The taste of victory, former Tongaat local elected president of Gauteng bowling association

Robby Govender, a former resident of Buffelsdale, Tongaat has been elected president of Central Gauteng Tenpin Bowling Association (CGTBA).

His first job in 1989 was at Umhlanga Sands bowling centre and that’s where his love for the sport began. With little or no coaching, he slowly developed his skills in the game.

Robby played his first away tournament in Nelspruit (Lowveld Open).

Things were different back then and he was expecting the worst.

He was greatly surprised that fellow bowlers were very welcoming and that gave him great hope for the sport.

As his skills improved with playing league at Umhlanga Sands and Disc Bowl (formerly in Brickhill Road in Durban), he gained confidence and entered his second away tournament in Cape Town.

It was a long drive from Durban to Cape Town, but with his friend Johnny Dal Moro they made the trip.

The tournament was The Pines Open and it was a double tournament.

Robby managed to bowl the highest score for the tournament.

Being the away team, they did not have the local support but still managed to win the tournament and in doing so made lots of friends.

That was his first taste of victory.

The people in Cape Town were very warm and welcoming to them.

Robby stopped playing the sport for a few years.

When he first moved up to Gauteng in 2003, he started playing league again in Bright Water Commons.

In 2008 his partner at the time was given an opportunity to do her MBA at Insead in France so Robby stopped bowling again.

After he got to live in few countries abroad and he eventually got homesick and moved back to South Africa in 2011 and lived in his home town Tongaat for a while before he moved back to Johannesburg in 2013.

Robby got to represent South Africa in 2016 at the World Cup in Shanghai and being the first person of colour to represent South Africa at this yearly event and was honoured to represent his country.

With the generous sponsorship of family and friends, he was able to buy his national kit and have some money to pay for his expenses whilst in Shanghai.

There for the first time, he discovered that South Africa was far behind in comparison to the rest of the world in terms of coaching and funding and never forgot that lesson.

In 2018 Robby managed to win two major tournaments in the TBASA calendar being the SA Singles and SA Doubles.

Towards the end of 2018 he was again selected to represent South Africa in the team of six men to play in the World Bowling Championships in Hong Kong.

He saw again that South Africa as a bowling team needs to go a long way before we as a country can compete against the rest of the world.

Robby gained lots of experience at the tournament and further improved his skills.

In 2019, Robby was again selected to represent South Africa in the inaugural African Zone Championships.

With a team effort, South Africa won the Championships.

Robby got to represent Central Gauteng in the past few years at the Inter-provincials and majority of those years was in the winning team. Go Central!

In 2020, it was time to elect a new president for Central Gauteng.

Robby had no intentions of standing for the election.

However, a few bowlers approached him and managed to convince him to stand for the position of the President of CGTBA.

The elections were held on the 15 February 2019 and Robby was elected as the President by majority vote.

With this new role in the sport, Robby, with the help of the committee, hope to move the sport forward.

Robby has not forgotten the lessons he learnt whilst playing overseas and is hoping to use that lessons to change that for the Central bowlers.

With the help of the committee Brett Pheiffer (Secretary) and Debbi Fowler (Treasurer and fellow ex-KZN resident), Robby hopes to achieve this.

Robby would like to use this opportunity to thank the people that have helped him along his journey in the sport.

Special thanks to Kiley Cassel (current president of TBASA), Max Cassel (current secretary of TBASA) and his thanks would not be complete without the mention of Tony and Val Sham.

Robby was lucky enough to have some people he looked up to like his uncle the late V Moonsamy, his uncle the late Krish Govender (formerly from Herwood) and the most important person in his life that was always in his corner, his late mother, Devi Govender.

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