Namibia’s top bowls players will be in action in Windhoek over the next week when the King Price National Bowls Week starts on Saturday.
About 300 players from clubs all over Namibia will be in action at three venues, namely Eros Bowling Club, Windhoek Bowling Club and United Bowling Club which will be inaugurated for the first time.
Work on the United Bowling Club started about a year ago, after one of the oldest clubs in Namibia, the TransNamib Bowling Club was sold, with its greens being meticulously reconstructed, according to the spokesperson of the Namibia Bowls Association, Michelle Crawford.
“The TransNamib Bowling Club leased the property at the old railway station, but when it was sold last year they were forced to leave the premises.
“United Sport Club agreed to start a new bowling club, so they rebuilt the green by taking the old lawn piece by piece and putting it together at United,” she says.
“It was a very sad day when TransNamib had to close because it was one of the oldest clubs in Namibia and the end of an era, but we are very excited that the United Bowling Club will now be inaugurated,” she says.
Namibia’s top players will be in action in five disciplines, namely singles, pairs, trips, fours and mixed pairs from Saturday, on a daily basis through to next Saturday when the finals will be held at the Windhoek Bowling Club.
“The competition will be tough, because since it’s an open tournament, some of South Africa’s bowlers will also be in action, and you always have to up your game when you play against them,” Crawford says.
“Besides that we can see our sport is growing because a lot of novices will be in action, while some of our top players coming through are still very young.
“The Van Wyk sisters Haley and Danelle are still only 15 and 13, respectively, while Haley won the player of the tournament award at last year’s bowls week after showing the most improvement during the tournament,” she says.
Among the women, Marietjie van den Bergh will be a strong favourite after she made a clean sweep at last year’s tournament, winning the singles, pairs, trips and fours titles.
She can expect strong competition from the likes of Diana Viljoen, who recently beat the world’s top ranked player Kelsey Cottrell from Australia at the World Indoor Bowls Championships in Scotland, Bianca Lewis, Marinda Bezuidenhout, Monique Thorburn, and the Van Wyk sisters, as well as their mother, Huipie.
Crawford, herself, who won the Namibian Masters Championships last month and will now represent Namibia at next year’s World Indoor Bowls Championships, will also start among the favourites.
Among the men, the favourites include Christo Steenkamp, who won three titles at last year’s championships and also represented Namibia at the World Indoor Bowls Championships, Waylon Wentzel, Colin Peake, Julian Viljoen, Graham Snyman, Axel Krahenbuhl, Schalk van Wyk and Willie Esterhuizen.
Crawford has thanked King Price for their continued sponsorship of the tournament.
“This is the second year that King Price are sponsoring the tournament and we are very thankful because we struggle to get sponsors for bowls.
“Normally our players have to pay their own fare to compete, like Diana and Christo who had to cover their own expenses to compete at the World Indoor Bowls Championships, so we are very thankful for King Price’s continued sponsorship,” she says.
