Pins, Stars, Badges. . . Winter Wear for Winning Bowlers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 719, 19 July 1929, Page 12

Pins, Stars, Badges . . . Winter Wear for Winning Bowlers

Summer and Winter Alike, Auckland's Bowlers Carry on —Winter Play is Popular Feature of Game on Green —How Different Sets of Trophies Have Stimulated Interest in Bowling— Edwin Stars Match Tomorrow Rouses Keen and Lively Enthusiasm—Parsons'Ponsonbyßink Meets Three New Zealand Champions—Description of Special Competitions, Carrying Unique Trophy Awards.

A non-bowler retains a vivid impression of a picture which appeared in The Sun some time ago. It seemed to him to typify the extraordinary enthusiasm of men from all walks of life who spend their Saturday afternoons in trundling dozens of formidable looking spherical objects up and down the green, with the mystifying object' of kissing kitty or, when kitty incurs their displeasure, of driving that j>oor, insignificant creature into the ditch beyond with a shot that whizzes along the close-clipped turf like a shot out of a gun.

That may not be a true picture of a game which has gripped over 15,000 intensely enthusiastic patrons from the North Cajoe to the Bluff; but this picture was. It showed a match in progress. The rain was coming down in torrents. The players were still playing. One super-enthusiast in an overcoat was holding an umbrella over an opponent who was carefully guaging the distance preparatory to letting his bowl go. And the rain was simply pouring off that umbrella! There is no enthusiast like your true bowler. Summer and winter, wet or fine, it makes no difference to him. In Auckland this year they have been carrying on week after week right through the winter. Only water-logged greens or stony-hearted greenkeepers, whose carefully prepared turf is imperilled, can stop them from depositing their green baize bags on the edge of the playing area. Smile as you may, they are real sportsmen, these men. They play the game for the game's sake. The game's the thing And now to a more practical description of winter bowling in Auckland. There are a dozen and one friendly club games and tourneys, which keep the game very much alive in the winter, but chief interest revolves round the special competitions, which carry with them the right to wear such trophies as the Edwin Stars, the Finlayson Badges and the Denison and Jordan Pins. What are these Stars and Pins? Well, let’s inquire.

We will start with the Edwin Stars. First of all, here is a picture of an

Idwin Star, at present held by Parens crack Ponsonby rink— Away back in 1903, the late Captain

Edwin, who used to be popularly known as the weather prophet, his official position being that of the Government Meteorologist, presented four silver stars to the Remuera Club for competition. After a changing and precarious existence, the Stars at last got into a form that interests all the clubs and any team from any club may now challenge the holders for them, the principle of conditions of play being that as soon as the team is defeated another may challenge. Naturally there are a great number of challenges lodged, usually more than enough to go through the winter, and those that are left over are the first to compete the following year. Unfortunately the wins by the respective teams competing have not been recorded. Hence it is impossible to set down an accurate list. But it is believed that the largest consecutive number was eleven up to the close of last winter. This fine list of victories was established by a West End team under the crfotaincy of Irving Clarke from whom the present holders —Allen. Richardson, Somervelle, Parsons, of Ponsonby—won the Stars, and they

+• have in turn established a simila: record.

Strangely enough at this most interesting stage, it is the holders’ turn to meet again a challenge from West End, which includes in the team on this occasion W. Bremner, the present champion skip of the Dominion, along with two other members of the champion team—l. Clarke and C E. Hardley. Parsons, also a past champion skip of the Dominion, is, after a spell, at the top of his form again, and it is therefore expected that the game to be played on Saturday will be one of the best exhibitions of the game on the green that Auckland has staged for quite a long time.

Encouraged by the great success of the Edwin Stars Competition, and noticing that they did not sufficiently supply the evident want for such challenge matches, Mr. Walter Denison, past president of the Dominion Road Club and also champion of that club on one occasion and runner-up for the same event last season, instituted a similar competition for Wednesdays. The first match was played on the Dominion Road Club’s green on October 17, 1923, when the team comprising Balderson, Battersby, Ramsay, and the donor, met a challenge from Stanley (Mr. A. Parker, skip), and was defeated by 20 to 18. Suffice it to say that Mr. Denison frequently put in a challenge for his pins, and on one occasion held one of these trophies, together with one of the Edwin Stars. The present holders are Lamb, Hazard, de Launay and T. R. George, of Epsom, they having won the trophies from a Hillsboro team captained by R. Sheath. During the past two winters the day of playing the matches was changed from Wednesday to Saturday. «

Last year, the member for Manukau

Mr. W. J. Jordan, M.P., presented a set of Pins, now known as the Jordan Pins, for competition between the clubs situated in his electorate. Again, the mere fact of presenting trophies for competition awakened among the clubs eligible for entry the very livliest interest and has met with a long list of entries. The present holders are Johnson, Alcock, Markes and Bridges of the Te Papapa Club. The Finlayson Badges, which form the central pivot of a competition that

is open to all members of the Rem u era Club during the winter season, are “In Memoriam” Badges. These very fine adornments were presented to the Remuera Club to perpetuate the memory of the late Mr. Thomas Finlayson, a highly respected member of that club, who was president there on two eccasions, and was incidentally a well-known business man of Auckland, being manager of the firm of Sargood, Son and Ewen over a long term of years. The Badges were presented to the club by the relatives of the late Mr. Finlayson and have provided the object for some extremely able bowling among the members of that club over a period of some fifteen years. The present holders are, A. N. Scott, C. W. Spooner, E. S. Wight and E. E. Daniels, who have held the trophies for six successive games during the present winter season at the club that holds the record for the largest number of members of any club in the Dominion and the most extensive playing area of any club in the world.