Plate winners – Fergie Ferguson and team
Excellent bowling, glorious weather, wonderful hospitality, great greens and good friends, old and new, ensured that the 22nd Mossel Bay Classic was once again one of the high lights on the Mossel Bay Bowling Club calendar. The 24 teams, consisting of 4 men per team, which took part in this elite 3-day tournament which started on Thursday, 25 July and finished on Saturday, 27 July, will not forget this tournament soon. Besides teams from all over the Southern Cape, namely Mossel Bay, Hartenbos, Little Brak River (Vista Bowling Club), Great Brak River, George (from both Outeniqua and George Bowling Club), Leisure Isle, Still Bay and Outshoorn, teams came from as far as Pretoria (Irene Bowling Club), Edenburg (Freestate), Gordon’s Bay, Durbanville, Paarl, Middelburg and Swellendam. There was also be a team from the South African National Defence Force consisting of players from Mossel Bay as well as De Aar and a South African Police Services team from Goodwood in the Western Cape.
Johan Muller (Gordon’s Bay), has played in all 22 Mossel Bay Classic Tournaments since 1992. What a great achievement!
The first two days three games were played on a strength versus strength basis with only two games being played on the final day. After the 5th game the tournament split into a plate competition and the first three teams in the main competition as well as the first three in the plate section received excellent prizes. In the open section the team of Billy Radloff from George received the gold medals. His team mates were Japie Combrink, Geoff Bronkhorst and Glen Park. The silver medal winners were from Middelburg, namely Vivien van Zyl, Francois Oosthuizen, John Hayes and Danie Sherman. The bronze medal went to the team of Greg Young, Johan Meyer, John Dampier and Kobus Barnard from Outeniqua Bowling Club in George. The plate section was won by Fergie Ferguson and his team. Second place in the Plate went to Fritz Louw and his team from Mossel Bay and in the third place was the team from Gerhard Mynhardt from Irene in Pretoria. Congratulations to all the winners and well done to all the teams who participated.
The ladies in the kitchen outdid themselves by providing excellent meals to the exhausted and hungry players. The players can still not decide whether the brunches, the excellent seafood dinner on Thursday evening, the extravagant braai on Friday evening, the lunch on Saturday or the delicious platters on Saturday evening were the most delicious. Congratulations and a big thank you to every single person who helped in the kitchen as well as the tournament organisers, the administrative people, the green keeper and his assistants, the people working in the bar and everybody else who had a hand in the success of this year’s tournament.
A very special thank you to the main sponsors Personal Trust, Distell (Scottish Leader) and Knysna Lifestyle Estate. Also a special thank you to a number of club members, who wish to stay anonymous, for their donations. Your generous contributions helped to ensure the success of the tournament. Mossel Bay Bowling Club once again would like to thank the sponsors for their continued support and commitment. Everybody is already looking forward to the 2014 tournament.