Namibia eleventh at World Bowls

NAMIBIA’S men’s bowls team came 11th out of 24 countries at the World Bowls Championships in Adelaide, Australia, last week to qualify for the 2016 World Bowls Championships.

With the top 12 teams qualifying automatically for the World Bowls Championships, Namibia booked their spot for the next event which is scheduled to take place in Christchurch, New Zealand. The Namibian team consisted of Graham Snyman, Will Esterhuizen, Douw Calitz, Ewald Vermeulen and Jean Viljoen and competed in the Singles, Pairs, Trips and Fours competitions. Namibia’s best performance came from the Men’s Pairs team of Will Esterhuizen and Douw Calitz, which finished fourth in their Pool of 12 teams and seventh overall. They won eight and only lost three of their Pool matches. They beat South Africa (15-14), Brazil (23-12), China (20-16), Brunei (22-10), Botswana (15-12), Thailand (33-2), Fiji (29-3) and Israel (30-7), while their defeats came against the overall champions Australia (22-15), Scotland (21-14) and Ireland (22-11). Namibia’s Trips team of Graham Snyman, Ewald Vermeulen and Jean Viljoen came sixth in their Pool and 13th overall after winning five matches, losing five and drawing one. They beat Zimbabwe (22-7), Jersey (18-11), Canada (15-7), Brazil (21-7) and Brunei (17-9), but lost against Botswana (14-11), China (23-17), New Zealand (30-6), Australia (17-14) and the Philippines (23-9). They drew 10-10 against Fiji. Namibia’s Fours team of Will Esterhuizen, Douw Calitz, Ewald Vermeulen and Jean Viljoen came sixth out of 12 teams in their pool and 11th overall after winning six matches, losing four and drawing one match. They beat Zimbabwe (17-13), Wales (23-11), Brunei (18-11), China (23-14), Thailand (26-14) and Spain (26-11), while they lost against New Zealand (20-7), Ireland (18-13), Malaysia (16-11) and Israel (26-11). They drew 17-17 against England. Graham Snyman, who represented Namibian in the Men’s Singles competition, came 10th in his Pool and 19th overall after winning three and losing eight matches. His victories came against Brazil (21-12), Brunei (21-5) and China (21-16), while he lost against Fiji (21-10), Canada (21-13), Philippines (21-13), Ireland (21-2), Wales (21-5), Malaysia (21-13), South Africa (21-20) and Jersey (21-13). Namibia came second out of the four African countries who competed at the World Bowls Championships. South Africa was the first African country, finishing seventh overall, while Zimbabwe came 16th overall and Botswana 21st overall.