Bowls tournament underway

The 2013 national lawn bowls championships commenced last Saturday and are underway at four different venues in Windhoek. Action will continue until this coming Saturday, 11 May, when the finals will be played at Eros Bowling Club near the Safari Court Hotel. The other venues are the Windhoek Bowling Club, the TransNamib Bowling Club and the Bowls facilities at the Windhoek Country Club.
A total of 109 games were played over the opening weekend to determine the finalists in the Pairs discipline. The men’s final will feature Will Esterhuizen from the TransNamib Bowling Club and his partner Mitch Voigts of the coastal Rossmund Bowling Club, who square off with the father-son combination of Douw Calitz (TransNamib) and Jurie Calitz (Rossmund). The ladies final will be contested between Charlotte Morland and Miele van der Merwe, both representing Windhoek Country Club, as well as their opponents Heleen Rust and Erna Müller (both Windhoek Bowling Club).
The “Champion of Champions” competition is also one of the main events during this tournament. In this format the singles winners of the various Namibian clubs (men and ladies) challenge each other. The finals will be played on Friday, 10 May, from the early morning until the late afternoon.  
In the qualifying round the 18-year-old Mitch Voigts as well as Mandie Steenkamp (19) and Schall van Wyk (28) surprised the bowling community when they won their respective Club singles. Steenkamp, who is the third generation of her family involved with the sport, as well as Voigts have been playing bowls for only 5 years. “I enjoy the camaraderie of the people, but also the fun involved in the sport”, stated Voigts. Van Wyk has been playing for 4 years and sincerely enjoys this game,“I cannot wait for club evenings to practice and improve myself.”