Krugersdorp Bowling Club team wins men’s fours at Gauteng Open
Not only was Krugersdorp Bowling Club the headquarters for the biggest bowling tournament in the country recently but did they also walk away with a hand full of medals.
Teams from all over Gauteng geared up recently for the finals of the largest bowls tournament in the country, the Perfect Delivery Gauteng Open, held at the Krugersdorp Bowling Club (KBC).
Sables hosted this year’s open and if the entries are anything to go by, this year was a very popular tournament. To put things into perspective, a total of 1 115 teams and 2 155 people took part in last year’s tournament. This year, however, showed a big growth with 1 456 teams having entered and a whopping 2 732 bowlers in action – this is an increase of 27%.
The Gauteng Open is for the five district teams but anyone could enter and there were entries from as far as North West, Mpumalanga, the southern Free State, KZN and King Fischer.
While the Sables were honoured to host this year’s open, the Johannesburg Bowling Association was kind enough to help them out by offering to host some of the games at their clubs. The other games were hosted at nine of the 10 Sables clubs including neighbouring Randfontein Bowling Club.
“It was a great honour as the KBC to be appointed headquarters for this tournament. It was a challenge because the tournament is so big. But we are so glad to say that bowls are alive and well,” proud KBC spokesperson David Parker said.
This tournament was preceded by the Junior Gauteng Open which also saw an increase of more than 90 entries compared to last year’s 75.
Not only were they able to host a very successful tournament, but they also won a gold medal in the men’s fours and a silver medal in the ladies fours. The preceding juniors tournament singles were played over three age groups namely the U15, U18 and U25. In this tournament, the Sables also won gold in the U15 and U18 age groups.
Trevor Leader, the KBC president, expressed his sincerest gratitude to all the members for their valuable contributions in making this tournament the success it was.
“It shows that KBC has a wonderful club spirit when we all pull together with the club at the heart.”
The results for the tournament were as follows:
• In the men’s singles the winner was Niksa Benguric from Bowling Gauteng North
• In the ladies’ singles the winner was Esme Haley Johannesburg Bowls Association
• In the ladies’ pairs the winners were Emma Murphy and Shannon Davies from Johannesburg Bowls Association
• In the men’s fours the winners were Robby Piketh, S Economakis, Greg Minnaar and Lee Barnes from the Sables Bowling Association
• In the ladies’ fours the winners were Marizelle Rousseau, Gillian Bigham, Isabelle Rousseau, Denise Pretorius and Heila Swart from Bowling Gauteng North
• In the mixed pairs the winners were John Molupi and N Zietsman from Eastern Gauteng Bowls
• In the U25 juniors the winner was Alwyn Martignone from Bowling Gauteng North
• In the U18 juniors the winner was Tiago Pereira from Sables Bowling Association
• In the U15 juniors the winner was V van Staden from Sables Bowling Association
“If you want a winning team, you back KBC,” David said while laughing.
