NATIONAL BOWLS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 January 1939, Page 6

NATIONAL BOWLS

NEW ZEALAND TOURNEY

PLAY OPENS AT AUCKLAND TODAY.

RECORD ENTRIES RECEIVED. ißy Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day. Although 384 Gf the 406 aspirants for the national bowls singles title were already on the grens of 19 other clubs there was a good muster of local enthusiasts, plus pairs and rinks players) when the president (.Mr F. A. Hosking) officially opened the New Zealand Association’s 26th annual championship tournament at its headquarters, the Carlton Club, Newmarket, this morning.

As there are 374 teams in the pairs, and 220 in the rinks, the entries of 1000 exceeded by nearly 300 the previous Dominion record established here four years ago.

W. S. Bennett (Hastings) is defending his title, so is H. Wilson's Linwood rink, comprising S. J. Snedden. F. Redpath, P. Munn and H. Wilson (s). The pairs champions, however, are not up, as R. B. Clarke and C. E. Tyrrell (Roslyn) did not enter. Overseas competitors include K. I. Cross, 27 year-old singles champion of England, who will also play in a composite rink skipped by his father, C. P. Cross, and including the Wellington club members C. R. Ingram (1917 national singles champion) and A. Fletcher, and two New South Wales rinks, skipped by R. T. Harrison ''Boomerang of the referee) and M. H. Love respectively. Five rounds will be played in the singles today. Players with five and four wins are to meet, in the post section contests on Tuesday. The singles are to be decided on the automatic two-life system so that by the end of the third round, which will commence at 1.15 p.m. today, only eight of the sixteen in each section will be left in.

The pairs (four rounds section play) will start on Wednesday, the section winners meeting on Thursday on the sudden death principle. The rinks games, beginning on Friday, will be decided on the basis of four days section games, two daily, after which the section leaders will meet in post-section play on. January I'B, 19 and 20, when three rounds daily are provided for. The number of heads (now called ends) will be reduced from 25 to 21. For that purpose there are 23 sections in the singles. 72 in the pairs and 22 in the rinks, In singles the limit is I). hours or 21 ends, and in the pairs (three bowls per player), 23 hours or 21 ends. On the opening days there will be eight matches in the singles sections, three in the pairs, and five in the rinks. The weather is brightening today, after a dull morning. C. R. Ingram (Wellington) lost in the first round to G. R. Westbrooke (Napier), in Section L, in which K. I. Cross (England) is competing.. After two rounds the positions were as follow (giving the players unbeaten and those eliminated, having already lost lives: —Section Y: Two lifers, Tomlinson (Ponsonby), Hop wood (West End, Auckland). Richards (Devonport), Price (Pukekohe), Earney (Port Ahuriri). Eliminated were Buist (New Brighton). Davis (Gisborne), Matheson (Auckland), Meredith (Balmoral) and Banks (Rotorua). '