THE NEW ZEALAND BOWLERS.

Shannon News, 7 August 1928, Page 2

THE NEW ZEALAND BOWLERS.

CORDIAL WELCOME IN IRELAND.

THEY DRINK SIR HARRY LAUDER'S WHISKY r .

■Writing from Belfast on June 18th to Mr Walter Bull, Mr M. J. Suhan, the Levin representative with the New Zealand bowlers, says: "We are all enjoying the best of health and the hospitality of our Irish friends is uu-, bounded.. Dublin gave us a wonderful welcome, and contrary to what some of us had been led' to> expect,-jtheysang "God Save the King" at the luncheon given by' the Irish Bowling Association' in our honour.. They are very warmhearted people, the ''lrish," very much\ more so than in. England, where they are so conservative. Our president, J. W. Hardley, is a-great boon for our party. His speeches bring down the house and are very popular with the bowling fraternity. I have been,'.told that our team has been the most popular of all the visiting colonials since the interchange of visits commenced; everything depends on a good speaker to boost things along and say the right thing at the right time. In Dublin we had a look through Guinness's brewery, and saw, amongst other things, the bullet marks made on the buildings by the machine-guns during the rebellion. We also visited the famous Phoenix Park and other places of interest. Our Scottish itinerary commences on June 26th, and" lasts for three Aveeks; then back to London for a week or so, and then on to New York. "We have had three Avins in succession in Ireland, something neAv. I have played in all the test matches as No. 2 and Ave registered a rink win in each. Our rink also put up the highest scores so far on the.tour against our opponents —26 to 6 against Buckinghamshire, 40 to 10 against Cloantarf at Dublin, and 38 to 8 against Public Parks at Belmont. The Aveather has been very broken, Avith rain every day, but not bad enought to prevent play. .'' When Ave Avere at Oxford,. Ave met Sir Harry Lauder's brother, Avho presented us Avith a sprig of heather. He also told us that if we beat Oxford we Avould get a case of whisky, from Harry. We did Av.in and sure enough up came the Avhisky, 24 half bottles of White Horse! We are to see him again in Scotland. Tell John BroAvn that those four Scotchmen Avho played us at Palmerston are to play us as a rink in GlasgOAV next Aveek. I have made arrangements to pllay against them to give them a chance to get it ■back on the defeat at Palmerston." Mr Suhan sends his kind regards to all friends in Levin. The boAvlers reach Canada this month and AA'ill be playing in Toronto on August 22nd. Their Canadian address will be "N.Z. BoAvling Team, care of Canadian BoAvling Association, Canada."