BOWLSBANTER
PORT ALFRED
Mike Pfotenhauer, who is in charge of the bar at the club, is resting back home after a health sertback. Recover soon Mike. Our thoughts are also with Jack Wild whose household is also experiencing health challenges.
Several teams from this club travelled to Kenton to participate in their cancer awareness tournament and all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Thanks to those who showed their support.
Being played this week Thursday is the first round of the Peg and Horace Purdon tournament, set for Kenton. The Horace Purdon section is for beginner bowlers. Good bowling to both our men and ladies.
Then this coming weekend, the Eastern Areas mixed pairs is to be played in Makhanda at the Albany Bowling Club. Many entries have been received with Louise Vincent, Hein Strombeck and Brian McLean from this club also having entered.
Then, the first round of this club’s mixed drawn pairs is set for Wednesday February 21. At the time of writing, the draw has still to be done.
With Valentine’s Day having taken place yesterday, be reminded that kissing or cuddling is not allowed on the bowls and croquet greens. Please wait until you get home!
KOWIE
Yet again, this was a busy week for most of our members at the club.
Tuesday's tabs in competition was well attended. It is pleasing to see that besides there being a financial pinch on all of us, our beautiful greens are being used.
The generously sponsored Ocean Basket vouchers were won by Jonty Alexander, Wendy Heny, and our up-and-coming novice, Dolores Johnson.
After prizegiving, a huge number of our members (and friends) got together at the club to celebrate the momentous occasion of Doc Charles Louw’s 99th birthday. The club president, Judy Alexander, paid a very special tribute to the good doctor, in which she thanked him for his tremendous contribution that had made to the club, and to SA bowls over many years. Doc Charles reciprocated with some words of encouragement to all present.
We also made use of the opportunity to award honorary life membership to Rob Owsley. As a long playing friend of Rob ’ s, Jacques Krige gave a detailed account of Rob’s achievements over the many years of playing top-class bowls for the club and the country, and then to huge applause, presented him with his honorary membership certificate.
Wednesday morning’s novice session saw Howard JacksonMoss,
joining our clan of newbies.
With a little bit of tweaking here and there, I’m convinced he’ll soon be joining the afternoon tabs competitions.
Thursday afternoon saw 13 of our members travelling to Kenton to support the annual Cansa day, hosted by Kenton Bowling Club.
It was fantastic to see the support for this worthy cause, that was shown from the other clubs in the area. In total, there were 24 teams of trips that entered the competition with pink being the obvious colour code for the day.
It was interesting to see some rather serious-looking men in their bright pink shirts, shorts, wigs and scarves. The banter, camaraderie, and sportsmanship shared on the day was lovely to behold.
The afternoon ’ s proceedings started with the traditional “spider” competition. More than 70 bowls were delivered simultaneously from all corners of the “B”, green to see which one would end up nearest to the “spider”. The winning bowl belonged to our very own Rob Walker, who walked away with a lovely bottle of wine. The overall winners of the day were the Kenton team of Pippa Swift, Leonie de Villiers, and Sheila Pearce. Well done.
After prize-giving, everyone was treated to a plate of snacks, after which Neville Emslie thanked the players for their generous donations and participation in the cancer awareness fundraiser.
Friday afternoon saw the revival of a “bounce” game being played. In the past, it was used by a bunch of members who used the afternoon as a practice session for upcoming games over the weekend. The evening ended with a huge fire being lit for the monthly steak night function which was well supported. Well done to Ronel Hough who won the attendance prize.
After prize-giving, the club members responsible for the side eats and running the bar were thanked by captain Peter May.
With intermittent cloud cover and a slight breeze, Saturday afternoon was a pleasant day for bowling, resulting in a good turnout for the tabs game.
The bragging rights for the afternoon and the vouchers which were sponsored by Niche, were won by Pieter Stegmann, Oosten Steenkamp, and Dave Kirk, who incidentally, is making a habit of playing in the winning team lately.
KENTON
The Spar-sponsored day was held* on Wednesday a close contest under ideal conditions, where Stompie Bellingan and team on 8 +5, pipped the Dave West team on 8 + 4, with Cecilia Immelman and team just a point behind on 7 +4. Well done to the winners who will enjoy spending their vouchers and a big thank you to Spar for sponsoring this monthly competition.
The annual KBC Cansa Challenge is our major fundraising event, with full teams made up from combinations of members and visitors from surrounding clubs.
This most worthwhile cause was generously supported by all those participating. It was the girlpower team of Pippa Swift, Loenie de Villiers and Sheila Pearce who won the day by leaving all in their dust, to win the 2024 KBC Cansa Challenge.
KBC has 17 new novices and there is no better way of learning the ins-and-outs of the game than by attending a markers course.
On Friday and Saturday, Lydia Palmer and her team did a great job in the training and all benefited from this new knowledge. The 20 or more attendees can now be called upon to mark games in the up-coming club championships.