Bredasdorp young’uns are flourishing on the greens

BREDASDROP, 35km from the southernmost point of South Africa, has in the past four years produced a steady supply of young bowlers who have readily asserted themselves.

Twenty-something Anneke Snyman is a Protea who has shone internationally and is off to New Zealand next month to compete in a Six Nations Test series.

At the South Africa Masters Singles Championships in Johannesburg, Colanders impressed – all from Bredasdorp, whose 15 500 souls are better known for rugby and soccer.

The Junior Masters (there are Open and Senior divisions) is the nursery that sustains the country’s 24 000-strong bowling community. Players from all 20 Bowls SA districts vie for selection; it’s the toughest and the most eagerly contested section, with 12 men and women in contention. The winner automatically wins a chance in the following year’s Open section.

Snyman, a past Junior Masters winner, earned a bronze on her Open debut last year, and ended fifth in her section with three wins, including victory over the eventual bronze medallist and Nici Neal (Sables), silver medallist at the World Champions of Champions in Australia. Sny- man’s clubmate and boyfriend Stephan de Jager ended sixth in his Open section with three wins.

This time another young woman took the top step of the Junior Masters podium. Ezile Fourie won her division this year. She went on to win a hard-fought final 21-17.

Western Province players had mixed fortunes. Former world champion and SA Singles queen Trish Young (WPCC) injured herself in round one and was forced to withdraw, but Marina Brink (Gordons Bay) added another fine bronze to emulate her effort from last year.

In the men’s senior division, Kevin Campbell ( Glen CC) won bronze for a second year running (a survivor of the famous 1976 Zoo Lake World Bowls triumph) but he boasts three Open titles and endless silver and bronze medals as well.

In the Open, Maggie van Zyl, a national titleholder, won a superb silver with a final-round victory over eventual runner-up and SA No 1 Colleen Piketh, while 2014 champion Nic Rusling, bound for New Zealand with the Proteas next month, came a satisfactory third in his section with four wins and a plus-29 shot difference, including beating the eventual champion Pierre Breitenbach (Potchefstroom, North-West).