Bowing Notes

Free Lance, Volume V, Issue 239, 28 January 1905, Page 14

Bowing Notes

By Wrong Bias.

THE Noitliern bowler-, who took pait in the tournament at Clu.btcluucli last week w,ll all admit that tht«A picked up some w, inkles theie. Theie i-s le.s of the blap-da.h and 1 whang-away btvle ot bowling. Among the n. >t*la*s pixels the* study u-ry carefully the possibilities of each head, and pLu a ]c suiely canny game. Ta\loi of Oamaru, who contested the final' with Pnnce, of Newto*n. *» one of the bw»t exponents of this style You simply can't won y him. ae d.rects h's men where to place then bowls, and when his turn comes to play the last bowls there us occasional lj a full council of war, m which first second and thud men take part halfway up the head, before the shots are 7eJt up. He, draws skilfully, but does notdnve sends up a raker intend vhen "smash" or "hump out" is the order of the day. Lock, of Goie, is anothe. type ot skip— quiet and undemonstrative. D.aws beautifully, and rarely dinves, but when he does ,t is a cannon-^hot. I saw him wth a drive spring the iack 6ft, in the air. It was in the pairs match against Saunders and Sneddon, and the foimer. who is a cieature of impuKe. ran forward and caught the jack in his hands thereby burning it. Tom Lock was too much of a, s>P olt to exact the penalty — which would be to place the jack where lie chose. Instead, he allowed the head to be played over again. Later on when his partner accidentally kicked Ins own bowl, it was lemoved fiom the green as "burnt." The poses and attitudes of some of the Southern bowleis after delivering their bowls are funny enough tor anything I give the bun to Tom Saund ers of Dunedan. His favourite pose plastnque after letting go his bowl was to fold his arms across h's chest in a supplicatory attitude, a.nd slow - bend bie>wa-d* Sometimes he would stait off w^th the first kick of the French encw. aid end up wth a~> >r^h v or a H-ahland nine Alwav* lip was 01 spu""'« and mo«t entertaining. Ttos reminds me of an error in Last week's notes. Twice I counled the name of Mark Sinclair with Sneddloii, when Saunders, and' not Sinclair, was the bowler me-ant. Most of your true Scotch bowlers — the old hands who learnt the game m Bonnie Scotland— trot up the field after each bowl, just in the same way that our own Jamie Brackenmdge does. In fact, Jamie is up to all their tricks and fine points, and none of our players understand the game so thoroughly as he Let no one iuii away with the idea that: I think the Southern players aie better bowlers than their Northern comrades. The North will hold its own against the South— that may be said without boastine — but there aie points we can piok up from our Southern friends with advantage And there is no doubt the game is making far more rapid headway throughout the North than in the South. What is wain ted' is amalgamation between Noith and South, and one strong Bowling Association for the whole colony, with annual tournaments at Auckland, Chi istchurch, Wellington, and Dunedm in succession, so that South and North may have the annual tournament turn and turn about. And foi the secretaryship of th© combined Association there is no one to be placed m the same street with R. T. Wheeler, of Bunedin. In his hands all the complex details of a busy tournament move like clockwork — no fuss, friction, or confusion anywhere. If dtisputes arise., Wheeler gives judgment promptly, and everyone \% satisfied And even in his busiest moments his =ereiW and fenia,! affability never once deRertfi him As a body, the Southern bowlers are jolly good fellows, and play the game in the most generous spirit. Among the skips, Taylor of Oamaru, Lock of Gore, Paterson of Kaituna, Allnutt of Roslyn, McLaren and Hunter of Dunedin, Wood and Bishop of Christ church, and Haine of Inveroargjll, are hard to beat, and' all are keen and chivalrous foemen. There are many others who should be included in this, list but

whose names tor the moment I forget. I hope they won't think me uividlioiib. The bejst proof ot the tit ue sporting spirit till at an i mates tlie Southern bowlers us attended by the hearty welcome they extend to Northern bowlers, and' the w hole-souledi way in which they iecei\e and applaud Northern victoales. And yet, for the pa*i>t three yeais, visiting bowleis from Wellington have pietty well mopped up all then prizes For tlmee successive years the blue riband of then annual tournament lias come to the Empire City. In 1901, Blyth, Pi ice, Barv, and Punce (skip), of Now town were runneus up at Christchuich to Wood's rink for the nnk championship and 1 in 1903, at Chi istchurch, Biackenndge, of the Victoria Club pulled it off. Last year, at the Dunedin tournament, Prince ped the winning tean, consisting of A'lpe Hairo'\va-s (a young player fiom Dunedin, who played substitute, and this yeai won the Siiiyles Championship). Underwood ,nnd himself. TTvyeai. he has repeated the fent wth Wvlie, Wisp a-->ri Price U"der him Webb aid ChiT»"ohw<ii' d 1 , of Wellington aHo wo" t^e a outhern Pairs two years as'O, ai"d the CTinmpiornshin his twice fa n en to Wellington, players in tnp persons of Briarhtweill and, Nm n'e Bell The finals on Friday last weie not nearly so excitmg as thfty hare been in previous years. All the interest theie was the rink match a.sily monopolised. Taylors Oamaru team showed stale-ness. They certainly did not exhibit the foim which had rendered them so formidable in eariter matches, and far too heavy a contract was left on their skip's hands. On the othet hand, Prince's men made the game comparatively easy for him. Wyhe was leading faultlessly, never more than a yard away from the jack, very often immediately behind, it. and Hairry Price was a towei of strength with his draws, and firm shots. Wise, too, was playing steadily, and Prance's generalship was excellent. He threw no points away. As for the Singles, Tom Neill simply made no race of it with young Hairoway The latter, a slim young fellow, who wa& chewing all the time, was drawing beautifully on the jack, and when Neill began to dinve his opponent

piled on the score veiy thick. It finlblied 27 to 9. And yet Neill (a very quiet player) had, nil the bemi-nnall lound, put down Mclntyie, a tall youiig niaji, all legs and aims, who is, accounted, one of the sum^ drives in the South Neill steadily placed his bow It. in and about the jack, while Mclntyie just as steads ilj plugged them out. It would have been a fan livelier "go" if Mclntyre had met Harroway. Melntyre is said to be a young man of means, but devotes hi.s leisuie to thei care-taking of the Taieii green for pure love of the game. All these Taien players — most of them Mosgiel Woollen Factory operatives — are strong on the drive and firm shot. One of their number — Tom Maokie — is a, brilliant all-iound plaveir, with a very sweet voice. Ask Bell about him. Young; Hanoway is a fine bat in, Dunedin cricket, as well as a keen trundler of hguum vltae In everyday life he assists his. father, who has a rolled oate factory at Green Island. Saunders, the volatile, and Sneddon, the smasher, won the Pairs very easily from Soo'iiUar and Bentley, allso of Dunedin I heard Sneddion remark, with a sigh, that it was six yea/is ago since he had last won the Pairs. He is a. cleveT all-roundi player, up to every point of the game, and never far away at the finish of a tournament. Thompson and Gooder's strong defeat of the twa Braokenridg.es — 31 to 17 — was a complete boil-over, and excited 1 no end 1 of surprise. Thompson played a rattling leading game, a,ndl Gooder himself was on the job. As foi Jamie Brackeimdge, it was just one of those "off" days with him that every bowler has. The firm shots, in which he excels didn't come off, and his draws were not so effective as usual. Jack Braokenridge played a capital game for Ms fathei right through the tournament. Neil McLean, won golden opinions fi om the Southern bowlers, and they are most anxious he should attend the Dunedin tournament next year. They recognise that it was only tihe hard luck of being fixed on the tussoidk and sand of St. Albans for two days that kept him out of the finish. Neil always plays a strenuous 1 game, always a manly one, and is a born general.

The Southern bowlers have a fir&tclaiss pie&ident vi J. C. Maddi&on, the well-known architect, of Ghrxstchurch. He did his level best to iu-Jse the gathering as enjoyable as possible, and certainly succeeded 1 . Hospitality was one of its strong points; Captain Edwin's very best weathai was another. Charlie Payne, the, genial little vicepresident of the New Zealand Bowling Association, is one of its most progresslve spirits. It was through has initiative that "tho sudden death" principle was abolished this, year in the rink tourney. The fifty-three rinks that entered were divided into four sections. In each section every rink had to play six games, winners nlayino- winners, and lose-s pla.vine losers, as fa>- as they oouW without one playing the. other twice. Mr. Payne means to do his best next year to have the same principle applied A?J£ c . irs T(>ur na.inent. and the Northern Association would do well to take the hint from him, as the Pairs are certainly growing in popular fayThe North can ako take model bv the South in throwing open the rink tourna, ment to all and sundry. The present piactice of restricting lfc to twS rinks rrom each club is oldufashaoned and a il^i^s-^ the Uo " ] * >-" S«'« ™>ke our dates fit h, ,!«,£ Ii l| w'« tkeDnnedm tournament From IttTeroargill, Oamapu, Du^dta' Places they hare promised to oome if Sr^nT^" ° f **" 1S - S Fr ft T^, ll^ a toucher at the Chnstchurch smoke concert One reason, he said, why the fair sex "should encouiaee the game of bowls is that if you mi ss your husband, and he is a bow er, you can always find, him on the bowline sreen Once a bowler he never goes astray.