Bay pulls off men’s national bowls championship coup

EASTERN Cape Bowls will host this year’s prestigious Warwick Bowls South African Men’s National Championship in Port Elizabeth and surrounds from May 12 to 20.

After successfully staging the SA Women’s National Championships in 2015, EC Bowls were once again given the nod to host yet another championship.

With R84 500 in prize-money up for grabs, players and spectators can expect a competitive event.

A total of 606 teams are expected to participate and tournament committee member Peter Wildman said the setup, in terms of play, would be exactly the same as that of the women’s competition.

“Teams from all over South Africa have entered. There are 102 teams entered into the fours, 216 teams in the pairs, 208 players in the open singles and 80 players in the senior singles,” Wildman said.

“Play starts on the Saturday May 12 with the pairs for both Saturday and Sunday. Monday and Tuesday sees the fours being played and then on the Wednesday the singles start.

“On Thursday, Friday and Saturday the quarterfinals and semifinals will take place and then the finals will be played at the Westview Bowling Club on the Sunday.

“In the singles we have Jason Evans. He is a Protea and has just come back from the Commonwealth Games where he represented South Africa. Otherwise there will be players from all over the country – as far as Mpumalanga right down to Cape Town.”

He said the games would be spread around the city with most of the action at Summerwood, The Woods, Victoria Park, Port Elizabeth, Walmer, PE Moth, Westview and Western Suburbs.

Despatch and Jeffreys Bay will also host a couple of sections while the headquarters will be at the Westview Bowling Club.

“We are lucky so far that a lot of the greens we are using have boreholes but there are a couple of clubs that are struggling.

“We had to limit the numbers because of the water shortages. Some of the clubs don’t have boreholes so they have to use municipal water which they are not allowed to use.

“Now, we can’t use those greens because they are not in a good enough condition.”

Wildman called on bowls lovers to support the week of action.

“Spectators are going to get to see some really good bowls. A lot of these players are provincial players and there are a couple of ex-Boks playing in the competition as well. But, it all depends on PE’s weather as well.”

The breakdown of the prize money is: Fours: winners R25 000, runners-up R10 000, semifinalists R5 000 Pairs: winners R12 000, runners-up R5 000, semifinalists R2 000 Open singles: winner R10 000, runner-up R3 000, semifinalists R1 500 Senior Singles: winner R8 000, runner-up R2 000, semifinalists R1 000