Tenpin masters men triumph for KZN
The lanes had been prepared to test the bowlers’ ability, concentration and adaptability with many battling in the first couple of games to come to terms with what was required for success.
DOLPHIN Bowl was the bowling centre selected by TBASA to host the prestigious South African singles tournament for 2015.
Almost 60 bowlers descended on Amanzimtoti to compete over 15 games in the three divisions namely scratch, masters and silver divisions.
The format for the tournament had all competitors bowling a 10 game series on Saturday to determine the top bowlers who would then play a further five games on Sunday morning on a strength versus strength basis.
The lanes had been prepared to test the bowlers’ ability, concentration and adaptability with many battling in the first couple of games to come to terms with what was required for success. The better bowlers are the ones who can read the lanes and adapt and alter their game to cope with the conditions. Unfortunately this played havoc with the male KZN bowlers.
At the halfway mark, Fran (Francois) Louw Jnr led the field by 40 pins from Alan Kewley in second, third was Tom Haller and Braam van Tonder fourth. Only 108 pins separated first from fourth. The top KZN bowler was Jivi Sewcharran in fifth place a further 47 pins back.
The women kept the KZN flag flying high with Bronwen Elbourne in first place from Stacey-Lee Hooper 45 pins behind. In third were Gillian O’Neill a further 37 pins back, and evergreen Barbara Wilford in fourth, two pins behind Gillian.
The masters (over 50) men was a triumph for KZN again with the first two places held by locals, Logan Naidoo, a newcomer to the masters ranks, led by 24 pins from Colin Hayward, who was 32 pins ahead of Eddie Drewnicki, and in fourth place Jose Marques, 23 behind Eddie. Masters women saw Barbara Wilford in first place almost a country mile ahead of Cheryl Hambrook who was another 83 pins ahead of Susan dos Santos in third, four pins ahead of Val Sham.
Silver bowlers saw KZN bowler Judy Bhagwandin in the lead from Dave Stanley, 67 pins behind, followed by Chantel Nel and Keegan Fan.
On Sunday all bowlers played the next round of five games and there was very little change to the top four in each division, who then went into the last round of three games in an attempt to improve their overall position. The bowling appeared to be slightly easier on Saturday with overall higher scores being achieved.
Final results and scores:
Silver division – first Judy Bhagwandin 3851, second Dave 3782, third Chantel Nel 3749, and fourth Gansen Naidoo 3651.
Masters division – women first, Barbara Wilford 3042, second Val Sham 3005, third Cheryl Hambrook 2910, and Louisa Nienaber 2844. Men first, Logan Naidoo 3516, second Eddie Drewnicki 3364, third Jose Marques 3358 and Colin Hayward 3295.
Among the scratch women, Bronwen continued her magnificent spell of bowling to finish up with a 212 average on Sunday and speeding away from the other women to record 3,468 pins, a lead over second place of 219 pins from Ursula Ekermans on 3,257, Stacey-Lee 3,238 and Gillian 3,139.
Among the scratch men, Fran again gave a tremendous display of power bowling to record a 226.1 average over the 18 games knocking over 4,070 pins to win from fellow Protea’s bowler Alan Kewley by 288 pins. In third place were Tom Haller on 3,727 and Braam van Tonder on 3,631.
All bowlers thoroughly enjoyed the tournament and the conditions in the centre and thanks were expressed to management for a well run and controlled tournament.
The scribe was taken to task by one of the bowlers who has demanded a correction to last week’s report where her name was spelt incorrectly. Apologies to Janis. League play started again from Monday so will be reported on next week.
