.'^^ 



BOWLING is taking the early scar 

 son spot light in the rural sports 

 paraae that will climax in the 

 state-wide Illinois Farm Sports 

 Festival Aug. 26-27 at Cham- 

 paign-Urbana. 



Teams from more than 60 counties 

 had their caps set for a state bowling 

 championship as they completed district 

 run-off play last month. The high 

 teams and individuals in all of the 16 

 districts will bowl in the state finals. 

 A complete listing will be printed when 

 all scores are in. 



The Farm Bureau Baseball League 

 will start soon with 25 counties making 

 plans to enter teams. New entries in 

 this year's league include Boone, Chris- 

 tian, Lake, and Rock Island. Cham- 

 paign and Henderson, champion and 

 runner-up in last year's festival, will be 

 back to defend their titles. 



Interest in Softball also continues to 

 grow throughout rural Illinois, Roy 

 Johnson, secretary of the Sports Fes- 

 tival, reports. He says that 83 teams 

 have already been entered and estimates 

 this number will grow to 200 by Au- 

 gust. 



District competition will be held in 

 Softball for the Rural Youth and boys 

 4-H teams with the 32 winning teams 

 competing at the Sports Festival. Dis- 

 trict play will also be held if entries in 

 Softball exceed 32 teams in the all- 

 county division, 16 in the 35-ers, 16 

 in girls 4-H, and 16 in the girls open 

 class. 



Individuals and groups who plan to 

 enter any sport or festival event are 

 urged to contact their farm or home 

 advistt- as soon as possible. In order 

 to plan district festivals all entries in 

 the dance, dramatic, and music events 

 must be made before July 15. Softball 

 entries must also be made well in ad- 

 vance of the Sports Festival in order 

 that arrangements can be made for 

 necessary district play-offs. The dead- 

 line for Softball entries will be an- 

 nounced soon. 



The folk festival, which includes 

 dance, dramatic, and music features, 

 promises to bring forth an array of 

 new talent. From 29 counties come 

 entries for 30 folk dance teams, 29 

 square dance teams, and 14 barber shop 

 quartets. To this must be added 32 

 county rural choruses and 8 county 4-H 

 choruses already reported by E. G. 

 Regnier and R. G. Haley, University 

 of Illinois Extension Service, as ready 

 to enter groups. 



Haley, State Rural Chorus director, is 



SPORTS 

 FESTIVAL 



interest at 

 pre-season 



HIGH 



holding a series of meetings to organize 

 district folk festivals. These will be 

 held if possible during July 20- Aug. 5. 

 All entries receiving an A rating at 

 these district contests will be eligible 

 to enter the state festival. 



Counties will earn points for taking 

 part in the county and district festivals 

 as well as in the finals at the state fes- 

 tival. 



At the Sports Festival a trophy will 

 be awarded the winning county. Tro- 

 phies also will be awarded the county 

 highest in sports events and the county 

 highest in folk festival events. Tro- 

 phies also will be given winners in base- 

 ball, trap shooting, skeet shooting, and 

 to winners in each of the 16 districts. 



In the district bowling contests the 

 high score so far in the men's open 

 class has been made by Ogle county 

 with 2716 points. Russell, Will county, 

 and Kaney, Ogle arc tied for individual 

 honors with 610 points. In the 

 women's class DeKalb leads with 2108 

 points. Frey of Ogle county has high 

 individual score o"f 472. 



The men's Rural Youth team in 

 Bureau county is ahead in that division 

 with 2420 points. Canterbury, Sanga- 

 mon, 524 points, is leading individual. 



The girls' Rural Youth team in De- 

 Kalb county is leading with a score of 

 1956. Individual winner is Kruse, Taze- 

 well, with 434. Fayette county is lead- 

 ing the Rural Youth Mixed doubles 

 with a score of 945. 



JUNE IS DAIRY MONTH 



Reaiiy to belt one over 

 Hie fence it Jean Vetter 

 (right) of Peoria coun- 

 ty. Waiting to malce the 

 catch is Norma Heil>en- 

 thoi of Lee county. This 

 is a scene from last 

 year's Farm Sports Fes- 

 tival. 



JUNE. 1948 



