ROUND THE BOWLING GREENS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 70, 24 March 1937, Page 4

ROUND THE BOWLING GREENS

EASTER TOURNEY THIS WEEK

(By

“THE SKIP.")

-ftu? Wanganui Bowling Centre’s Easter tournament will occupy attention during the holiday period, and the number of visiting rinks is an indication of its popularity.

The visit of the Manawatu Centre, with eight rinks, on Wednesday last provided a fine afternoon’s play. The match was keenly contested, the visitors winning on the aggregate by 7 points.

Mr. J. A. Nash, president, was in command of the visitors and Mr. A. Crawford, the Wanganui Centre president, did the honours on the hosts’ behalf.

The Gordon Pairs competition was finalised on the Wanganui East greens on Thursday and Friday, ten pairs, from Wanganui, St. John’s, Wanganui East, Gonville, and Rapanui Clubs participating. The weather was delightfully fine and the green fairly keen.

The winners, A. Pepper (lead) and W. G. Herd (skip), of the St. John’s Club, were making their third appearance in these competitions. Herd’s dual win, in the open singles and Gordon Pairs, is an achievement of which he should be proud, while the fact that Fletcher, of the Wanganui East Club, was his runner-up in both competitions also stamps this younger player as one of the district’s best and most versatile players.

It was unfortunate that the naa' was played on probably the worst rink on the suburban c!ub\- excellent green. While it was as fair to one pair as the other the standard of play was affected.

The excellent entries for the centre's Easter tournament must be very gratifying, especially when it is noted that several of the nine visiting teams from outside the centre have been here on at least one prior occasion. The games are being played on the four town clubs’ greens. Wanganui and St. John’s in turn having two sections in one day. This simplifies the control of the tournament and reduces the transport problem to a minimum.

A “free and easy” social evening for visiting and local bowlers will be held in the Wanganui Club’s pavilion on Saturday evening at 8 p.m. Cards and musical and elocutionary items will form part of the programme and It is hoped that as many locafc bowlers as possible will attend to meet the visitors and become better acquainted.

Probably the visiting bowlers will be the guests of the centre and the Rapanui Club on this popular beach club’s green over the week-end.

The report of the centres singles Champion of Champions games will bo found in another column.

St. John’s Club Notes. The club’s full rink competition was continued on Saturday, when the seventh and final round was played. One postponed game. Brass v. Moffatt, will require to be played, Brass having a chance of qualifying. A short game will be played as soon as possible so that post-section play will not be held up. The section winners are as follow, the wins and losses being shown:— Section A. —Clinkard 4/2, Herd 4/2. Section B.—Fleming 6 z o, R. Armstrong 5/1. Section C.—D. Armstrong 6/0, Scrivener 4/2 (also Brass if he defeats Moffatt). Section D.- loop 5/1, Stone 5/1 Parkes 4/2. (It is stated that a miscount of handicaps took place in the game lost by Toop. This does not affect the section winners). ♦ • • » Fleming and D. Armstrong deserve a pat on the back for going through without a loss. Clinkard’s loss on Saturday, while not preventing him getting into postsection play, brought three skips with two losses in. Congratulations are extended to Beswick and Glover on their meritorious win in the A pairs final on Saturday. The C (colts) pairs has been won by Fred Pepper and Dearsley, who put up a great performance to go through their section play of fine games without a loss.

The A singles final between A. E. Stone and Stringer resulted in a win for Stone. This is his second win and he has played excellent bowls throughout, adding to the reputation earned in Hawera and Auckland. Both Stringer’s losses were at the hands of his schoolmaster opponent.

What was supposed to be the final in the B singles, between Roache and Ashworth, was won by Roache, but it appears that Ashworth had had a loss registered against him in an early round. Roache and Ashworth will therefore meet again. They have met twice previously, each having a win to his credit.

The semi-final of the handicap singles has been reached, Matson losing his last game to Pepper. All four have only one life now and the draw sees Jack meet Kidd, while Pepper and Matson again meet. Matson had previously met all the other three.

Members were naturally pleased when Pepper and Herd won the Centre Gordon Pairs competition. This trophy thus comes back to St. John’s after being held by other clubs for four seasons.

The club keeps up its reputation as a keen competitive club by having fifteen rinks in the Easter tournament. This is over a quarter of the total entries.