WINDHOEK – Local bowlers are waiting in anticipation before the annual national competition kicks off in Windhoek tomorrow.
Unlike the local leagues, contesting bowlers will not go head-to-head in inter-club teams at the week-long tourney, which means participants will make up their own squads irrespective of club affiliation. But there will be no changes in terms of playing categories as the teams fight it out for medals in the singles, pairs, triples and foursome divisions.
Special focus will once again fall on the Champion of Champions category, where the top singles players battle it out. Last year, Will Esterhuizen of TransNamib Bowling Club (TNBC) and Diana Viljoen (Rossmund Bowling Club) emerged victorious in the men and women’s Champion of Champions division respectively. Esterhuizen, also came out on top in the regular singles division, his 3rd consecutive win in this prestigious category. Meanwhile, Sheena du Toit of Eros Bowling Club (EBC) is the player to watch out for in the singles division, after she claimed top honours last year by dispatching Marie van der Merwe (Windhoek Country Club) in a nail-baiting final.
The doubles title in the men’s competition was taken by the father-son combination of Douw and Jurie Calitz, while Heleen Rust and Erna Muller teamed up to form the most successful ladies pair. Johan Jacobs, Esterhuysen and Otto Krauhenbull set the pace in the triples category. Among the female competitors, Jean Joubert, Sheena du Toit and Lesley Vermeulen were excellent on the day. The quartet of Tollie Cronje, Ewald Vermeulen, Piet Appollis and Axel Krauhenbull went all the way to lift the trophy in the foursome discipline of the championships, while Jean Joubert, Sheena du Toit, Lesley Vermeulen and Mandie Steenkamp accomplished the same feat in the ladies division. The competition starts with the men and women’s pairs divisions tomorrow at the Eros Bowling Club and the Windhoek Country Club (WCC). Matches continue throughout the week and conclude with the finals slated for the TransNamib Bowling Club on May 31.
By Staff Reporter