Bowls players all over the Western Cape are busy returning to action and at the moment the focus is on club players.
That is the word from Henry Fourie, acting president of Western Cape Bowls. Henry says all the clubs are busy playing after Bowls SA received the green light for a return to play after the Covid-19 pandemic brought sport to a halt.
He says they have to adhere to strict protocols as prescribed by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. Only 36 players are allowed to take part and in teams of three only. Henry was hopeful that with the lockdown being softened to Level 1 from Sunday onwards teams of four would be able to play.
He says being able to play fours would be a big boost to bowls players.
He says the loss of income hit clubs and districts hard, but they are optimistic that things will go back to normal soon. Only one club had to close its doors thus far as a result of the lockdown.
We have decided to concentrate on our clubs for now. The competitive players must step back for now. I always say that only 5% of our players are provincial players and the rest are our club players. So, we have decided to focus our attention on our clubs for now.
We want to give them the opportunity to generate some income first, as it is important that they have good cash flow to operate. The Districts will get their chance. So, all the clubs are busy arranging tournaments and the message to them is to support each other.
They had the opportunity to give input and we drew up a program. Everybody knows what is happening where and when and we made sure that neighbouring clubs’ tournaments do not clash so that they can support one another.
The Overberg District championships for singles and pairs will be played at the end of the month and I think WP and Boland will be doing the same, explained Henry.
Henry was optimistic that the change to Stage 1 would be a great injection to the sport. He was particularly looking forward to resuming the development, coaching and transformation programs that were running strongly in schools before Covid-19 struck.
These programs were particularly strong in Cape Town and Overberg and Henry says they are already planning for the resumption of those projects, adding they cannot wait for January.
At the administrative level, Western Cape Bowls continue to work with the Western Cape Provincial Sport Confederation to update their constitution to get it in line with SASCOC and WCPSC expectations. Much of this focus is on the regulations as per national demarcation which sees sports active at both provincial and district level
Fourie concluded by saying they are very optimistic about the future of bowls in the Western Cape.
