Bowling Notes

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 135, 31 January 1903, Page 22

Bowling Notes

By Wrong Bias.

Yes, my inquiring friends, I am a bit overdue this season. But, keep your eye on the jack, and peg away. Henceforward, you will get your share of the limelight. And the sport of chasine; the kitty will not be allowed to languish for want of due notice for its interesting episodes. • • • If the clubs of Wellington did not exactly set the Square on. fire by their deeds of derring-do up at the Champion Fours tourney at Palmerston, they managed, at any rate, to maintain a respectable middle-class position. __ Newtown deserves honourable mention for winxuno- the Huddart Parker Cup, for the second year in succession, and thus bearing it off altogether. No otheir club got a look-in for it. What will they do with it now they have pot it? Make it a club trophy, to be regularly competed for, or let the winning; rink play off for "keeps" ? The former would be most sportsmanlike. Ballinger's Wellington team just missed the points' prize. And, b- the way the Wellington mem, or some of them feel a bit sore about the last round. They reckon that if Gisborne had oared to exert itself against Hastings in the final match, as Waverley did against Wellington, the points prize would not ha.ye or o ne Hastings way. However, in view of that bald start — losing the first game to a green club like Stratford — Wellington did ver^ well to secure fourth place in the tournament. That first loss> is ascribed to the fact of playing immediately after the train journey from Wellington. Verily, "bowls is an awfu' oncertain game, ma frens." Far more cheering to turn from the North to the South, and survey the spectacle of the South Island hugging to its bosom its solitary consolation prize, whilei the Northern war-party march off with all the other trophies. What a picnic those Wellington warriors^ — 13 all told — had among the

"cracks" of the South ' They simply sweipt th© board clean, and. buried the South. Brackenridge, with has Victorian rink, lifts the full-rmk honours, Webb and Churchward annex the Pairs, and Nome Bell collars the Singles. It was terribly rough on the South, which reckons it was au fait at bowls when tfhe North hardly knew on which side of a bowl the bias lay. * • * The two Brackenridges — son leading and father skipping — played brilliantly right through the rink tournament. Gooder was 1 a very reliable second, and Norrie Bell — sworn in as a> Victorian for the occasion- — was all there' as third man. In, their first game, the first anld second men did all the play, Bell and Brackenridge having simply to guard the heads. The second game was an easrv victory, although such a don as Taylor, of Chrtistehurch was opposing skip, and that sterling played, G. S. White (formerly of Wellington), was third man. The third) match was against a Gore rink, and careless play nearly put Victoria out of it. Skipper Brackenridge, however, saved 1 the situation. And his splendid drawing won the final match, in which he was pitted aicainst that tough customer — McLaren, of Dunedin. In fact, the Victorian skip came out in his 1 very best form. In one head McLaren lay 3. Brackenridge, after inspecting the head, elected to trail the jack with his third ball. It came off, and he lay 5 and with his last ball he drew another shot — scoring six. He rushed up the green after that last bowl, and so intense was> the excitermen t that he stumbled and fell oni the turf. In the last head of the match, McLaren was lying the game with 4 or 5 when the skips went up to play. But Brackenridge drew the shots with two perfect bowls which the' Dunedin ma,n failed to 1 beat or bang out. This was onei of the grandest, rink matches! ever played by Brackenridsre, and local nlayers, declared nothing likej it was ever seen in Christ church. ♦ • # After this. Churchward w on't go back on No. 13, in spite of its evil reputation. He was No. 13 of the Wellington bowlers who went to' Christchurch, and so little did the kitty trouble his mind that he took with him neither bowls nor slippers, not intending to play. However they found him both. Webb, of Thorndon, wanted a skiuping partner for the pairs, and Churchward yielded to the soft persuasions of the dominie. And, as everybody knows now, theiv came through the scrum un-

beaten. Short heads were the secret of success. If he was beaten in drawing, Churchward got his bowls placed well behind, and then drove for it. And it takes a good man to stand up to him in driving. Webb and Churchward bumped, uro against a hot pair at the very start — Davis and Gow, of Timaru. But, they got home 5 ahead. Greenfield and Porteous (the lyddite driver of the South) were their next opponents 1 . Beaten by superior drawing, Porteous for half-an>-hour piled on dead head after dead head. But, tactics conquered him at last. Christie and Campbell, two old Green Island players, gave the Wellington, pair tiheir hottest match. The Green Is>landers put up 13 to 2 for ten heads. Then, Churchward started to perform in regular Churchwarden style, and fished the game out of the fire with a majority of one. The fourth game against Joynt and Barnett proved a bit soft, the Southerners retiring at 8 to ]Bfor 14 heads. All these pairs games, by the way were 16 heads. The fifth game, versus Tisch and Seagar, w ith a bit of a teaser. In the last head, Wellington had to get 4 to win, or 3to tie. Churchward got 5 by yanking out Seagar's shot (lying second), and careful drawing. In the sixth match, v. Simmers and Rowley, the Southern sikip could not drive, and Churchward simply broke them mo by driving. Churchward has a eood record at big tournaments. In his second season, ait the famous Drillshed Tournament, he and McKee (skip) won the Champion Pairs. Up at Auckland, in 1896, he was in the Champion Fours (Ballinger skipping). Last year, along with a club mate, he won the Northern Bowlina; Association Champion Pairs, and now this year he is associated with. Webb, of Thorndon, in winning the South Island Champion Pairs. ♦ # * Norns W. Bell, of the Wellington Club proved the best man at the Champjon Singles, landing tihe prize after six matches. He started by putting down Johnson, of Dunedm, by 16 to 9. Then, he struck a snag in Patterson, the> big gun of the Kaituna Club. Patterson thought he had a soft thing on when the score stood at 12 to 2. But, he never scored again — Bell ran^ his knell — 17 to 12. The big man retired after the 15th head. The 1 third gaine^-against McDonald, of Invercargill — being of the soft variety, was grateful and comforting, like Eppss 1 cocoa. The redoubtable Oakley, of Christchuroh, in the fourth game, retired when there were two heads to go.

As for the fifth, it was played against tihat keen, and skilful player, Sneddon, of Kadfcunai, who plied his antagonist with baby heads. The last head was most exciting. Sneddon was oae up. and, was lying 2 more when BelJ, drove, with his third bowl, and took the iack into the ditch. And with his last bowl he drew the winning shot. In the final game, Bell beat Gow, of Timaru, by 18 to 16, after a close struggle. • • • The Ghristochuroh "Star," in an editorial on the tournament, says . — "The experts tell us that the play generally compared unfavourably with that at previous tournaments." Perhaps the experts in question had not been expert enough. At any rate, their dictum is rather suggestive of sour grapes. • • • George Prince, a prince of good, fellows, has once more got his foot on the mat and his ey© on the kitty. On Saturday last he turned up at the Newtown green and played his first scame since that distressful accident befel him which laid him aside so long. Now then, all upstanding, three cheers of welcome for Prince — -Hip, hip, hip — • • • It is not often that Peter Drummond comes a cropper. But he came down heavily last week in the Pairs contest on the Wellington green. Lockie, partnered with E. R. Jones, put the oomether on Remington and Drummond to the tune of 29 to 9. After which the band played. They say that Bush and Veitch might have won the Pairs down at Christohuroh if they had not been so eager to get away to Hanmer Springs. Ballinger and Sample met in the Club Singles, on the Wellington green, on Saturday last., and great interest attended the play of these veterans. In the first game, Ballinger at one stage was 13 to 6, and eventually won by 3. In the siecond game, Sample at one stage was 13 to 6 but again Ballinger persisted in winning by 3. » • • Wellington teams, skipped by Ballinger and Neil McLean respectively, compete this week for the honour of playing Thorndon on Saturday for the Edwin Feathers.