of giving,, an incorrect decision upon which a match might depend. If the Sydney umpire had realised that it was not infra dig to look up the rules, he would not have given a decision which was probably wrong, and it is stated that there were occasions during our own tournament where an umpire would have given a different decision if he had taken the precaution to refresh his memory by referring to his book. An umpire who looks up the rules will never be blamed by those who understand bowling, but an incorrect decision is unpardonable when the exact procedure is in black and white.