During May 2023 the Top 90 novice lawn bowlers from the Western Cape descended on the Hottentots Holland Basin to compete in the Peter Sneller Novice Tournament.
The competition was run over two days on 14 and 15 May, with 30 teams competing in a Bowls Trip’s Competition. The event was well supported by local teams with four teams from the host, Somerset-West Club and also teams from Helderberg Club and Gordon Bay competing.
This tournament was started by one of the stalwarts of lawns bowls in the Basin, Peter Sneller, and was named after him in his honour. Peter and his wife, Elaine, will be leaving the basin shortly, returning to stay with their children in England, and this was a farewell for them at this year’s event.
At the end of day 1 the competition split into The Cup Section (top ten teams), the Plate (next 10 teams) and the Shield (bottom ten teams).
Five teams from the basin made it into the A-Section at the end of day 1. The field included some top bowlers in the province with both the Western Province Men’s Champion, Jaco van Tonder from Durbanville, and the Ladies Novice Champion, Berdine Smith form Constantia, skipping their two respective teams. Miles Norman, Western Province Mixed Pairs Champion from Helderberg was also in the field playing in the Helderberg team skipped by John Kearns.
The Cup was won by Dean Keyser as his team from Edgemead with John Kearns from Helderberg taking second place and Berdine Smith and her team from Constantia finishing third.
The plate was won by Martin van Staden and his team from Durbanville with Colleen Bell from Durbanville pipping Jaco van Tonder from Durbanville in the final match to take home the bowls.
Somerset West Bowling Club would like to thank all the Novice Bowlers that, yet again, made this the top Novice Tournament in the Western Province for their support and wish Peter and Elaine Sneller everything of the best.
Lawn bowls in the Basin and Western Province thank them and will miss them.
