Teams for Mpumalanga Masters selected
There are bowls tournaments, and there are bowls competitions, but the Invitation Men's and Ladies Masters is to bowlers as Wimbledon is to other tennis events.
At the weekend the cream of the crop contested the ladies veterans at Nelspruit Bowling Club, while the men’s veterans were a stone’s throw away at LVCC.
In the very first round at LVCC on Saturday morning, Jerry Gertzen came within a whisker of beating the eventual champion, Ben Enslin, before going down 21-19. Geoff March meanwhile received a real hiding, losing 21-6 to last year’s winner, Lood van Rooyen. Such is the nature of singles tournaments, that in the very next round March overwhelmed the aforementioned Gertzen 21-2.
And so it went on, until each group had run their course, and group winners John van Eerden took on Enslin on Sunday afternoon for top honours, while Brian Coulson was up against Greg Anderson for third place.
In the end Enslin prevailed, while Coulson did the same. All four men go through to the Mpumalanga Masters at the end of July in Middelburg.
Down the hill, there were the “usual suspects” with a couple of new faces thrown in for good measure. In section A there was not much doubt about the outcome, as the very experienced Jeanette Richards and Beryl Biggs topped their group on eight points each.
But again the closeness of things was illustrated when Richards’ only defeat was at the hands of Yvonne McHeath, who finished bottom of the section.
The following men and ladies will represent Lowveld in The Mpumalanga Masters on July 28 and 29:
• Men: Ben Enslin, John van Eerden, Brian Coulson, Greg Anderson, Francois Hanekom, Pieter Briel, Dean Paiva and Kosie Smit.
• Ladies: Jeanette Richards, Elda Rautenbach, Beryl Biggs, Merle Joubert, Miranda Paiva, Madeleine de Klerk, Elinor Storkey and Marlet Ireland.
