BOWLS WITHOUT BIAS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 89, 9 January 1935, Page 13

BOWLS WITHOUT BIAS

Successful Holiday Tourney LUCK WITH THE WEATHER (By “Armada.”) So rarely do hitches occur in, the conduct of tournaments by the Wellington Bowling Centre that the complete success of the Christmas and New Year competitions is taken as a matter of course. This season’s holiday bowls was highly successful in every way. The iucoiispicuousness of the organisation was an indication of its efficiency; the greens were in gooa order, the weather was mostly glorious, and the quality of the play was sufficiently high to make the games enjoyable tor onlookers as well as for players. The only hitch of any kind was that on the first day of the pairs, caused by the rain. A drizzle set in in the afternoon, and grew thicker as time passed, so that as the hour for commencing the last round that was set down for play that day drew near, the centre secretary, Mr. L. McNabb, was urged to postpone the round. Probably remembering the incident 12 months previously when he was pressed to postpone play at a time when the weather was most threatening, but resisted and saw his judgment vindicated by the return of fine weather a little later in the day, he demurred, but final;!' announced a postponement of the round until next day. Again Mr. McNabbs own impulse was correct, for the ligat rain ceased and conditions became so good that the round could have been played before dark more enjoyably than the earlier afternoon one. Good luck favoured the pairs to the end. for a sudden change in the weather while the final was being played brought a downpour within an hour of its conclusion.

Work of Umpires. Important links in the organisation which gave Wellington bowlers their holiday games were the umpires, who perforin numerous essential duties at the greens, including the gathering of resit.ts and the forwarding of them promptly to the secretary, so that they may be published, and so that on the final evening ot section play a draw may be made. rbe following were the umpires for this season's tournaments: —'Messrs. E. A. Lidd.e (Wellington), A. Dixon (Victoria), J. W. Dayman and McKittrick (HafaitaO, J. T. Ryan (Lyall Bay), S. F. Pope and W. McAlltim (Kelburn). A. J. Catve (Karori), H. Osborne (Island Bay), \v. E Pawson (Central), P. McArthur (I’etone), and C. A. Hayden (Seatoun).

Tournament Rulings. The news that e'en one serious* mistake :ii umpiring was made on the first day of the Dominion tournament at Auckland is surprising when it is considered whit precautions are taken to inform officials ot their duties. Two men played the whole of their first game with three bowls each instead of four, the umpire taking it for granted that three were to be used. „ “Trundler” in the "Auckland Star reports that the umpires held a meeting last week to receive instructions. Doubts end difficulties connected with the ruDs and conditions were cleared away. Speakers expressed the opinion that the only way to control the tournament fairly was re enforce the rules literally, tactfully and firmly. A competitor who delivers a bowl without one foot wholly on the mat, after he has been warned will have that bowl picked up and nut on the bank. During the progress of a game the score

board is the official record and not the cards in persons’ pockets. It was pointed out that in rule 73 the jack or a toucher is alive if it returns within the boundaries after striking a dead bowl, even if the bowl belongs to the next rink. Also, according to rule 44, if it hits the bank outside the boundary. The famous "foreign object” rule is cleared up, and now a bowl or jack is dead if it hits anything except the pegs. That is to say, it is dead even if't hits the number disc, the score board, or tlie mat or a blazer left carelessly on the hank.

A question was raised regarding the placing of the mat. The winner lias the decision, and he may place it anywhere between the ditch and where the jack lay, provided it is not less than 6ft. nor more than 20ft. from the ditch. It would save the worn ends of the rinks if players more frequently availed themselves of this privilege (remarks the writer).

Championship Programme. The pairs championship will start today. and continue to-morrow. Teams will be divided into sections, each pair playing live games of twenty-one heads, or time limit of two and a quarter hours. Each section has to find a straight-out winner, and the two section winners on each green will then play off. The green winners will then go into the post-sectional played under the sudden-death principle.

The rinks competition will commence on Friday. Teams will be divided into sections of ten or more, each team playing two games per day for four days. Each game will be of twenty-five heads. Postsectional play for the rinks will commence next Wednesday, and will be carried out on the automatic two-life principle; these games will be twenty-one beads, with a time limit of three hours. The balance of games left over from the singles and pairs will be played also at this period, as they fit iu. the rink games, of course, taking preference to any cjher game. *“ Notes.

Mr. F. G. Good, vice-president of the New Zealand Bowling Association, passed through Wellington yesterday on his way from Christchurch to Auckland.

Bowlers will be catered for on Anniversary Day by one-day tournaments conducted" by the Petone, Seatoun and Porirua clubs.

Victoria holds the Hill Pins, and w:’l be challenged for them by Kelburn today.

A party of bowlers from the Manawa.tn Centre will come to Wellington to play the Wellington Centre on February 6. When section A of the Christmas rinks was being played at Kelburn, H. I’. Perry’s rink (Thorndon) and E. J. Hill's rink (Wellington) both had eights scared against them. The games were being played on adjacent rinks and the eights were scored within five minutes of each other. Perry was playing J. Lawrie and Hill was playing A. McCune.