BOWLING

Grey River Argus, 19 February 1927, Page 1 (Supplement)

BOWLING

(By “Straight Wood.”) The West Coast Centro’s annual tournament which occupied jiractically the whole of last week was undoubtedly the most successful yet held by the Centre. The entries constituted a record and the weather conditions right through were ideal. All the bowlers speak very highly of the hospitable treatment received at both the Runanga and Greymouth greens and in this connection the ladies are to be I complimented on the completeness of the arrangements made. To provide refreshments, both morning and afternoon each day for a -week for ?ucl» a large crowd of bowlers as well as the spectators is no small undertaking and the ladies are deserving of lhe best thanks of all concerned for the manner in which they carried out these duties.

“Straight Wood” desires to extend his congratulations to the Westport Club on their success at; the tourm ment. To win both the rinks and ] lirs is a great performance and one that has probably not been equalled before. I also congratulate Dave Page, of Lyttelton, the skip of the rink that filled the position of “runner up.” Last year at Westport Page played in the semi-final and should he be successful at next year’s tournament no one would begrudge him the win as he is a real good sport and has been a regular competitor for some years at the West Coast tournaments.

The local reports of the tournament gave the credit of runners-up in the pairs to Dave Page of Lyttelton. This was not so, as the final was played between Blaxall and Levy (s) of Westport and Keen and West (s) of Beckenham. Of the Greyniouth rinks that took part in the Tournament, Blair and Whiblry each won four games and lost two, McKay and Cochrane had three wins and three' losses each, bteer and Jones had two wins and four losses and Kilgour had one win and five lossoß. Owing to the results of one round of lhe pairs in two sections not being published I am unable to give the records of the Greyniouth pairs. For the last two or three years complaints have been made that bowls •’’ore being used at the West Coast Tournaments that were not stamped in accordance with the requirements of the Dominion Bowling Association, i At Hokitika two years ago there were l many complaints about unstamped “pokers” and last year at Westport jthe growls in this connection were even more numerous. The skip of the win jiiing rink in accepting the Cup reto the question, saying that ail his rink had won the competition ho • id net wish to dwell too much on the subject but that in the interest of all concerned the Centre shouhl insist that ,r > all future tournaments only bowls properly stamped should be used. The Centre took the hint and the Centre President at the annual meeting of the Greymouth Club advised the members f o get their bowls stamped otherwise they would be ineligible to play at the Tournament. All the Clubs in the Centre were apprised o? The position •■.nd boxes of bowls were sent to hristchurch to be tested and stamped Quite a few of the bowls sent over • ■'°re found to be under the standard!

draw and had to be altered which ii sufficient proof that the complaints o ‘pokers” at previous tournament: were fully justified. At last week’i tournament the umpire at Runang; inspected all the bowls and although all were passed it is common talk that unstamped bowls were allowed to h< used. At the Greyniouth green the urn pire notified the players that he would hold the skips responsible for all bowk used by their respective teams being stamped and any rink playing with unstamped bowls would be disqualified. During the tournament a complaint was made that a Westport player was using unstamped bowls and on an inspection being made by the umpire this was found to be so. The umpire thereupon disqualified the bowls and referred ihe question of the penalty to be inflicted on the player concerned to the Tournament Executive. The West port player concerned Used another set of bowls in the remaining games. The Tournament Executive met in the evening and according to Press reports decided to take no action. How the Executive can hope to justify their action in this connection this writer cannot see. The rules distinctly provide that if unstamped bowls arc used the player using them must lose the game which is to be awarded to his opponent. In this case the action of the Executive allowed the player who had used the unstamped bowls to win his section and toko part in the post section play. “Straight Wood” is glad to see that the matter is not being allowed to drop and that stops are being taken to have the Dominion Bowling Council’s ruling on the point. There is no question what that ruling will be as the rule could not be clearer.

The following is clipped from a news paper report of Monday night’s meeting of the Committee of the Greymouth Club: —“A letter was received from a Club member urging that the ruling of the N.Z.B.A. be obtained, regarding the alleged unstamped bowls used by a player at the recent tournament, a protest against which was reported to havo been dismissed by the Centro. Air McKay explained that it was the Tournament Committee, not the Centre that had dealt with the pro-, test. Mr Bunt moved, and Mr Brebner seconded, that the letter be re(Continued r oot of next Column.)

ferred to the West Coast Centre to deal with.—Carried unanimously. Mr Kibble moved, and Mr Moss seconded, that if the facts were as stated in the letter, the Committee request the Club's delegate to urge the Council to obtain tho ruling asked for Considerable discussion followed, and on the motion being put, it was carried. Mr McKay was not asked to vote, as he is the Centre’s Secretary. Mr Bunt asked that his dissent should be recorded in the minutes.” I note that it is pointed out that it was the Tournament Committee and not the Centre that dealt wtth the complaint but it would be interesting to know just what the difference between the two bodies really is. The Centre is comprised of one delegate from each Club in the district and the Tournament Committee is the same with the addition of two additional delegates from the c.ub on whose green the Tournament is being held. So that really there is no difference and to all intents

and purposes tho complaint was dealt with by the Centre. However there are only two courses left open for the Centre and they are cither to override the Tournament Committee whieh is in effect overriding their own decision or send the appeal on to the Dominion Council and let that body toll them they were wrong. For the information of those not conversant with the details the following brief outline of the facts should bo interesting:—During the progress of a pairs game the opposing skip noticed that the Westport player’s bowls were not stamped and mentioned the fact to him, also advising him that at the conclusion of the

game he would notify the umpire. This he did and the following morning the umpire advised the Greymculh player that he had mentioned rhe matter to the player concerned who had asset »d him that the bowls were stamped. The Greymouth player then asked that the bowls be examined and on this being done they were found to be unstamped. And yet in the face of this the Tournament. Executive take no action and do not even have the courtesy to notify the player who made the complaint as to the decision arrived at or the reason for it!