WALVIS BAY – The pairing of Cabous Olivier and Diana Viljoen will jet off to Adelaide, South Australia towards the end of 2019 to represent Namibia at the World Singles Champion of Champions Bowls gathering.
The pair secured their place in this prestigious event by winning the men and ladies’ sections, respectively, of the National Closed Singles Tourney, at the Namib Park Bowling Club in Walvis Bay, last weekend.
The national closed singles tourney is held annually and is open to all bowlers affiliated to the Namibia Bowling Association (NBA).
A total of 19 men and 10 ladies participants entered in the tourney, and unlike other singles matches, which are determined by the first bowler to score 21 shots, this event is played in two sets of nine ends.
Should each of the two players win a set, a tiebreak of three ends is played with the player scoring the most shots in the tiebreak declared the winner.
The men’s division was contacted on a round robin in four sections, with the winner of each section advancing to the quarterfinals – allowing the winners of the quarterfinals to advance to the semi-finals.
Axel Krahenbuhl and Olivier met in the semi-final that saw the latter winning the opening set before tying the end to clinch victory to set up a date with Schalk van Wyk in the final.
The latter played Desmond van der Smit in the other semi-final with each of the bowlers winning a set apiece but it was Van Wyk who narrowly won the tiebreak by 3 shots to 2.
In the final, Olivier and Van Wyk both won a set but Olivier proved too strong for Van Wyk in the tiebreak, winning by 3 shots without a reply.
The ladies’ section was also played on a round robin basis in two sections, with five players from each section. The winners and runners-up from the two sections met each other in the semi-finals with the winners advancing to the final.
Diana Viljoen played Henriette Partridge in the first semi-final while Elzaan de Vries confronted Amanda Steenkamp in the other semi-final.
Viljoen and Steenkamp came out victorious in their semi-finals to set up an epic final but Viljoen proved a formidable opponent in the final.
She overpowered Steenkamp in the first set, winning by 13 shots to 2. However, the latter made a slight comeback in the second set tying it 6-all, but it was not enough as Viljoen won the contest.
It was the first time that this tourney was hosted at the coast and it proved to be a great success. The president of Namib Park Bowling Club, former Ramblers Football Club agile goalkeeper Dave Gibbons, said the tourney was well organized, noting that the competition’s secretary had to come all the way from Windhoek.
“The greens played well, which proves Walvis Bay can host and has the greens to offer high-profile events like these,” he delighted.
Gibbons thanked the green keeper, Kobus van Mollendorff, for his hard work and sang praises about the overall quality of the bowls, which he termed excellent.