Africa-Press – Botswana. Jwaneng Bowling club lifted the Rhodes trophy after an emphatic overall victory at this year’s Botswana Bowling Association (BBA) national championships, which started in Gaborone last weekend.
The Rhodes trophy is awarded to the club that accumulates the most points across all disciplines namely singles, pairs, triples and fours for both men and women at each national championship. The Jwaneng team has now won six times since its inception. The Gaborone bowling club, who were the defending champions going into the final matches this past weekend, are record winners having won the championship 18 times.
Enterprising Jwaneng bowler Mpopi Pelemo defended her title well in the ladies’ singles, beating Gaborone club’s Kefilwe Moleleki for the first spot while Malebogo Keorotse from Jwaneng settled for bronze. Jwaneng club won the ladies’ fours through Boikhutso Moloketsi, Lesedi Mafoko, Malebogo Keorotse and Rassiah Sekhutlo who inched past Orapa and Gaborone bowling clubs. The club’s men’s triples of Joshua Mothusi, Kabelo Ngwako and Gabriel Maphane repeated the same feat defeating Francistown and Selebi Phikwe bowling clubs.
In the ladies’ pairs, Chelsea Balendra and Francina Terblanche of Francistown scooped gold, inching past Tshenolo Moshokgo and Onkokame Podisi of Orapa club while Marea Modutlwa and Chinky Sinombe of Gaborone club failed to defend their title and settled for bronze medal. The Gaborone club also got a consolation prize scooping the ladies’ triples through Shenilla Mahomed, Grace Kamba and Audrey Olaotse who beat their team mates’ trio of Lebo Makhupe, Auleria Fuller and Chakale Robert.
Charmaine Hassen, Cat Evans and Sandy Botha of Francistown were awarded bronze for their efforts. In the men’s pairs, Khumo Kebalatetse, who was crowned as men’s player of the tournament, paired with Bingo Mosarwa to hand over a gold medal to the Selebi Phikwe bowling club. Ladies pairs gold medallist Chelsea Balendra won the ladies player of the tournament.
In the men’s singles, Orapa bowling club’s youngster Edwin Nyoka reproduced his past form to scoop gold and automatically booked a ticket to represent Botswana at the World Bowls Singles championships next year pencilled for New South Wales in Australia. The Australian tournament inaugurated in 2003 is contested annually between bowlers who have won singles in their respective national championships.
Each of the BBA’s five clubs is set to host a major tournament throughout the year and all roads lead to Orapa mid-June for the third edition of the major tournament. Bowlers are also bracing for the national youth championships that would be hosted by Jwaneng bowling club, which is BBA’s centre of excellence for the Re Ba Bona Ha grassroots development programme.
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