Endurance separates tenpin bowlers in Dolphin Classic

DOLPHIN Bowl hosted the Dolphin Classic this last weekend which saw bowlers of all ages, genders and skill levels coming together to compete in various divisions to show their bowling ability.

Each participant bowls a minimum of 18 or maximum of 20 games over the two days, so to be successful endurance as well as ability needs to be shown. This was also the last opportunity for bowlers wishing to be considered for selection to represent KZN in the 2014 inter-provincials, to shine.

There were entries from bowlers who have only been bowling for a few months, right through to bowlers who have represented KZN for many years.

Bowlers were able to choose whether to play handicap, masters or scratch divisions and a juniors division was also included for all bowlers under the age of 23.

Bright and early on Saturday morning the first squad kicked off the tournament among great rivalry and high tension and nearly all bowlers showed signs of nervousness. After eight games these made way for the second and then the third squads to compete.

Sunday morning the whole event continued with handicap bowlers playing off first, followed by master men, master and scratch women’s and finally scratch men.

Junior boys was won by Arne Bosch while Sue Bhagwandin won the junior girls section.

Among the handicap men, this division saw some phenomenal bowling from newcomers Leo and Gino Corbianchi, who have only been bowling for about three months.

However they were unable keep up with the more seasoned bowlers in this division. In third place on 3,493 was Zander Kumst, also a highly promising new bowler. Second was Shabba Bhagwandin (3,513) and the winner was Arne Bosch on 3,723 pins.

Among the handicap women there were some excellent scores achieved, the greatest achievement of which was the third place of Corne Corbianchi who only started bowling about three months ago because she was bored watching sons Leo and Gino bowling. Corne finished on 3,359 pins in third place with Caitlin Botha in second on 3,415 and Sue Bhagwandin the 2014 champion on 3,429.

In the masters men category, most of the men sighed a sigh of relief when Ricky O’Hare decided to compete in the scratch rather than the masters division because he had continued to pull out extremely good games and had disappeared into the distance in terms of pinfall. This allowed Colin Hayward to come in third on 3,258 pins, Brian Daventry-Bull, second on 3,273 and winning the event Frik van Niekerk on 3,551.

Cheryl Hambrook showed the masters women the way home with 3,242 pins followed by Lorraine Brazier on 3,185 and Gwen Hayward on 3,047.

In the scratch men’s competition, Ricky O’Hare continued his magnificent run of form to annexe the division on 3,743 pins (208 average per game), from Monty Cordingley 3,656 pins (203 average) and Dylan van Berkel 3,617 (201).

The scratch women was a closely fought division with the Stacey-Lee Hooper finally taking first place from Bronwen Elbourne and Kimi Govender.

In terms of high game scores, the game of the tournament was bowled by Stephan Sleigh who managed a 273 game but was not able to back this up with sufficiently high games to remain in contention. Frik bowled second best on 258 and Andrew Cyster 256. It was winner Ricky’s tournament however, as he had 11 games out of 18 over 200.

Special congratulations however must go to Bronwen Elbourne who had the highest women’s game of 258, which was also the second highest game of the entire tournament.

Stacey-lee Hooper was second in this.

The leagues have moved into the second season for 2014 and current leaders are as follows:

Monday Split Happens from Hunters, Soho 1st Katie Alberts and Chalkie White second. Millenium league Magnie from 2 4 fun. Thursday Double Up from P-cats. Friday juniors Gino Corbianchi leading from brother Leo Corbianchi. Phantom Vanessa Wilson-Thompson has taken over first place, relegating Lighty Holmes into second (only by seven pins however) with Michael Cromhout in third. Staff league sees Zander Kumst in the lead after three weeks from Duane Harmesec and Johnny van Wyk.

Great excitement is in the air as KZN holds its annual banquet on Saturday night to announce the teams to represent the province in the three inter-provincial divisions namely scratch, masters and silver. The annual prizegiving also takes place at the same time.

Upcoming events at Dolphin sees the monthly meat and matchplay take place on 27 July, and the midnight marathon on 15 August.

Club management, staff and members express their condolences to the Naidoo family following their recent bereavement.