Symcox bowls them over at Hospice golf day
WITH his audience listening intensely and laughing at his amusing anecdotes, former Protea player Pat Symcox spoke for more than half an hour at the Sunshine Coast Hospice Port Alfred Golf Day, held at the Royal Port Alfred Golf Club last Friday. Symcox was the guest speaker, and gave his opinion on the modern game as well as regaling the 190-strong audience with stories from his past, playing for the Proteas. Having retired from the game in 1999, Symcox has commentated for SuperSport and is now focusing on his and lost 2-4 to the Port Alfred ladies. Back home three rinks of tabs-in bowling enjoyed the perfect weather and the tabs-in prize (money and pens) was won by Helen Birch’s team.
Supa Thursday was won by D I Gruneberg’s team.
Our internal club championships are on course for completing in good time this year. Last Friday saw various matches being played in the morning.
Members are encouraged to come and watch these matches as they produce good competitive bowling. Check the general notice board for what matches are scheduled at what times and dates.
Some guests from Dewetsdorp visited our club over the weekend. Three teams of trips played some of our members on Friday in bounce games while they joined our tabs-in on Saturday. They are all residents of the district and were visiting Kenton on a bowls tour/holiday. Dewetsdorp is, among other things, renowned for three officials Remax business franchises in KwaZulu-Natal.
“I remember when we toured England in 1994,” Symcox began. “We played at Lords and then met the Queen. We were told to only speak to the Queen if she spoke to us, and to not shake her hand too hard. All the normal stuff.
“My roommate was Fanie [Vinnige Fanie] de Villiers, who we couldn’t even get to wear shoes most of the time. The Queen greeted each one of us, and we bowed until she got to Fanie. There she stopped, and everyone shook their heads, not knowing how this was going to turn out. The Queen said, ‘Hello’, and Fanie replied, ‘Hello, your high royalness’. We knew this was not going too go well.
“The Queen looked at the badge on Fanie’s shirt and asked, ‘where did the Springbok go?’ Without pause, Fanie answered her: ‘It jumped’.”
Symcox also offered his opinion on the modern game, and lamented that today’s players were not as “great” as those of the past.
“Sure, we have [AB] De Villiers, [Faf] Du Plessis, Hashim [Amla], as well as several others,” Symcox said. “But are they the same ‘great’ players as [Andrew] Hudson, [Jonty] Rhodes, [Allan] Donald, [Jacques] Kallis and the rest of
Kenton had mixed success in Saturday’s Moore Shield and Colleen Timm competitions played at Kowie. Both the ladies and the men won one and lost one game each. Kowie now lead the Moore Shield with 4 points, Kenton second with 2 points and Port Alfred trailing with zero points.
The fourth round of the Eastern Areas second league was played at Albany on Sunday. Kenton went into the round leading the log.
The lightning fast green proved to be too much for our side and we went down 1-9 to the Albany side who now lead the log. With two rounds still to play our side is confident that they can overcome this temporary setback. The next round is due to be replayed on March 26 which provides ample time for our side to regroup. Duties for the week March 6-11: those guys. I’m not sure.”
Symcox also commented on the state of the game, including so-called spread betting, saying that this still goes on.
“Recently we’ve had Bodie and others found guilty of spread betting,” he said. “It’s not necessarily about fixing a match, but more about specific incidents in the game. For example, someone comes with a bag of US dollars and asks you to bowl two no-balls in the 18th over. There are few people who would turn down a bag of cash to do something so simple, and the amount of money in these international T20 matches is phenomenal.”
When not attending to estate agent business, Symcox likes to play golf and give motivational talks alongside his wife, Estelle.
As for the golf, everyone present had a great day, and a very social evening followed with lots of chirps and general good humour.
In first place with 98 points, was the four-ball of Leigh and Steve Beckerling, and Judy and Luc Hoefangels. In second place with 96 points, was the team of Rolly Clayton, Basil Dukas, Rob Hoar and Alan Corrans, and in third place was Rick van Zyl, Charlie Poulton, Viv Jordan and Arnold Morey on 95 points. Colleen Timm and Moore Shield’s inter coastal clubs competition with each club entering two ladies’ and two men’s teams. The ladies’ section was won by Port Alfred with 2 points and 10 shot profit, and Kowie was the runner-up on 2 points and -1 shot profit (each club won one game).
In the men’s division Kowie won two games for 4 points and 13 shot profit with the runner-up Kenton on 2 points and -10 shot profit. There was no shield available to be handed out as it has been mislaid since the final last year. On Monday morning the missing shield reappeared in our club and we will hold it till the next round!
We also had tabs bowls for our overflow bowlers with only two rinks playing social bowls. There was a contingent of Border men’s players (three rinks) who arrived to practise for their match on Sunday against EP.
On Sunday, the annual EP v Border Practice match that is played at Kowie Club (six men’s and six ladies’ teams arrived to start their match at 9am. Some excellent bowls was played through the day with the men and ladies’ sections swopping greens for the afternoon session.
Port Alfred community and district did the bowling fraternity proud as spectators turned out to watch some top class bowls. On the day EP proved too strong for Border, winning both the men’s and ladies’ divisions to win the overall competition.
On Sunday we also had play at Albany in the fourth round of the Men’s 2nd League Competition. On a green running at 15+ seconds, it turned out quite a close encounter between Kowie and Port Alfred, with Kowie taking 6 points to Port Alfred’s 4 points and Albany with a comprehensive win on 9 points to Kenton’s 1 point. I still wait for the official results for the League. Duties for the week March 6-12: Greens – (Roll) Ron Smith, (Mark) Neville Westcott and John Hubbard, Tabs – (Cash) Margie Thomas, Bar – Peter Ford and Gerald Mills.