Bowling.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 270, 10 January 1929, Page 1

Bowling.

PUTARURU CLUB. The following games have been played during the past week by members of the Putaruru Bowling Club: Championship Singles.—Leggatt 23 v. Francis 18, Francis 20 v. Weir 7, Weir 17 v. Brown 13, Leggatt 23 v. Brown 13. Handicap Singles.—Francis (4) 20 v. Leggatt (2) 19. SOUTH AUCKLAND TOURNEY. The Morrinsville rink competing in the South Auckland tourney, D. Coghill, W. Butler, A. Yardley, R. Branch (s), put up a creditable performance. After narrowly missing winning its section outright it beat both G. Lymburn and R. Coombes in the section ties and then defeated James (Cambridge) in the post section play. In the semi-final against Chapman (Hamilton), the ultimate winner of . the tourney, the Morrinsville rink did not play up to the form displayed in its previous games. It was not that Chapman’s rink was playing particularly well, but simply that Morrinsville struck a bad run in the middle stages of the game, and from then the scores were too small to put it in front. As it was Morrinsville scored on twelve of the twenty-one heads. Chapman defeated Norrie Bell’s rink in the final.

TE AROMA TOURNEY. Morrinaville Runners-up. The annual Te Aroha tourney was concluded on Thursday and was won by Te Aroha. Twenty-five rir.ks competed. The final was fought out by Te Aroha (Kristovich skip) and Morrinsville (Branch skip). The game was keenly contested right through, and it was only on the last few j heads that Te Aroha got a lead to win. This was the Morrinsville j rink’s first loss in the tourney. HIS MUSICAL NOTATION. Four Down 1 I was sitting on a bench overlooking a bowling green where several games were in progress. I became interested in one rink, because the ever-changing head was portrayed by i musical notation by a gentleman of j venerable appearance with a silver beard which would have graced a bishop. If his side was one down he recorded the fact on the low C ; if two down the statement was called out a note lower, so that I felt I had only to close my eyes and by the ascending or descending notes be made aware of the changes of the game. The tale of

How the danger ebbs and swells To the glamour and the clangour of the bells could not have been more vividly presented by the immortal Poe himself than by the notes of the bowler. The day was a drowsy one, and perhaps lulled by the ascending and descending notes I must have fallen asleep, for an entirely new scene . presented itself to my subconscious being. I found myself in a very discontented frame of mind on the old j bowling green at Plymouth, England. It was borne in upon me that I was 1 there at the command of the great Francis Drake, that I was a cadet 1 aboard of his ship, and while waiting for the coming of the great Armada he had interested himself in bringing a supply of pure water into Ply- t • mouth tow’n. I had been out with him with my pole, while he read the I depths of the cuttings which brought 1 the water* into the town. They are known as “ Drakes cuts ”, to this day. Our task completed after many days of wet work, we had come down to our town lodging, where I prinked myself up for a visit to a pretty Dolly Carey, who, according to my

vision, lived at a lovely place a few miles out of Plymouth. It was embowered in fruit trees and flowers, cherries and strawberries were ripe, cream cheese was in the buttery, cider and sherry in the cool stone drink house ; but, chief of all, pretty Dolly Carey, with blushing cheeks, blue eyes and golden hair, would preside over all. Who should come into the scene at this moment >ut the fat old port admiral of Plymouth with his clever but somew. .t-conceited son, author of the “ Complete Seaman,” with a challenge to Drake and the boy for a bout at bowls. Drake, nolhing loth, accepted. Dolly Carey, strawberries and ti cam, all were postponed, and thus 1 found myself on the old green. Two scythesmen mowed a rink, two maids of Devon swept it with besoms and put the mowings into creels. Any blades of grass swept up by the brooms were shaved off before the scythesmen ran the wooden roller over it. In those days small wooden brown balls were used for the jack. The Complete Seaman and I tossed and the game proceeded. One of the men sat upon the bank notching the score on a tally stick. I saw plainly the huge figure of the port admiral standing by the side of the athletic Drake, now directing the head, now with finger and thumb taking a pinch of sugar from a packet, and sucking almost continuously. The game was a close one, and there came a head when I lay the shot touching the jack, just inside of a bowl played by the Complete Seaman. Drake indicated with his foot where I was to play my last bowl, about three feet behind the jack, in case it was carried away by a running shot. At that moment I boiled over with rage, my visit to the lovely Dolly frustrated because the fat old admiral and Drake must have a bout of pairs. I cast my bowl furiously upon the green and it wound up in tile ditch. I saw a glint in Drake’s eyes and walked wide as we changed ends. As we came abreast Drake darted across to me and hissed, “ A plague upon ye for a young marplot,” and made as though to kick me in a part unmentionable. Was it the crack of doom? Was it the Afric lion roaring in its wrath? I know not, but I came back to the twentieth century to the vibrant cry cf “ four down ! ” When psychic conditions are favourable I will conclude the narrative of the sixteenth century so rudely interrupted by the dire happenings cf the twentieth.—Truthful James, in the Ngaruawahia Advocate.