GEORGE NEWS - The tenth and penultimate round of the Black and White Skins tournament was played in very pleasant conditions at the George Bowling Club on Tuesday.

With all the teams jostling to get into contention for the end of year prizes, the scene was set for some very keen bowling and the participants did not disappoint.

Winners on the day were IO January’s team, skipped in his absence by Ted Coetzee. They declared their intent as early as the second end when they picked up six shots against their opponents skipped by Gerrie van Rensburg.

In a dazzling display of disciplined bowling, they ran out very comfortable winners, in the process garnering 27 of the 28 points on offer and equalling Akker van der Merwe’s April achievement of the same score.

Second place was annexed by Peter Hudson’s team with an impressive 24-8 win against Dave Jooste. Not to be outdone by the first place winners, they ended their game with a flourish, scoring 7 shots on the 3rd last end and gaining 23 game points for themselves.

Closest game of the day was that played between Willem Lourens’ team and that of Anton le Roux. Despite being down 6-15 after the first two skins, Lourens’ team scored on every end in the final skin, including 6 shots on the 14th end, to run out 17-15 winners and snatch victory from the opposition by 16 game points to 12. Other close games were played between Dries Steenkamp (17 shots) and Soon (Slim) Potgieter (14 shots), and Vlam Basson (23 shots) against Soon (Boertjie) Potgieter (19 shots).

Biggest move up the table this week was made by Akker van der Merwe (6 places) despite dropping 5 shots on the 10th end. Second best was IO January with 5 places followed by Mike Hammond who moved 4 positions.
Slider of the week was shared between Dave Jooste and Henning Buitendag whose teams both fell 5 positions after a hard day in the office.

With only the final round to be played, the top 5 teams are separated by a mere 3 ½ points which indicates a very tight finish can be expected.

IO January (168.5), Hans Claassen (167), Peter Hudson (166), Johan Roberts (166) and Hannes Muller (165) will know that it will be the team that blinks first that will lose out in what promises to be a final day shootout at the OK Corral.

Jack Nel could not have scripted a more exciting finish to this, the inaugural Black and White Skins tournament, when he sent out invitations for this event to the various clubs in the Southern Cape. We look forward to an intriguing finale on 8 November.


Seen here receiving their winners’ prizes from Gerrie van Rensburg of sponsors Black & White, are from left Gerrie van Rensburg, Ted Coetzee, Allan Brunt, Rod Myburgh and Fergie Ferguson.