The Northern Cape Bowls executive team are, from the left, Caren van der Westhuizen, René van Niekerk, Quinton Kock, Driaan van Niekerk and Braam van der Westhuizen (president of Northern Cape Bowls).
Northern Cape Bowls (NCB) was crowned the overall winner of the first-ever Quadrangular Champion of Champions tournament, which was contested over the past weekend at the Beaconsfield Park Bowling Green Club in Kimberley.
Teams of the NCB, North West (NW), Southern Free State (SFS), and Northern Free State (NFS) took part.
The champions from each district in singles, veterans singles, pairs, mixed pairs and fours battled it out to be crowned the central district’s champion of champions. The singles were played on Friday, 26 July.
Johan Beer of the SFS walked away as the winner of the men’s singles after convincing victories over all three his opponents.
Marietjie van der Berg of the NCB scooped up the women’s singles title; this after she had won the triangular singles last year as well.
Gert Opperman, also of the NCB, claimed the veteran men’s singles title, while Maro Nicolaou of the NW won the veteran women’s singles title.
Saturday saw the team disciplines commence, with two games being played on the day and the final round on Sunday.
The NW players made a clean sweep in the pairs discipline, with Theuns Botha and Ian Nieuwoudt winning the men’s pairs, and Sega Makoto and Baybee Majanaga winning the women’s pairs.
Marietjie van der Berg of Northern Cape Bowls is the women’s singles winner, and Gert Opperman the singles winner in the men’s veteran category. With them is Braam van der Westhuizen (left, president of Northern Cape Bowls).
The husband-and-wife duo of Wayne and Lara York of the SFS managed to outclass a strong field (all fresh off the Bowls South Africa mixed pairs competition from the previous weekend) to be crowned champions in the mixed pairs.
The men’s fours was closely contested, with three teams finishing on four points, and only separated by shot aggregate. The team of the NFS comprising Ben Pieterse, Pieter Cronjé, Mark Snell and Loffie Cronjé, however, held their nerve in the final game on Sunday, and walked away as champions.
In the women’s fours it was the team of Magdel O’Donoghue, Amanda Bester, Linda Fuhri and Lazuya Serfontein of the NW who were crowned champions.
Lastly, the NCB executive team consisting of Quinton Kock, Driaan van Niekerk, René van Niekerk, and Caren van der Westhuizen clinched the executive fours trophy.
The NCB president, Braam van der Westhuizen, said he was immensely proud of the players and their achievements.
“Also, a lot of hard work was done behind the scenes to present this successful three-day event.
“The NCB is becoming a force to be reckoned with on provincial level. It is my hope that we can generate assistance to develop the game of bowls over its full spectrum across the whole of the Northern Cape.
“Players drive as far as 500 km on their own expenses to participate; their commitment is incredible,” Van der Westhuizen said.
Helena Barnard
www.news24.com
