The Helderberg Bowling Club was crowned winner of the 2023 Western Province Power Trips held on 1-2 July, the finals of which were held at the Glenn Bowling Club in Camps Bay.
The Power Trips format of play was started by Western Province Bowls at a time Covid was putting huge constraints on the playing of competitive bowls in the province. Owing to the huge success of the format Western Province Bowls decided to carry on with the competition after pandemic restrictions were lifted.
The format was tailored to allow competitive bowls to be played while minimising contact between players by making matches shorter and having only six players on a rink during each match. A team is made up of nine members playing in three sections of three players each, and a match consists of two skins of five heads with each bowler using only two bowls. Should each team win a skin in the match one sudden death head is played with the winner claiming the victory.
Over the weekend of 1 and 2 July teams from all the leading clubs in the province competed in the first round and play-offs of the competition. With more than 50 teams entering the group sections they were completed on Saturday, and the winners of the sections went through to the semi-finals and finals on the Sunday.
After winning their group in Tier 1, the A side from Helderberg went on to beat Durbanville in the semi-finals, a close measure on the last tie-break end determined the winner.
Under the captaincy of Gwen Rey, Helderberg then went on to beat the strong team from Mowbray in the final to claim the spoils. Susan McKay-Vlok claimed her third Western Province title for the season as part of the team with Miles Gordon, who won the Western Province Mixed Pairs Title earlier in the season, also a part of the team that included his daughter Kieran Norman, one of the young up-and-coming bowlers of the club.
