Tenpin bowlers shine at the Alley Cats Tournament
NORTHCLIFF – Intellectually disabled players enjoy the tenpin bowling tournament.
The Alley Cats Tournament saw various players competing against each other at the Northcliff Bowl on 16 April.
The Alley Cats is a league of about 50 intellectually disabled tenpin bowlers who bowl weekly at Northcliff Bowl for the last 20 years.
At times, some of the bowlers have taken part in the Special Olympics Summer Games in USA.
It was hoped that the bowling league would become one of Special Olympic South Africa (Sosa)’s recognised sports with leagues countrywide.
“This will give more people an opportunity to participate. At the moment we try to have two tournaments a year but if there were more leagues countrywide this would increase and when Summer Games comes around again in 2019 we could send a bigger team,” said Biddy Davis.
Davis said she started the tenpin bowling club together with her husband way back in 1995 after their daughter participated in USA and returned home with gold and silver medals.
“At one point we felt like closing down but we just carry on. Now we have about 50 bowlers from all Joburg residential centres,” she said.
She further explained that they do receive support from many of the parents and bowling centres. “This sport assists our players in different ways. Some of them are working,” she said.
Wanga Manyala from Sosa mentioned that they do run tenpin bowling as one of their sports categories. “We came here to support these players. People with special needs are often forgotten,” he said.
He said through tenpin bowling, they were able to make players part of the communities.
Details: Biddy Davis, 083 321 0609.
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