WP Bowls see little return for their investment as teams fail to shine

WESTERN PROVINCE Bowls had to cough up a small fortune to send senior teams to the recent Inter-districts.

And the investment, which was well over R130 000, yielded poor returns with only one medal won, a silver for a gallant men’s B team.

The Open men’s and women’s teams ended up making up the numbers after a poor week.

Surely more should be expected from the biggest of the 20 districts affiliated to Bowls SA?

Bias in team selection was a bone of contention, so too a selector or two being picked for duty.

Once again smaller-numbered Boland Bowls showed up their neighbours for the second year running (three medals including gold in 2017), and this has been frowned upon by the locals for no other reason than better is expected from our leading men and women.

One has to credit Boland A women for winning gold in Oudtshoorn.

Province, on the other hand, could only manage fifth place in their 10-strong section.

The selectors’ chosen eight were the best for the job, according to chief selector Gwen Rey, who replaced Gauteng-bound Marina Brink.

“The manager of the A team felt the side did their best and that’s good enough from my side,” Rey said.

“You win some, lose some, that’s the nature of sport.

“Let me point out that we did crush Boland in a pre-districts friendly, and they went on to win gold, so well done to them for that fine achievement.

“We will be back.

“The selectors will conduct a post-mortem and learn more.”

As to whether Province had overlooked other players with credentials, Rey said it was up to clubs to submit names for selection.

“We can only do so much, the clubs must help us so that everyone gets a fair chance to represent their province.”

WP president Graeme Kemp backs the call for top players not to be considered for selection duty.

“I’ll be addressing this as a matter of urgency.

“I’m not saying we have a situation here, let me make that clear.

“But I do understand the possible backlash that comes when a selector is picked to play for WP….”

On a positive note, well done to Province’s Under-15s for delivering medal-winning performances at the Inter-Districts Junior Championships in Bloemfontein.

The WP B side skipped by Aiden Lourens from Pollsmoor won gold while WP A skipped by Armand Ascaray from Police pocketed bronze.

● The first WP Junior Masters (U15 and U20) took place at the Pollsmoor Bowling Club and the three medal winners were Armand Ascaray (Gold), Jaco Fourie (Silver) and Aiden Lourens (Bronze).