BOWLING

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20388, 31 December 1937, Page 17 (Supplement)

BOWLING

AROUND THE GREENS BUOCEBSFUL TOURNAMENTS (By “Skip”) Protecting the Greens In view of the dry season there will be much extra work for greens superintendents to keep the greens in good playing order for club members. Players can assist considerably by stopping the bad practice of digging their toes into the green when delivering. This may not be a common practice on Hamilton greens, but still it is done in not a few instances. Feet on the Mat In Australia both feet must be on

the mat when delivering the bowl, and this rule is very strictly enforoed in the Commonwealth. However, during the bowling tournament in New South Wales and during the tournaments held in connection with the Empire Games this rule is to be waived, and in deferenoe to New Zealand visitors tournament players will be allowed to make their delivery with one foot on the mat, as in New Zealand. Old Type of Bowl The old type of almost round bowl, which if put down with a “wobble” would run almost straight and never correct its run, is gradually disappearing. The sooner they go the better, as they are an annoyance to players generally, especially to opponents. The newer models of all makes are of a shape that it is practically impossible for them not to correct the had delivery of their owners.

Holiday Bowling Not for at least two years has the weather been so kind to bowlers during the holiday period, and Hamil-

ton followers of the game certainly took advantage of the ideal conditions that prevailed over the Christmastide. Local greens were well occupied during the week, while a number of

Hamilton players sought bowling honours further afield. A long spell of dry weather has browned up i me of the greens, but liberal use of sprinklers has kept most greens in excellent playing condition. Successful Tournaments

The Whitiora Club is to be congratulated on singing two one-day tournaments on Monday and Tuesday this week. On the first day a total of 18 teams entered and 16 on the sec-

ond day, the enlries in both cases being representative of local and outside clubs. The weather was beautifully fine on both days, without a breath of wind to send deliveries astray. Another successful tournament was that conducted at the Claudelands greens on Monday, and, as with Whitiora’s first tournament, a play-off was necessary.

Bowlers Number 50,000 In Australia there are approximately 600 bowling clubs, with 50,000 playing members. The annual cost a member averages £SO. Wages paid by clubs approximate a year, independently of secretarial salaries. The turnover of clubs, all told, would not be less than £300,000 a year. This would give well over half a million spent by Australian bowlers in connection with their game.

New Zealand, with a population of less than 2,000,000, has 17,000 bowling members in the two islands. There are four big centres —namely, Auckland (45 clubs), Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

In the two countries bowlers spend annually about one million pounds on their game.

Life, of a Skip When should a skip not skip? It is Hie old story every season/ In ail oilier branches of sport form is the factor that decides whether or not a piayer is worthy of his place in a team, but in the ancient pastime the almost equally hoary adage, “Once a skip always a skip,” seems to be the guiding principle for the selectors (says a northern writer). The veteran probably thinks he can out-bowl and out-manoeuvre his young rivals, and would be rudely affronted if he were relegated to any position other than that- of skip, lie has come to look upon the position as a sinecure, and perhaps is not altogether to blame for this unconscious egotism—the selector is really culpable for his adherence to established precedent. In his younger days and in more strenuous fields of sport the skip doubtless had to give way to the vigorous onslaught of the rising generation, but once lie attains to the exalted position of skip in howls tradition makes his annual reseleclion to the post praeticallv a certainty. Is there a remedy? No selector is infallible. Ilis perspicacity may at times he questioned amid the heartburnings of the disappointed, but if any fault is found in the matter of competence or undue favouring of his cronies I lie reproach is upon those who elected him.