Bowlers new and experienced flock to LVCC to prove their mettle
The Mpumalanga Lowveld Bowling Association hosted the play-offs of the Mpumalanga Men’s and Ladies’ Pairs events at LVCC, in the upper reaches of Mbombela, over the weekend of November 5 and 6.
Despite widespread storms and heavy rain, the entire tournament was played in beautifully warm sunshine on the two greens that were in immaculate condition.
The teams from all over the province were in evidence, with most of “the usual suspects” being joined by many new faces, including some very young up-and-coming bowlers, which was a very satisfying sight.
On Saturday, the ladies battled it out on the top green, while the men competed down below on the bottom rinks. Teams competed against one another in sections, with the top two in each section progressing to the finals on the Sunday morning.
This left just four pairs of ladies and four pairs of men to compete for the honour of being among the top four pairs in the entire province.
There was a handful of spectators in attendance as play started in very warm weather on the top green at 08:30. It was a colourful sight, with some very creative bowls shirts catching the eye.
In the ladies’ final, Carine Chadwick and
Yvonne McHeath of the White River Club, who had swept through their group with a perfect record, came up against local ladies Debbie Day and Elinor Storkey, who took advantage of playing on their home turf, to run out convincing winners after playing some scintillating bowls for the full 18 ends.
A few metres away, the Nelspruit pair of Danie Theron and young Zach Wiid were finding the going very tough against the visitors, Vincent Sonnekus and Vaino Prinsloo, although picking up seven shots on the 15th end softened the pain somewhat, before Sonnekus and Prinsloo ran out the worthy winners of the trophy.
In third place for the men, also from Nelspruit Bowling Club, was perpetual winner Ben Enslin and his partner Kurt Strauss.
The ladies’ bronze medallists were maybe the story of the whole competition. Both Merle Joubert and Stella Nel were looking for a partner on the White River Bowling Club app when their paths crossed. They played well on Saturday, but only won their third match, and with just two points were not thinking about any involvement on Sunday. McHeath sidled up as they were all enjoying some well-deserved refreshments and announced that they had qualified for the final round by just 0.001 of a shot. Perhaps that narrow escape was just what they needed to give them some confidence, as they stormed to a 25-12 victory and third place in the ladies competition on Sunday morning, against the vastly experienced MPU pair of Joey Kriel and Ralie van der Spuy.