Golden girls of the greens

Two Benoni residents, Northmead’s May Homer and Airfield’s Beppie Summersgill, participated in the blind bowling singles and pairs categories, and returned home with medals around their necks for Central Gauteng.

Homer, who won two gold medals for South Africa at the International Blind Bowls Association World Bowls Championships, in England, last year, played in the combined B3 and B4 (partially sighted) women’s singles category.

“The competition was quite stiff,” said Homer.

“I must really and truly say that the South African competition is a lot stiffer than some of the countries I played against at world bowls.

“The South African players are definitely the best.”

Homer added that she did not get off to the best of starts at the championships, losing a round robin game to B4 bowler Jennifer Lloyd, from Peninsula.

She would eventually beat Lloyd in an extremely close game, that ended at 21-18, to claim the gold medal.

“I was quite surprised that I had done it,” she added.

Commenting on her achievement, husband and director Paul said: “May played out of her socks.

“She had a really superb tournament and played as well as she has ever played.”

Summersgill participated in the B1 (totally blind) category and claimed her first ever gold medal at nationals.

She had previously played at nationals in the B2 category, but had never won a game.

“The competition in the B1 category was extremely stiff and my aim was to just win one game at the championships,” she said.

In the pairs category, Summersgill teamed up with world champion Tracy Smith, something that she described as “a real honour”.

The two went on to win a silver medal at the competition.

To add to this achievement, Summersgill and her director, Alfie Moffatt, won their first match in the singles.

“It was so exciting to win my first game,” she said.

In the second game of the round robin, she was defeated by Smith but then went on to win the next four extremely close and competitive encounters, to advance to the final, where she defeated her pairs partner, Smith, by two shots in the last end, to win gold.

This was a fantastic result considering Smith had won the nationals for 11 consecutive years, prior to this,

Moffatt said that nerves were running through his mind during Summersgill’s final.

“I just knew that she could do it,” he said.

Both bowlers thanked their directors, saying that without them they cannot play the sport.

They also praised the volunteer markers at the tournament, who gave up their time to ensure that things ran smoothly.