GEORGE NEWS - With only the final round still to be played in the Ricoh Action Bowls Challenge which is taking place at the George Bowling Club, teams will have to pull out all stops if they are to walk away with any of the prizes.

The fifth round produced many interesting clashes with the consequent shuffle in log positions springing some unexpected surprises.

In the Challenge section, A&J Konstruksie clung to their number one position after a hard fought 12-7 tussle with current holders, Old Mutual, who seem destined to relinquish their title having slipped to 4th place on the log, 7 points adrift of the leaders.

Newcomers this year, LetMeRepair, continued their very exciting performances with a telling 21-4 win against luckless Stanmar, in the process picking up 14 crucial game points to move into 2nd position, one point ahead of ABSA and Old Mutual.

Closest game in the Challenge group was the absolute tie between Sothebys and Multistone. Nothing could separate these two teams in a nail biting match which ended 9-9 with both teams earning 8 game points apiece.
Most significant move up the log was achieved by GT Collections who climbed 5 positions with an emphatic 20-5 victory over FNB Private Clients.

At the same time, Tavcor, after a bad day in the office, fell 6 positions, courtesy of their 5-15 loss to ABSA.
Not to be outdone by the Challenge section, the teams in the Plate event entertained their supporters with some accurate bowling.

The best win of the evening was that recorded by the AON team who beat REMAX 29-7.

Surprisingly this only earned the winners a 2 place improvement in their log position. The closest game in this section was that played between Niflas B who edged out Pro Admin by one point with a score of 12-11.

An indication of the tightness of the competition in the Plate was the fact that the most significant improvement in log position was a climb of only 2 places. This was recorded by no fewer than 5 teams Debt Wise (2nd place), Smitties Number Plates (4th place, D C Partners (5th place), Niflas B (7th place) and AON (9th place). Veteran teams Millers Attorneys and De Villiers and Moore both fell 3 positions which, to all intents and purposes, rules them out of contention this time round.

All involved in the Ricoh Action Bowls Challenge were saddened last week to hear of the tragic death of Vic van der Merwe, skip of the York High team.


Team Sothebys members are from left Coenie de Swardt, Tim Kirby, Betty Mason, Ian de Swardt and Mike Wilding.


After their fine win against Team Tavcor, the ABSA Squad are placed 3rd in the Challenge going into the final round. Seen here supported by their management, the team members are Steyn Fourie, Henk Barnard, Corné Naude, Janus Byles, Marius Delport and (front) Dhumisani Kalipa.