BOWLING IS taking' the early sea- 

 son spot li^ht in the rural sports 

 parade that will climax in the 

 sfate-wiiie Illinois Farm Sports 

 Festival Aui;. 26-27 at Cham- 

 pai^'n-Urbana. 



Teams from more than 60 counties 

 had their caps set for a state bowlini; 

 championship as they completed district 

 run-o(f play last month. The hitrh 

 teams and individuals in all of the 16 

 districts will howl in the state finals. 

 A complete listinij will Ix printed when 

 all scores are in. 



The I'arm Bureau Baseball League 

 will start soon with 2^ counties makint; 

 plans to enter teams. New entries in 

 this year's lea;:ue include Boone. Chris- 

 tian. Lake. ,mt) 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 

 prow throughout rural Illinois. Rov 

 Johnson, secretary of the Sports Fes- 

 tival. re[x>rts. He says that 8^ teams 

 have already been entered and estimateN 

 this number will crow to 200 bv Au- 

 gust. 



District competition will be held in 

 Softball for the Rural Youth and boys 

 -)-H teams w'th the 32 winnint; teams 

 competing at the Sports Festival. Dis- 

 trict play will also i->e held if entries in 

 .softball exceed 32 teams in the all 

 county division, 16 in the 35-ers, 16 

 in girls -J-H. and 16 in the i;irls open 

 class. 



Individuals and groups who plan to 

 enter any sport or festival event are 

 urt;ed to contact their farm or home 

 adviser as soon as possible. In order 

 to plan district festivals all entries in 

 the dance, dramatic, and music events 

 must be made before July l^i. Softball 

 entries must also be made well in ad- 

 vance of the Sports I'estival in order 

 that arranuements can be made for 

 necessary district play-otTs. The dead- 

 line for softball entries will be an- 

 noimced soon. 



The folk festival, which includes 

 dance, dramatic, anil music features, 

 promises to brini; forth an array of 

 new talent. I'rom 29 counties come 

 entries for 30 folk dance teams, 29 

 scjuare dance teams, and 1 i barber shop 

 quartets. To this must be added 32 

 county rural choruses and S county i-H 

 choruses alreadv reported bv F. G. 

 Rei,'nier and R. G. Haley, Universitv 

 of Illinois Extension Service, as ready 

 to enter croups. 



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 he 

 held if possible during July 20- Aug. *■. 

 All entries reeeiving an A rating at 

 these district contests will be eligible 

 to enter the state festival. 



Counties will earn points tor taking 

 part in the county and district testivaN 

 as well as in the finals at the state les- 

 li\al. 



At the Sports lcsti\al a tropin will 

 be awarded the winnnig couiitv. Tro- 

 phies aNo will be a\\arded the count v 

 highest in ->pc)rts events and tlu- lounlv 

 IhlIus! Ill tolk festival e\enfs. T ro 

 pliics aiscj will be gi\en winner^ in base- 

 \->.\]\. trap shooting, skeet shooting, and 

 to winners in each ot the Ui dl^tric!^. 



In the district bowlmg contests the 

 lu^li score so far in the men's open 

 cl.iss h.is been made by Ogle lounty 

 \cith 2-1 6 ]''oints. Russell. ^X'1il c oiintv. 

 .iiid Kaney. Ogle arj tiecl lor indiMilui! 

 honors with 610 points. In the 

 women's class DeKalb leads with 21os 

 points. I'rey of C)gle count v has higii 

 mdi\ iciual score ot i" 2. 



The men's Rural 'N'outli team ui 

 Bureau countv is ahead in that division 

 w ilh 2 l20 points, f anterbury, Sanga- 

 mon, '>2i points, IS leading individual. 



The girls' Rural Youth team in De- 

 Kalb county is leading with a score of 

 19'^Ci. Indiviilual winner is Kruse. Taze- 

 well, with 43 t. Fayette county is lead- 

 ing the Rural Youth Mixed doubles 

 v\ ith a score ot 91^. 



JUNE IS DAIRY MONTH 



Ready to belt one over 

 the fence is Jean Vetter 

 (right) of Peoria coun- 

 ty. Waiting to make the 

 catch is Norma Heiben- 

 thal of Lee county. This 

 is a scene from last 

 year's Farm Sports Fes- 

 tival. 



JUNE, 1948 



