Disabled bowls for Auckland Park Bowls Club

The Auckland Park Bowls Club in Montgomery Park is set to become the physically disabled bowls headquarters of Gauteng.

Albertskroon resident Paul Jonck (featured in the article Outstanding Bowler On One Leg, week ending 8 November 2013) is working diligently to get more disabled people involved with Physically Disabled Bowlers South Africa.

“It wasn’t a planned thing,” said Jonck. “I’m the manager of the club here and I’m physically disabled already. I started to feel that there needed to be a place where disabled people who want to bowl can call home.”

The bowling club has since been renovated to be completely wheelchair accessible with ramps into the clubhouse and bathrooms, and onto the green.

Vice-president of the disabled bowlers organisation, Roger Hagerty said over the next few months Auckland Park Bowling will host coaching clinics, tournaments and regularly scheduled games.

“We already have 20 members,” said Hagerty who won the singles title at the World Disability Bowls Championship in 2011.

“And there are another 20 or so that I know about who are playing able-bodied bowls at local clubs that need to be brought into the fold.”

Presently, physically disabled people do not have their own league in Johannesburg. Instead they play with able-bodied bowlers and participate in the Disability Bowl Nationals once a year.

“One of the reasons for getting this project started at Auckland Park Bowling Club is to get more event-geared towards the physically disabled and to keep the momentum year round,” concluded Hagerty.

Details: Auckland Park Bowls Club 011 782 6795, Roger Hagerty- roger.hagerty@vodamail.co.za.