Glen duo look on course for Province title

KEVIN CAMPBELL and Johan du Plessis of Glen CC, both former Proteas, are favoured to land the Western Province men’s pairs title.

You can catch them in action in the semi-finals at their club today when they take on Constantia’s champion Peter Harvey and Jean Latter.

The other last-four clash sees Mowbray’s in-form Joel Roëbert and David van der Walt play Peter Cottrell and Michael Cooper of Plumstead.

Campbell, 66, has enjoyed a fine season so far without bagging any silverware.

Du Plessis, who made his debut for SA in 2001, is likely to lay a solid foundation as the lead and pave the way for his skip to enjoy an armchair ride.

But the duo getting through to the afternoon final is far from cut and dried, the other side have every right to feel confident of progressing.

Pencil-slim Harvey, a former WP singles champion, can draw with the very best of them and seldom gets flustered when up against it, while Latter should not be underestimated.

Roëbert has this season won the WP singles and WP Masters and again made it through to the latter stages of the SA singles, after previously making it into the finals.

Easily the leading fourbowl player in the district is the two-time SA Pairs winner who can win a game on his own no matter the oppositioin.

Van der Walt is also no slouch and will be out to make a statement of his own.

It remains to be seen whether their opponents can match the duo shot-for-shot, but having made it this far means they can’t be written off as no-hopers.

As for the WP women’s semi-finals at the same venue, Jenny Wade and Liz Hudsen of Constantia recovered from 3-17 down to score a stunning 27-20 win over Durbanville’s Lydia Maritz and Joy Normington in the previous round, making them my choice to go all the way. They take on unheralded Parow pairing Ascaray Nadine and Rich Chrisna.

Edgemead’s Anita Groenewald and Ingrid Ten Doeschate square off with Rita Himschoot and Breedt Maria of Oakdale in the other semi and should win comfortably.

Groenewald won SA Pairs gold this year while Doeschate, whose son Ryan chose to play cricket for the Netherlands ahead of SA and was once the ICC’s associate cricketer of the year, will do the business upfront.

Finals will be played in the afternoon.