Bowls

South Africa comfortably beat Namibia 2-0 in their annual bowls test series at the Windhoek Country Club over the weekend. South Africa were the overall winners by 24 points to 8, after winning both tests by 12 points to 4.

In Saturday’s first test, South Africa dominated the men’s competition winning all their matches to win the tie 8-0, but the women’s competition was a much closer affair. Both teams won two matches, leaving the score tied at 4-4, but South Africa won with a slightly better shot aggregate.

Namibia finished the African States Bowls Tournament on a high note over the weekend when Graham Snyman won the gold medal in the Men’s Singles category, while Diana Viljoen won the silver medal in the Women’s Singles category. With the Namibian Men’s Fours team of Willie Esterhuizen, Sandy Joubert, Will Esterhuizen junior and Jean Viljoen also winning a bronze medal, it brought Namibia’s total for the tournament to three gold, one silver and three bronze medals. It was Namibia’s best performance yet at the African States Tournament which is contested annually by SADC member states.

Namibia’s national men and women’s bowls teams have made a great start to the African States Tournament currently underway in Harare, Zimbabwe by winning two gold and one bronze medal out of the four competitions that have been concluded so far.

In the Men’s Trips competition the Namibian team of Willie Esterhuizen, Sandy Joubert and Jean Viljoen won the gold medal, while Namibia’s Ladies Pairs team of Diana Viljoen and Theuna Grobler also won gold in the Ladies Pairs competition.

The Peter Richardson International Pairs was hosted at the Rossmund Bowling Club for the men and at the Namib Park Bowling Club for the women. Apart from the east wind on Saturday the tournament was a resounding success with five countries participating, namely Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe participating in this prestigious event.

Competition was tough and well contested throughout the three days with three games being played each day, and winners only emerging in the final games of the competition.

Namibia’s bowls team produced its best performance at the African States Bowls tournament in recent years when they won two gold, two silver and one bronze medal at the annual continental event which this year took place in Swaziland.

Graham Snyman won a gold medal in the men’s singles competition to be crowned the African champion, while Namibia’s men’s fours team, consisting of Willie Esterhuyse, Sandy Joubert, Ewald Vermeulen and Steven Peake also won gold in the fours competition.

Namibia’s women finished seventh overall out of 14 competing nations, while Namibia’s men finished 10th out of 16 nations at the Atlantic Rim Bowls Tournament which finished in Johannesburg over the weekend. The overall men’s winners were England, followed by South Africa and Wales, while Wales were the overall women’s winners, followed by England and South Africa.

Namibia won one medal at the tournament with the women’s trips team of Bea Lampbrecht, Diana Viljoen and Miele van der Merwe winning a silver medal, after losing to Wales in the final.

Namibia’s Women’s Trips bowls team won a silver medal at the Atlantic Rim Bowls tournament on Sunday. The Namibian team of Bea Lampbrecht, Diana Viljoen and Miele van der Merwe reached the final where they lost 19-10 to the eventual gold medallists, Wales.

In the quarterfinals, Namibia beat Scotland 14-13 and followed that up with a comprehensive 25-12 victory against Israel in the semifinals. Israel and South Africa were joint-third, while Scotland, England, Ireland and Canada came joint fifth.

Namibia’s bowls team is finding the going tough at the Atlantic Rim Bowls Tournament in Johannesburg, South Africa.
After the first two days of play, only Namibia’s men’s pairs team had won any matches, while the men’s trips and women’s pairs and trips teams had lost all their matches.

Namibia’s men’s pairs team of Tollie Cronje and Johan Jacobs lost their opening match to Ireland 26-6, but followed this up with victories against Brazil (24-11) and Spain (16-12), before they lost to Jersey (18-14).

Namibia’s men and women’s bowls teams will participate in the Atlantic Rim Bowls competition in Johannesburg, South Africa from May 3 to 16. Namibia’s women’s team has participated in the bi-annual tournament before but this is the first time that the men’s team will also compete. The competition is contested by countries on the Atlantic Rim and includes some of the world’s top bowling nations like England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Spain, the United States, Canada, Brazil and the hosts, South Africa. Cyprus and Israel will also compete on invitation.

Prowealth’s first team were the overall winners of the Prowealth Corporate Spring Bowls League which was concluded on October 1.
In a tightly fought encounter for the first prize, Prowealth 1 beat M-Web to the title, while the “Runaway Comebacks,” came third overall. They were followed by Pupkewitz, Sanlam, Seeff Properties and Kosmos Trefers and Shell Movers who finished joint seventh.

It was the second year that the competition had taken place and this year it showed steady growth with 23 corporate teams entering in two separate categories.