NOT once, not twice, but six times has one Stella Park Bowling Club member, and vice president of members, won the prestigious Port Natal Masters Open.
Glenda Matthews, a retired statistics professor and lecturer at UKZN and DUT, is the 2026 champion. After a gruelling series of pre-qualifiers, she lifted the trophy again last weekend.
It was an amazing end of the bowling season for Matthews, who is already practising for the Bowls SA Inter-district Open taking place in March 2027, where she will represent the Port Natal district in the Ladies Open category.
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She first tasted the win in 2012, and it has been a sparkling ride since then. She admits that the game is not as easy as it looks, but it is addictive and worth all the effort. Her exposure to the sport has taken her around the country and abroad, where she was part of the BSA team that won bronze in the Atlantic Senior Fours in Cyprus. She also has under her belt three Veterans Masters gold wins and a bronze in 2025.
Glenda shared, “I play a lot of bowls. Having started playing in 2002, the sport has grown on me. Since my retirement, it has become a big part of my life. In my earlier days, I used to play hockey for the SA B side, and later on I opted for a sport that was quieter and gentler to my body.”
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She highlighted the best part of playing bowls, “It is about a healthy competition, friends who can play against you or support you, it’s also about socialising and relaxation.”
Matthews admitted that bowling has an image of older people’s sport, and that may also be the reason why she joined it later in her life.
“But nowadays we have excellent young players, as young as 12 years old. The focus on youth attraction is growing,” she said.
As a mechanism to popularise and reignite bowling, Matthews believes it would take more exposure, broader marketing platforms, and introducing the sport to players at a tender age. “It is about getting on greens, and the bug bites,” she concluded.
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