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Al Campbell

ON a grey, wet, and miserable Saturday, reminiscent of an English summer, a group of soaked middle-aged men discuss bowls strategies on the green of the Filipino Club in Kowloon's King's Park.

 The scene is right out of Monty Python, as the men, complete with an assortment of hats, slip and slide on the wet surface as they chase their bowl down the green after each shot.

 Midway through the match, tea, drinks and sandwiches are served. Bowls seems to be one of those few unstrenuous sports where players can nosh during play and still avoid cramp.

 Nothing much seems to be going right today for skipper Ken Wallis and his men's fours of the Kowloon Cricket Club. KCC overcame the damp Filipino green dubbed ''Wembley'' to win 6-2 overall, but Wallis' rink lost.

  Wallis has been practising a lot these days as he prepares to represent Hong Kong in the men's singles competition at the Commonwealth Games this August in Victoria, Canada.

 The 51-year-old Hong Kong police officer is ''absolutely delighted'' with his selection to the team and says that he would have gone in whatever capacity he was picked, whether it be in singles, pairs or fours.

 ''It's always a great honour to be picked, but this time being the singles, obviously has a bit more meaning to it,'' said Wallis.

 No stranger to international competition, Wallis expects the top seeds from Scotland, England, New Zealand and Australia to be the players to beat. Victoria will be his second trip to the Games; he previously competed for the territory in the men's fours at the 1990 Auckland Games. Wallis' selection to the squad as the singles representative comes mainly on the strength of his victory in last year's national championships.

 His selection in the singles drew howls of protest from professional bowler Mark McMahon who won a silver medal for Hong Kong at the 1990 Commonwealth Games. McMahon, who was seeded 13th at the World Indoor Championships and is currently playing bowls in Australia, will represent Hong Kong in the pairs with his father Bill. He has described Wallis' selection in the singles as a ''joke'' and a ''farce'' and said he didn't think Wallis was capable of winning a medal.

 True to the calm demeanor of his law enforcement background, Wallis seems unfazed by McMahon's criticism.

 ''I don't like to comment on selection. If he wants to make those comments, then that's his prerogative,'' said Wallis who divides his bowling duties with serving as president of the 1,400-member strong Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association.

 ''I don't want to get in any slanging matches. He's a member of the team, I'm a member of the team. I'm only happy to be playing.''  Wallis said he doesn't hold any grudges against McMahon and that the slagging won't cause any disharmony amongst the team.

 ''I'm not going to hold anything against anyone, possibly he [McMahon] will. I don't know - we will just have to wait and see. He doesn't live here.

 ''There was no great animosity before. I was no threat to him. It's only since I've become a threat to him that he's been talking out. A bit foolish but that's his prerogative.''  Wallis says he hopes he can win a medal in Victoria just to put this mess behind him.

 ''We all go out to win a medal and, who knows, maybe I will. I hope I do win a medal and that will shut everybody up. You have to look at the selections in a logical way. I've had a good year, the selectors picked it and I am the national champion. That was obviously the logic that prompted them to pick me.''  A native of Buckinghamshire, England, where he was an amateur footballer with Slough Town, a top non-league team, Wallis came to Hong Kong in 1962 to join the police force after getting fed up with his architectural studies.

 ''A chap I was working with suggested I apply for the Colonial police in Rhodesia. I sent off to the Crown agent, the co-ordinating central body for the police in London, and they came back with offers of Rhodesia, Bermuda and Hong Kong. I thought about the exotic East and all that and this swung it. Bermuda was a close second.''  He says he fell into bowls by accident.

 ''My boss was a bowler and one day I just happened to be training on the grounds and they were short of a player and he ordered me to play. Being a ball player, I play tennis and squash. I took to it quite naturally and it filled a gap at certain times of the year and I enjoyed it.''  Now in his second stint as president of the HKLBA after quitting in 1986 after a disagreement with the board, Wallis says he got back into administration because he missed being involved.

 ''I'm a glutton for punishment,'' he says. ''It's not like it is in other parts of the world where you get a majority of non-players in the association. It's all bowlers here and we do both. Everybody helps out here.''  Wallis hopes a strong showing by Hong Kong will help create interest in the game here and attract much needed younger players to the sport.

 ''We've tried to promote the sport through schools and we've met with limited success. We are handicapped throughout Hong Kong with a lack of facilities. The way we're trying to go is to persuade government Urban Services, Urban Council and the Regional Council to build more greens.''  With new public greens set to open in Sha Tin, Wallis says perhaps then younger people can spend some time on the greens.

 ''We found from Victoria Park (Hong Kong's only public bowls facility) that younger people will play. It's a lack of facilities that is hampering our success.'      and once we get those facilities we will be really able to improve. The locals are keen to play this game.'' 



Ken bowling along in search of hard-earned recognition