BOWLS BANTER

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Eastern Areas

THERE should be great bowls played this coming weekend as 22 teams of male bowlers will be on the greens at the Kowie Bowling Club in Port Alfred, to compete in the annual Inter Sub-districts Bowling Tournament.

Teams from East London and district, Port Elizabeth and district, Ciskei, North Eastern districts, Frontier, Midlands and our own Eastern Areas (EA) will all be taking part in the tournament that will run from mid-day Friday September 22 until Monday September 25. This is a very prestigious bowls tournament as each district is represented by the best bowlers from all the clubs in their district.

The EA teams are Team 1 – Clive Bartlett, Bresby Du Preez, Kallie Calitz and Andrew Labuschagne; Team 2 – David Freeme, Hein Strombeck, Jacques Krige and Mario Agnew; Team 3 – Trevor Frost, Dave West, Chris Avis and Brian Aldag. We wish all the chosen men “good bowling” and hope they have fun and successful tournament.

The tournament changes venue each year and rotates to the next district in line, so we only host the tournament in our area once every seven years. That is why this is a golden opportunity for spectators to see some of the best bowlers in the Eastern Province and Border in action. Hope to see you supporting your local bowlers from the side of the greens.

Kenton Bowling Club

The past week’s very welcome rain played havoc with the weekend’s bowling plans. The Wetside (Oops! Mistake. Whiteside) tournament at Grahamstown had to be cancelled due to flooded greens and inclement weather conditions.

On Saturday, about 60 bowlers whiled the time away by watching the rugby test between the Springboks and the All Blacks. After the disappointing performance of the Boks (what is the difference between a samoosa and the Boks? A samoosa has three points!) the tournament organisers announced that the first day was cancelled. On Sunday morning, it was decided to cancel the whole tournament.

Our midweek bowling program was quite full. Last Wednesday, the 9th round of the popular Dias Insurance Consultants Jackpot was held. Several teams finished on 17 points. Rodney Austin’s team (Fred Glisson and Neville Green) won the day with

a shot profit of 21. In the year-to-date standing, Bill Bedford still leads the pack with 112 points, closely followed by Ruth Low and Rodney Austin on 107 points with Addie Wolf breathing down their necks on 116 points. Full details can be found on our website at www.kentonbowlingclub.com

Supa Thursday trips was won by Rodney Austin’s team.

The monthly Personal Trust competition brings out the best in our bowlers. Like last month, 20 teams took to the greens. It was particularly pleasing to see a visiting team from Kowie, skipped by Jackie Kriel participate. The winning team, skipped by Rob Croly amassed 23 (out of a possible 28) points. Rodney Austin rounded off a winning week by skipping his team to second place on 22 points. Lionel Howarth and Johan Grobler’s teams were a close third on 21 points. Joan Spence won the most-touchers prize of a bottle of boutique liqueur.

A hearty rendering of “happy birthday” was delivered for Jackie Kriel who celebrated her birthday before the winner of the attendance draw was announced. It has now become more difficult to keep up with the Joneses as Cecil was the lucky recipient of the R900 jackpot. Next week’s attendance draw jackpot reverts to R500. The Kenton Butchery steaks were enjoyed by all and there was a happy buzz in the clubhouse until late into the evening. Duties (September 25-30): Tabs – Johnny G, Bar – Johnny G/D McNeill. Events (September 21-28): 27 – Doris Ford at Kenton, 28 – President’s Chair at Kenton. Birthdays (September 21-28): 21 – Tony Phillips, 26 – Marlene Hendriksz, 27 – Tony Wiener.

Port Alfred Bowling and Croquet Club

Our monthly Personal Trust competition resulted in a win for John Bennett, Gordon Goff, Lynton Perry and Studley Clarke and Colette Reid, Anne Kotze, Dix Lang and Garnett Westley.

Thanks once again to Carl Vermeulen from Personal Trust for the prizes as well as his participation in a game of bowls.

Well done top our ladies’ teams, skipped by Helen Cowie and Lynda Schoning, on winning their games in the Vroom Cup against Kowie. Unfortunately, our men’s teams, who played in the Timm Cup against Kowie were only able to win one out of four games. Well done, Kowie.

Welcome to all the players participating in the Men’s Mini-District tournament to be played this weekend at Kowie. Good bowling to all our Eastern Areas teams and especially to Trevor Frost and Hein Strombeck from our club.

Good bowling to our ladies who will be playing in the Doris Ford against Kenton, at Kenton, on Wednesday September 27. Duties for the week ending September 30: Tabs - Anton Strombeck and Sheila Penny, Bar - Trevor Frost and Eddie Senar, Ironing - Trevor Frost.

Kowie Bowling Club

Last Tuesday afternoon we played our sponsored SuperSpar day competition with another good turnout.

Rodney Gradwell’s team of Dave Tyrell and Jackie Watson were in fine form to defeat Mike Long’s team by a full house 10 points and a shot profit of 18. Well, that was the end of the runaways with Keith Kolesky’s team of fours defeating Rob Owley’s team by 8 point to 2 and 17 shot profit, to take the runner-up position. The remaining four games were all pretty close with them all peeling skins.

Last Thursday was another Megabucks day and we played with a small field only two rinks because of the Timm and Vroom Cups being played at home. The Megabucks was won by Keith Kolesky’s team of Gill Turner and Dennis Wicks over Bob Ford’s team with a full house 10 points and the runner-up was Lee Botma over Michael van der Sandt in a very tight game with the second skin being peeled.

The ladies in the Vroom Cup did not have a successful day, losing both games, but both of these had been very tight games. Port Alfred now move ahead in the competition on 12 points to our 8 with a positive shot profit of 36. In the Timm Cup our men’s teams won three and lost one game to put us ahead with 23 points to 17 and a positive shot profit of 28. The last round of this competition will take place in November at Port Alfred.

All EP clubs played in the Whitesides Cup at Grahamstown BC last weekend and by lunch time on Saturday there has been no play because of continuous rain.

Saturday was called off and a decision would be taken on Sunday morning and all play was called off at 7am that morning. So the “WETsides” really stood up to its pet name. Duties for the week September 25 - October 1: Greens – (Roll) Bob Ford, (Mark) Gerald Mills and Pieter Stegmann, Tabs – (Cash) Jackie Watson, Bar – Members please check the board in the club.