All eyes on PE bowler
Local hero hopes to shine as weather plays ball at championships
ONE of the bowlers at this week’s Warwick Bowls South African Men’s National Championships who will be looking to shine in the singles starting today is Port Elizabeth star Curt Fisher.
Westview’s Fisher, who started playing bowls in 1995, has won the All Cape Tournament fours twice, in 1999 and 2010.
He is also a bronze medallist in the South African mixed pairs competition, which took place in Port Alfred in 2009.
Fisher said he was enjoying the competition so far.
“The weather has been quite kind, because normally the wind blows harder,” he said.
European resident Graham Dewar 76, of Morningside Country Club in Johannesburg, is happy to be back in Port Elizabeth after 42 years.
“It’s great to be in PE and so far the weather has been really good,” he said.
“The organisation is superb and the hospitality is great.
“So far I have played on two clubs’ greens and they have been lovely.
“I live in Portugal but I come out to play in Johannesburg, spending about half my year in South Africa.
“The last time I was in PE was in 1976. The city has become bigger, it has expanded naturally but otherwise I still remember a lot of it.
“I have great memories here. I used to play a lot of competitive golf and I also sailed in the South African Sailing Championships.”
Pretoria North bowler Pogiso Stemmer said the championships were his first national competition since being involved in bowls.
The 58-year-old is originally from Mahikeng but lives in Pretoria due to work commitments. He said he was still adjusting to the PE weather.
“This is my first national tournament and it is going well, although we were knocked out in the third round in the pairs,” Stemmer said.
“The weather is challenging because we are not used to this kind of weather where we are from, but we are adjusting to it.”
Peter Wildman, of the tournament organising committee, said things were going smoothly.
“Everybody is happy. I have not heard any complaints,” he said.
“There were a couple of technical hitches with computers crashing but we have sorted all of that out.
“The weather has played its part – I hope it stays like this.”