Bowls

Diana Viljoen of the Rossmund Bowling Club and Will Esterhuizen of TransNamib Bowling Club were crowned the Champion of Champions at the Namibian National Bowls Championships which came to an end last Saturday.

Esterhuizen, who won the title for the third year in a row, also won the Men’s Singles title.

After seven action packed days of competition the outstanding players were crowned at the Eros Bowling Club near the Safari Court Hotel in Windhoek.

The 2013 national bowls championships commenced last Saturday and are currently underway at four different venues in Windhoek.

Action will continue until this coming Saturday, 11 May, when the finals will be played at Eros Bowling Club near the Safari Court Hotel.

The other venues are the Windhoek Bowling Club, the TransNamib Bowling Club and the Bowls facilities at the Windhoek Country Club.

A total of 109 games were played over the opening weekend to determine the finalists in the Pairs competition.

The Namibia National Bowls Championships will start on Saturday, 4 May at four different venues in Windhoek, with the action continuing till 11 May.

Namibia currently has seven bowls clubs, with one situated in Tsumeb, two at the coast and four in Windhoek.

A total of 92 bowlers from these clubs have entered this year’s national championships, which will be staged at all the clubs’ premises in the capital.

Eros Bowling Club will serve as the headquarters for this year’s competition with the result that all the finals will be played at its green.

Bank Windhoek has sponsored N$15 000 to the Rossmund Bowling Club in Swakopmund to assist the club in hosting the Corporate Bowls League, which will in turn raise funds to host the African States Tournament.

The Corporate Bowls League will run over a six to seven week period which started on 21 February 2013 until the end of April 2013.

David Gibbons, captain of the Rossmund Bowls Club and vice president of the Namibian Bowling Association said:

Namibia’s men’s bowls team came 11th out of 24 countries at the World Bowls Championships in Adelaide, Australia last week to qualify for the 2016 World Bowls Championships.

With the top 12 teams qualifying automatically for the World Bowls Championships, Namibia booked their spot for the next event which is scheduled to take place in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The Namibian team consisted of Graham Snyman, Will Esterhuizen, Douw Calitz, Ewald Vermeulen and Jean Viljoen and competed in the Singles, Pairs, Trips and Fours competitions.

South Africa were the overall winners of the annual bowls test series against Namibia which took place at the Constantia Bowling Club in Cape Town last weekend, although they were pushed all the way by Namibia.

Namibia’s women’s team gave a great performance to beat their South African counterparts, while six of the eight games in the men’s competition went down to a tiebreak.

In the first test on Saturday, 5 November, South Africa won the men’s encounter 8-0, while Namibia won the women’s encounter 6-2.

Namibia’s women’s bowls team finished third overall at the African States Bowls Tournament which recently took place in Nairobi, Kenya.

Namibia won silver medals in both the trips and pairs competitions and a bronze medal in the fours competition to finish third overall.

South Africa were the overall winners, followed by Zimbabwe and Namibia.

In the Pairs competition Namibia’s team of Charlotte Morland and Miele van der Merwe came second, behind South Africa and just ahead of Botswana on points difference.

Namibia finished second overall at the 2011 African States Bowls Tournament which took place in Kenya last week.

Namibia won one gold, two silver and one bronze medal to finish second overall behind the winners South Africa, while Zimbabwe finished third overall.

Namibia’s gold medal winners were the Trips team of Will Esterhuizen junior, Willie Esterhuizen and Johan Jacobs. They won all four their matches against South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Botswana to finish first with a maximum of 10 points.

Graham Snyman and Marietjie du Preez were crowned as Namibia’s top singles players at the National Bowls Week which took place in Windhoek over the past week.

In the Men’s Singles final, Snyman beat Robert Kanyota 21-13, while Du Preez beat Miele van der Merwe 21-18 in the Women’s Singles final.

Namibia came fourth out of 21 teams at the South African U25 Inter Districts Bowls Tournament which took place in Bloemfontein from April 4 to 8.

Competing against South Africa’s top junior teams, Namibia won 6, drew 2 and lost three of their matches during the group stages, to finish second in their group. In the play-off for third position, Namibia lost 26-11 to Gauteng North A to finish fourth.