High scores hard to achieve at tenpin scratch champs
High scores were extremely difficult to achieve and at the half way stage the men’s section was led by Craig Matthew on a total of 1054 pins.
THE walls of Dolphin Bowl echoed with the sounds of flying pins as Amanzimtoti Tenpin Bowling Club hosted the prestigious scratch championships over the past weekend.
Some 28 bowlers participated in the tournament, held over the weekend of 5 and 6 October, with entrants bowling five games on Saturday and either eight or 10 on Sunday.
High scores were extremely difficult to achieve and at the halfway stage, the men’s section was led by Craig Matthew on a total of 1054 pins (high games of 240 and 231) while pre-match favourite, Bronwen Elbourne, on 922 pins, had a high game of 235, which scared most of the other women entrants.
Other men’s high scores were Logan Naidoo on 981 and Ricky O’Hare on 965. Other women in contention were Stacey-Lee Hooper on 905 and Kimi Govender, who is arguably the top junior in the country at present, on 896.
Other bowlers who recorded good games were Frik van Niekerk (230), Gansen Naidoo (231) Ricky O’Hare (233) Rick Soorijlal (234) Stacey-Lee (211) and Kimi (245).
Frik van Niekerk, the club president, exerted his executive authority to overshadow all other bowlers in the B division and led by 34 pins over Gansen Naidoo. The women’s section was led by Magriet (Maggie) Fouche on 796 pins, followed by Sue Bhagwandin on 777 pins and mom Judy Bhagwandin on 763.
Sunday dawned and 26 bowlers proceeded into the final round to determine the event winners for 2013.
In the B division, Frik bowled a further 1288 pins over eight games to hold on to the first place from a rapidly finishing Gansen, who bowled 1,282 in the final. In the women’s division there was no change to the midway finishing order, with Magriet finishing first ahead of Sue and Judy.
The A division women were the next to do battle on the lanes in a 10-game round-robin. The spectators were kept enthralled as the women performed exceptionally well.
The following high games were recorded: Bronwen 223, Kimi 211 and 204 but Stacey-Lee seemed to have found her ‘mojo’ overnight and bowled 206, 205, 231 and again 205 to capture the first position from Bronwen by only 23 pins, with Kimi in third only three behind Bronwen.
In the last event, 10 men contested the A division final and out of 100 games played, 31 scores over 200 were achieved. Of the highest, over 225 games, Craig had a 255 and 234, Len Elbourne 227, Logan 234 and 226, Ricky 234, Andrew 243.
The final result of the event showed that Craig had held on to win by 63 pins from Logan in second place and Theo Govender sneaked into third 103 pins behind Logan.
The club committee thanks all bowlers who participated.
The league season is now rapidly drawing to a close, with only seven weeks to go before the end of competitive bowling for the year. The club wishes its KZN masters (over 50s) bowlers a safe trip to the inter-provincials in Gauteng next week and hopes they will perform well on the lanes and bring back a crop of gold medals to KZN.
League high scores attained over the last week are Dylan van Berkel on 246, Rob Irwin 244, Craig Matthew 236 and Spike Knowles on 233, while in the women’s division Cheryl Hambrook knocked over 245 pins and Kimi 234, evergreen Julie Foley weighed in with 222, while Suki Studzinski scored 226 and Bronwen 204.
Next tournament is the wildly popular ATBC handicap championships at the end of the month. Entry forms available at reception.
