Airfield resident Cedric Summersgill (67) is not only an avid bowls player but also a bowls director to his wife Beppie and a bowls coach.
Cedric began playing bowls in 2015.
“Beppie needed a director for blind bowls and I decided to take up the challenge,” he said.
“However, I soon realised that to be effective for her I need to understand the game and the best way to do this was to start playing. I was hooked.”
His first bowls match was a Colts and Fillies competition at the Edenvale Bowls Club.
“This was a huge learning curve, but the great thing was that there were a number of relatively inexperienced bowlers like myself, with the more experienced bowlers, which was great,” he explained.
“While there was a competitive nature to the game, there was also a great deal of empathy with us newbies. It was a great day.”
Although he was born in Shabani, Zimbabwe, Cedric and Beppie moved to their residence in Benoni in 1989.
“I met Bep just after my 21st birthday. We were invited to a nursing friend’s 21st party. Our relationship just grew from there,” he said.
Cedric never thought he would grow to love this sport as much as he does. He enjoys coaching and directing, but the playing part also struck his heart.
“Bowls is a great sport as it can be played by young and old alike and is a great leveller,” he said.
“The social aspect of the sport is something to be experienced and the cost of playing is really inexpensive. For beginners, most clubs have bowls that can be used. However, for the more serious bowler the competitive edge of the game is present. I think the combination of all of this is what makes the game enjoyable.”
He thrives to see those, who he has coached, improve.
“I also enjoy seeing those who are already playing taking their game to the next level.
“This is very rewarding as when I started playing I had no formal coaching. This led me to do the Bowls South Africa coaching course to improve not only my bowls but to be able to help others.”
After having knee replacement surgery in 2014, Cedric took on the role of Beppie’s director.
“Although we had been married for 35 years, we had never been in the same sports arena before. I had watched Beppie playing prior to this and was able to see what others were doing. There were also some basic director notes available from National Association for Blind Bowlers,” he explained.
“However the best learning was actually on the green with Beppie, practising and finding what worked for both of us. The biggest thing was to work as a team and understand each other.”
Cedric gave some examples of achievements he has gained throughout his bowls experience, which he holds close to his heart.
This included winning gold with Beppie as her director in the pairs in the Israel Open in 2016, a silver in the four-nation test tournament in 2016, making the semi-final in club championships men’s singles in 2021 at Atlas and seeing one person he coached in January do exceptionally well in the club novices championship against the club champion.
The best learning experience when it came to being a director came from when they competed at the 2016 national tournament.
“This is where I learned to get the bowling basics for Beppie right. It was also learning at a fast pace to check scoreboards and learn about shot aggregates,” he said.
“The two of us seemed to gel, as we won silver in the singles and gold in the pairs with her blind partner, Michiel Kruger from Bloemfontein.”
They were also selected for a South African invitational team to compete in Israel later that year, where Cedric picked up valuable knowledge.
“This took everything to a new level, an international level, as we competed in the Israel Open Pairs competition with teams from Israel, South Africa, England and Scotland. Again our understanding of each other and teamwork paid off as Beppie and her partner Derek Carter from Krugersdorp won gold in this, with me by her side as her director.
“We then competed in a four-country test match and Beppie won silver in the singles and her and Derek won silver in the pairs.”
Cedric only directs for Beppie normally, at competitions and practices as such, but he also assists during practices with other visually impaired bowlers from time to time.
“It is a real sense of achievement to be able to enable blind and visually impaired people to play a sport and to be able to compete with able bodied bowlers on an even playing field,” he said.
”Something I live by, that I have taken and always held onto from my wife Beppie, if an opportunity presents itself, take it with both hands. This has proved to be so true and enabled us to do things and go places we would never even have thought of.”
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