BOWLING.

Putaruru Press, 5 January 1928, Page 8

BOWLING.

PUTARURU CLUB. The following games in competitions run under the auspices of the Putaruru club were played during the holidays:— - Championship Singles. Hollard 22, heat Leggatt 10. Griffiths 25, beat King 7. PROGRESSIVE PAIRS. The Morrinsville club held an enjoyable progressive pairs tournament on New Year’s Day. The ultimate winners were : Skip, A. G. Yardley ; lead, C. M. McDavitt. 1 \ SOUTH AUCKLAND TOURNEY. By arrangement with the Hamilton clubs, which have usually held an open tournament commencing on Boxing- Day, the South Auckland Centre was able to hold its annual Pennant Tournament on that day and the two succeeding days. The innovation was entirely successful. Rinks were competing from as far south as Te Kuiti and Wanganui, twenty-seven in all being entered. The representation was also much better than in former years, and the players, practically without exception, were unanimous in their praise, of the manner in which they were treated. The secretary, Mr. W. Horton, and the executive are to be congratulated on their efforts. Morrinsville was represented by one rink—B. Chapman, D. Coghill, A. G. Yardley, T. Martin (s) —which secured five wins. Two of the four lest games were decided on the last head, one was lost by three points, while Lymburn (who won the section) defeated the team by seven ! Points. The rinks defeated were Hamilton (Masters), Wanganui (Wight), Cambridge (Dix), Thames I (Cordes) and Claudelands (Carter). The Morrinsville rink played steady I bowls, and would have had a great chance had it managed to beat Lvmburn.

the tourney was won by Hamilton East (Chapman), -who met Thames (Adamson) in the final. The bowls m the final were not up to the standard of play during the tourney. A light rain might account for this. However, Adamson was up against it from the jump. He practically played the Hamilton East rink .on his own for the first half of the game. Certainly every point obtained by

Thames up to that stage was earned by the skip. In addition, when the fifth man was operating he was not with Thames. Horton, third for the winners, played a sterling game, and a great deal of the credit of the win is due to him. He certainly made his skip’s job easy. The win also carried with it the Fraser Smith Cup, competition for which is confined to clubs in the Hamilton district. If fault could be found with the tourney it was in connection with the method of finding the semi-finalists. The conditions laid it down that only the winners of sections should compete in the semis. This read alright on paper, but ir. practice it was bad. For instance, Chapman in “ A ” section had won his whole six games by Tuesday evening. The section looked a certainty for- him. On Wednesday, however, he lost his three remaining games. Whether his victorious progress of the first two days had anything to do with the efforts of other rinks in the section with sporting chances may be left to the imagination—some will say it did. However, the fact remains that either Chapman, Coombes and Loveridge, each with six wins in the section, was sure to get into the semis. Now in B section Adamson won outright with 9 wins. Pilkington only lost one game—to Adamson—and under the conditions was out. Thus there were rinks with six wins with chances for the semis, while one with eight wins was on the bank. It v ould. seem that the system adopted at Cambridge where all those with wins the equal of the lowest numbers of wins of any section winner would be the better procedure. When the sections do not exceed four in number it should not be a difficult matter to find the ultimate winners by the end of the fourth day. I At the conclusion of the tourney a presentation was made to Mr. Harvey, greenkeeper, by the president of the centre, Mr. S. R. James, on behalf of the players. Harvey, who will be remembered at Matamata as the club’s first greenkeeper, had his greens in perfect condition for the tourney. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that Harvey received valuable advice with regard to greens in his early days from Mr. D. Coghill, who was on several occasions consulted by the Matamata club when its green was new. The tourney under review will serve to popularise Hamilton as a venue. For some reason bowlers in the Goldfields have been averse to Hamilton, but no one could complain of the treatment accorded at Christmas time. The Hamilton club officials did their utmost for the visitors.