Officially, he or she has to gather both sides of the argument and print a balanced story.

But when the writer is playing lawn bowls for the first time, “bias” takes on a whole new meaning.

Recorder manager Greg Mayfield was a guest of the Frostbiters team at the Rotary Lawn Bowls Night at the Port Pirie Bowling Club on Thursday.

He was told from the outset that each bowl is weighted to that it arcs to one side before coming to rest, hopefully, near the white “kitty” ball.

The player must keep a small circle drawn on one on side of the ball on the inside to ensure that it curves the right way.

But Mayfield managed to twice mix up his “bias” so that the bowl arced far away from the “kitty” into the next field of competition.

He claimed he was ensuring a fair balance.

His team included experienced bowler Alan Patterson and other Rotarians Mark Arnold and John Rowe.

Players from more than a dozen teams were told of the intricacies of putting the “kitty” on the green, to scoring “up” or “down” and how “narrow” a delivery of the bowling ball could be.

Doug Parr and his son-in-law Jock Baur kept the pressure on the Frostbiters in their 12-end game, but in the end they proved to have eaten too much “Weeties” for breakfast and bowled a bit too long and hard.

Doug and Jock’s skipper Robert Tolson seemed to be able to tell the difference between the bowls parked around the “kitty” and declare his team “up” or “down” on the scorecard, like reading tea leaves.

In the clubrooms after the game, Jock mentioned light-heartedly, “is this going to be on the front page?”

Jock, in the interests of a fair report, without bias against the opposition, you’ve got your wish.

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