BOYS AND BOWLS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 933, 28 March 1930, Page 13

BOYS AND BOWLS

LAD OF 19 STARTLES NATIVES ON GREEN DIVERGENCE OF VIEWS While women's institute speakers are holding up hands of horror at the "whirlpool of dissipation" of the modern young woman, and citizens of Auckland are supplying SUN readers with th'eir ideas of Heaven, bowlers of the city are much agitated over the phenomenal success of a lad of 19 in their annual champion of champions tourney. Mr. L. IS'. Thomson, who turned li> on March 8, was the individual responsible for this stir by winning liis way into the semi-final of the competition. to be "outed ’ in the end by Bremner, a former Dominion champion. Thomson played a brilliant game in the semi-final, although beaten in the end by experience, and the 50 or so bowlers who, pipes alight, watchea the encounter irom the bank had to admit that here was a bowler ol' great promise. Much argument arose over the question of boy bowlers, and, summarised, there were three points of view ex pressed during the afternoon. The first was that boys should not be allowed to play bowls. One bearded bowler of well over 60 years was most emphatic. “We will have to.draw the line somewhere, and enforce a minimum age limit." He was probably thinking of a 12-year-old grandson who might come out and straighten him up on the green. "I think that a boy should not play bowls unless he has met with an accident, or is a cripple and cannot play any other game/’ said another bowler, who was probably under the half-century mark, and therefore a little more sympathetic with youth. “But if a young man is sound physically, his place is not on the bowling green," lie added. “He should be playing cricket or tennis." A third view was that boys should not be discouraged from playing bowls. “There is no minimum age limit," one bowler pointed out, “and we must recognise Thomson’s performance as a mgmy creditable one.' And that was that. But the fact remained that the bowling fraternity as a whole appears to resent this invasion of its domains by youth. “ENJOYED MYSELF" Chatting to a Sun man today, Thomson said that in his day he had played every game—football, tennis, and cricket included. He had been an enthusiastic swimmer. He had broken both his ankles when jumping over a rock wall once, and since then had been unable to continue playing football He had had an arm broken *it school, and a kneecap fractured playing football. Until taking up bowls two seasons ago he had continued to play cricket, and still played tennis. Asked what had led him to turn his attention to bowls, Thomson replied: “In the first place, my father, Mr. Peter Thomson, is a good bowler, and in the second I live right alongside the Rawhiti Bowling Club, and thus was naturally attracted to the game. I have no intention of giving the game up. I had quite a good time during the tournament, enjoying every minute of it,” he concluded. Although the appearance of raw youth on the bowling green is sufficiently uncommon to raise an outcry among the bearded veterans of the game, they would be well advised to

remember that boys have played bowls before today. The late Mr. William Culpan. of the Auckland Club, who died at the age of 77. had been a bowler for 60 years. The famous Brackenridge brothers, well known in New Zealand, were bowlers in Scotland at the age of 12. DRAKE AT BOWLS Some years ago . move v - in Auckland to impose a minimum age limit of 35 years on bowlers, but this never became law. Nevertheless, there are probably few active bowlers under 35 in Auckland today. Francis Brake was young enough to lead England in its smashing victory over the Spanish Armada when he played his famous rubber of bowls with Sir John Hawkins on Plvmouth Hoe. Tho success ot youth at this ancient game is but another example of the thing to which it turns its hands. The game is first heard of as being in vogue in the thirteenth century. It has enjoyed the favour of kings and princes, and after degenerating to the stage, when Ki was little better than a “pothouse recreation,” it has climbed the ladder of popularity again. It may not be in the game’s own interests to discourage “boy bowlers."