BOWLING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2451, 16 March 1909, Page 3

BOWLING.

, Notes. (By “Toucher.”) Although the big afternoon in the bowling arena was altered last week from Thursday to Tuesday, the alteration had no adverse, effect on the attendance at the local greens, both clubs being stronglj patronised. On the Turangauui green no matches have been played during the past week, there being only two competitions open, the Colts’ Singles and the Bennett Cup Singles. I note the club has received good entries for Handicap Singles, and (doubtless this competition will keep Things moving on the upper green for a time. There is some talk of the return match between the two local clubs being played on the Turanganui Club’s green on Thursday, March 25. This should be a suitable date, for the game should be played' before the weather breaks up. I expect to see a first-class "go,” and would not be at -all surprised to see Turanganui the victors. Anyhow my sentiments are, may -the better club win! 1 notice that in a recent southern •competition a clock was the trophy to be plaved for, and in the arranging 0i the competition quite (to me) a new feature was introduced. Entries were taken, and fours were arranged. The fours met in a “knock-out” game; the winning four in the final then split into pairs; the winning pair then divided for a singles match and the winner of this match obtained the clock. . Perhaps this idea may be introduced in our local clubs. I give the suggestion. The Thorndon Club has had a special meeting to consider tire future conduct of Association tournaments. Its voice is for independence and up-to-dateness. That is to say. it approves of tournaments being run to pay expensea by raising the entry from 2s 6d to 12s (3d. - Also, that the association shall adapt the popular principle of unlimited entries from affiliated clubs. Thorndon, moreover, prefers certificates .and badges or ribbons as prizes. “Indignant” asks: “Is it- the correct thin<>* for a plover, after he has delivered his bowl, to side step along the green while his. opponent waits to do like-, w?” My correspondent has, palpably, put* the question infelicitous]}-, fee does not. I presume, want to know whether it is incorrect for the side-step-ping player to at once get out of the way and give the next man an opportunity of side-stepping, but whether the side-stepper should afford his opponent a chance of playing Ins bowl without undue delay. It looks rather impolite for a man to chase his bowl half-way up the green, even if he does not “sidestop,” but only performs the ordinary contortion acts peculiar to every true bowler. However, it would be difficult to apply a hard and fast rule; further, to do so would detract from the. pleasure of many a bowler.; and limit, the amusement of the onlooker, who. if not versed in the intricacies of bowls, may sometimes be simple enough to believe that it is part of the ancient game for players to put themselves into the most ridiculous attitudes when following their wood to its intended destination. .So long as players from rinks some distance away don’t trespass the average bowler doesn’t really mind “sidtfestepping,” the blowing .at the howl to give if momentum or direction, or many of the other things that somerimes look ridiculous, for he never knows when the spirit may move him to do the same.' And. after all, nearly

every bowler, even “Indignant,” has »onq peculiarity that may annoy someone else, if someone else is looking for annoyance. For instance, I heard a r,layer say the other day: “Look at 80-an cl-So ; never saw a. man cut such capers on a green.” As a matter of iact the critic—a good-natured one, by the way—has earned a reputation

for performing in one afternoon more rnonkev tricks-than. any other man who

- *. - -- ■ ■ ” plays on that particular green indulges in throughout a season.

“Jack High,” in Melbourne “Sport” writes:—“What is ‘'the. game?’ There are few remarks more gene-rally made than that so and so ‘did not play the game.’ I believe that ‘the game is to win.’ To win fairly, of course, and to take no mc-an advantage, but, while doing neither more nor less than good sportsmanship. warrants, to win. Then, within these limits, the things that will help to the end—the win—make, ‘the game.’ Hibblethwaite, who can draw a shot as well as. if not better than, most other men, but who cannot drive, will be playing ‘the game’ if he draw, or attempt to" draw, where Fortescue, who can drive really well, but is uncertain

on the draw, would drive.. And viee.versa. Most men judge, and condemn, other_ play by their own tastes, predilections, and abilities. So Frotescue says, when Hibblethwaite draws with three against him. ‘Pooh! He don’t play the game. He’s got 5 behind. TV by don’t he driver 1 ’ Hebbletlnv&ite scorns Fortescue’s forcible game. He calls it ‘skittles, not bowls,’ and says ‘it is not the game.’ For either ot these men to try, at a critical juncture, shot to which they arc strange, with which they are rarely successful, and in which they have no confidence, would be folly, arid certainly not the game.”

They have had great fun in Melbourne over a bowling tournament by electric light. Thus gossips “Boomerang” :—“Even, it is discovered, many young men (and old ones, too) whom we took for bachelors previously were actually married, for ‘the wife’ won’t bo left at home day and night, too. Not altogether absent, either, are the shy young things who ‘might some day.’ Oh. yes! they’re ail there, enjoying the cool.”

The form of indoor bowling, with “straight” bowls, over a rink six, seven, or eight yards by one, although only now rapidly advancing in favor in England, has been played in Scotland for a century at least. Its origin is unknown. For many years it existed solely as a parlor game,.in widen ladies of the household, old and young, joined with as much vigor as the most ardent of the men. It -was in 1854 that this form of indoor bov/ling first found club establishment, while hi 1895 th# national association was formed, which at Dumfries holds its annual tournament open to the wo rid; when spine 2000 players compete for the championship cup apd about 200 other prizes. The competitors' invariably include rinks reSnting the Cargen Ladies’ Club: In on and the Booth of England indoor bowls is being inaThlv advanced by. the -Rose and Thistle, London Caledonians. Pcnge, Dundonaid. St. George’s Carlyle, and Maidenhead Clubs, the last-named of which. ..holds the M‘Gaw Indoor Bowling Association’s Championship Cup, open to alt- recognised clubs within 210 miles of London. There is also a rink of accomplished lady players in the metropolis and two rinks of youths at Wimbledon., who display allround aptitude for the.;

Representatives from New Zealand, Queensland, and Western Australia were present- at the meeting of the Anglo-Colonial Bowling Club, held at the- headquarters,- Anderton’s Hotel, Fleet-street-, last month. The Rev. R. Wilkinson, of- the Western Australian Bowling Association, who sailed for his home a few days later, proposed that Air Charles Wood (President of the Victorian 8.A., and donor of the Australian Challenge Cup of the English Bowling Association) should be elected a lire member of the club. This was adopted. Air J. Augustine Alason, -of the office of the High Commissioner for New Zealand, was elected a member of the Executive.

So far this season (says a London scribe) nearly 4500 games at a penny each nave been registered upon the public rinks in Vauxhall Park, against 1816 last year. This shows the way in which the pastime can be popularised, even upon a piece of turf formerly used for tennis, and with no expense having been -entailed over banks and ditches, according to the more scientifi-cally-constructed ground usually fbuild" in Scotland, the foster-home of the ground. Some more Home bowling figures: “The penny-a-game principle lias found remarkable demonstration on the Edinburgh Corporation bowling greens this season. A hundred and seventy-eight thousand four hundred and twenty-eight players were registered, of whom 73.259 also paid a halfpenny each for the use if the rubber shoes supplied by the Corporation. The revenue derived ■.mounted to £896 Is s)d. On one green jver 28,000 games were registered. There are fifteen bowling greens in the public parks of Edinburgh, and thus it will be- see that the average earningpower was nearly £:0 each. In Scotland the season closes a month earlier than in London—at least, so far as the munieinal grounds are concerned —otherwise the returns would have been very much greater.”

LADIES AT BOWLS IN VICTORIA

“The rinks and banks at Auburn were crowded recently with what one prominent bowler persists in calling the little dears.’ Whatever that may signify. there they were in all their glory, and distinguishable by the various colors of the clubs to which they belonged” (reports Alelbourne “Punch”). “Last season’s winners (Brighton Beach), led 1 by Airs Ingle ton. met Auburn and defeated thc-m by 6 points, after an exciting-finish, where the captain of the winning side came to the rescue at the last end when the opposition were lying five. Perhaps the fact that they wore the ‘scalps’ (otherwise the medals) from last season’s limit- spurred them on to greater things still. The strong four from South Alelbourne, under Aliss N. Cuthbertson. were too rrcod for Fitzroy and East Alelbourne, scoring 30 to 6, and playing bowls that would have turned the heads of some of their male friends. There is not the slightest doubt that- some of the ladies are artists, and draw some beantitul ends. The only objection one might have to a ‘lady third’ if sli£ were asked to ‘bust ’em up’ something might 'give way.’ or ‘snap off,’ as it were. If my ignorance of xlie ‘simplicity’ of women’s attire is at fault, 1 am sure at least the bowling ladies will let me down lightly. Airs E. D. Heather, like the famous E.D. we all know so well, and whose name as champion can be seen on the boards at S.AI.C.C. more than once, can bowl with the best of them. Her ‘second man’ is Aliss Elsie Heather, and, like her illustrious parents, she finds the way to jack—l mean kitty—quite an easy accomplishment.