Great fun at conservancy padel tourney

Team Shrikes, comprising of padel stars Yoland Bauman and Jeff Livshitz, swooped into a fiercely fought final and emerged as the winner of the Padel South Coast, Ivungu River Conservancy padel tournament last Saturday.

To earn the ‘hotshot champ title’, Yolanda and Jeff had to fend off a strong attack from the second-placed Woodpeckers team of Bruce Barnes and Loreal Nel. The pace never let up, and the two hotshot teams provided spectators with a thrilling final.

Teams knocked out earlier in the tournament were offered a second chance to shine as they were regulated to the runner-up good sports division.

Many of the good sports players were fairly new to the sport of padel but soon found their feet, and in the end, the two top teams were almost able to rival the finesse of the more experienced players.

These two-star teams were Flamingos Carol and Simon Heaver, facing off against Hornbills Shaun Callaghan and Erika Hardwich in the good sports final.

Both teams played bravely and deserved the applause they earned, but it was not to be for the Flamingoes. The Hornbills streaked ahead for a narrow win.

Prizes handed out to the winners were well deserved, and everyone who played in the tournament or watched it said the event was also a winner in terms of fun. However, the real winners were Uvongo’s green spaces.

One of the main reasons the conservancy held this successful sports event was to raise funds for an ambitious and expensive project to eradicate alien invasive weeds in the conservancy area and along Saints Walk.

When the conservancy’s co-ordinator Sarah Unsworth and Padel South Coast host Ross Mckay first planned the padel tournament together, they set themselves the very ambitious target of earning R10 000 – never for one minute being positive they might get there.

They reckoned without the generosity of the South Coast community.

Novice and experienced padel players flocked to enter the tournament, and all the slots were taken in a surprisingly short time. Incredibly generous South Coast businesses also winged their way into the project by providing items for prizes, spot prizes, catering and an end-of-match charity auction conducted, without charge, by well-known auctioneer Louis Boshoff.

Bill Davis, chairman of the Ivungu River Conservancy, said the auction was a great success and conservancy members who spent the day turning out delicious boerewors rolls also received good support from players and spectators. The cooks’ hard work added substantially to the coffers.

“Much to the delight of the conservancy committee, profits soon began to soar. Figures haven’t been finalised yet, but by the end of the day, it was obvious that the ambitious target had been comfortably reached,” he said.

The conservancy committee thanks everyone for their overwhelming support.

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