MEYERTON. – Although Lawn Bowls is not a sport where the participants make contact with each other, the bowls themselves often do.
Sometimes it is planned to get a “wick” against a certain bowl in its way, hopefully to get close to the “jack”. Sometimes it is done by “throwing a bomb” to get a bowl out of your way.
All these tricks need practice, skill, patience and perseverance.
The younger you start playing bowls, the better. It teaches you good manners and discipline as there are of course the formal rules as well as quite a few etiquette principles that you have to adhere to.
When it is your turn to roll the bowl, you learn to make the right decision concerning the weight, angle and tactics you are going to perform. All these factors result in bowls being a very friendly, social and yet, also a competitive sport.
Bowls is a cheap sport. Your initial expense is your set of bowls, which you could keep for the rest of your life.
Club fees at Meyerton is about R100 per month. You can play 7 days a week. They practise (social bowls) on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (afternoons). There are leagues during the year as well as club competitions.
Lawn Bowls is a family sport. A seven-year-old boy from Vanderbijlpark took part in a league with his family this year and won first prize.
At Meyerton Piet Kriel, who is 92 years old, plays three times a week and always contributes a point or two towards his team’s score.
On Tuesday June 1, Johan de Lange and Etienne Britz played the final competition to determine who is Meyerton’s 2021 Club Open Champion.
Johan tends to play very aggressively, managing to throw “bombs” very successfully.
Etienne “draws” carefully and uses various ways of getting closest to the “jack”.
Eventually Etienne was awarded the title of “Club Open Champion 2021”. He now has to take part in the Sedibeng Champion of Champions competition later this year.
Johan and his wife, Melita, won the Club Mixed Pairs title earlier this year, then the Sedibeng title and are going to Durban to compete in the National District Mixed Pairs Championship at Stella Park from 17 to 20 June.
There will be 20 teams, representing the various districts in the country.
To join the Meyerton Bowling Club contact Tommie Louw on 082 899 5095.
