Sports on the Estate

The club is encouraging a number of sport disciplines to use the Estate’s amenities for their enjoyment. The purpose of this initiative being for these sportspeople to use the Clubhouse and its facilities before and after partaking in their sport. Some of the initiatives include:
  • Tennis
    The club has recently purchased a number of tennis racquets, which can be hired from the Pro Shop. The Tennis Club offers players the chance to play in a relaxed environment.

  • Running
    We have recently set out a 5km jogging trail on the Estate starting and ending outside the Bowls Clubhouse. The route is flat and avoids coming too close to any of the fairways, and it is well marked with directional signs and distance markers, The Club hopes to attract a number of runners to use this as their time trail route as well as making use of all our other facilities. Further jogging trails are being planned on the Estate in the near future.

  
  • Cycling
    The Estate is planning to set out a mountain bike trial taking in the beautiful sights and views that the Estate offers. While no trail has been marked out yet, cyclists are more than welcome to explore the unpaved track on the eastern side of the Estate, above the driving range which affords spectacular views of the Estate and Lagoon.

  • Bowls
    The Bowls Club continues to go from strength to strength with the men’s team reaching the Boland Finals in Worcester. Myfi Ryke was awarded Life Membership for service to the club, only the second Life Member after Heinie Gersbach. Read more about the happenings at the Bowls club.
    
 
Bowls
 
Hi everyone, I shall try to keep this one short. Ha! Did I hear someone say “that garrulous old fool only manages to keep his deliveries short”? Ja, Ja, whatever! A word of welcome to Dennis and Anne Meintjes who recently joined our club. Regrettably, Pieter and Jennifer van Straaten took their leave of our club, relocating to Durbanville this month. We hope to see them as visitors from time to time. Another change in membership – this time at our recent Special General Meeting at which Myfi Ryke was awarded Life Membership for service to the club, only the second Life Member after Heinie Gersbach. Both Heinie and Myfi were founder members way back in 1993, two of a total of only six! Myfi has served the club in various capacities on the Steering Committee over the years, including 5 years as President. A well deserved honour, Myfi, with our heartiest congratulations on behalf of all club members, past and present. On a sadder note, our condolences go out to Jenny Mehl on the passing of her father.
  
 
Our Friday Sundowner League yielded Stan Barton as overall winner on points earned over the 8 weeks during which we ran this competition. Enjoy your bottle of the good stuff, Stan. Together with the braais that follow, this innovative addition to our tabs smorgasbord has raised the social temperature of our club considerably – ably measured by the never-before-achieved volume of bottles and cans in the rubbish bins. We will run another Friday League early next year. Other place winners worthy of mention were the LCE Men’s Senior team that entered the Boland competitions. In order of play we had Reg, Al, Fanie and Pieter v.B. as skip. The way in which we won through to the finals played at Worcester is worthy of mention. With 15 ends to play we peeled on the 12th; went 2 down on the 13th; and reclaimed 1 back on the 14th. Going into the last end soaking wet in driving wind and heavy rain, Pieter faced playing his two bowls with one shot down in the head, some 400 mm from the jack. That’s two shots down with only the skips left to play. Hopeless situation, you might think! Well, Pieter drew both his bowls to lie one shot up overall, totally demoralising
 
 
the opposing skip who failed to influence the head with either of his bowls. Two incredible draw shots, against all odds, that took us to face the other three Boland finalists at Worcester. It is only amnesia that prevents me from reporting on results obtained at Worcester! No other LCE entry team to Boland achieved anything of note. No, I lie! Figuratively speaking, flying our club flag is noteworthy enough. Our representation in Boland competitions this year was commendably better than in many previous years. Well done, fellow club members! Our club Open Day successes were 3rd places won at Yzerfontein and at Lutzville. West Coast Senior League results to date: Langebaan G & S lying in a parlous 2nd position. The next round is being played this week on Thursday at Veldrif.
 
Our recent fundraising effort in the form of a quiz evening was by all accounts a credit to our club, with well over R2350 raised towards affiliation fees. Together with “looitjietafel” money raised at our Spar Spring Day and a donation from John du Plessis, being accommodation fees paid by a candidate coach, this enables us to keep our individual affiliation payment to only R75. We are again subsidisd by Management this year, with an undertaking on our part to organize FUNdraising events again next year, with thanks to our organisers, Elaine, Doreen and helpers. We will keep you posted.

A very successful Coache’s Course was held at our club in October. No fewer than five candidates were from our own club, namely Heather, Ricci, Paul, Reg and Al. We were commended very highly for the professional way in which our club hosted this course. A huge “THANK YOU” to all those who helped out with teas and sandwiches and setting out of equipment. The nucleus of a youth group – scholars at Vredenburg High School - has started with bowls coaching lessons on Fridays, except for a current hiatus during exam time. It is to be hoped that their enthusiasm for bowls will survive the rigours of their academic trials. The response from Weston School in Vredenburg was disappointing, but there remains Hopefield High School to be mined for any potential young bowlers resident in Langebaan. I have not given up on Weston! I hope to build a strong youth group of bowlers here – other clubs in the Boland have long since discovered the potential of young players doing exceptionally well in our sport.

A new Boland Bowls initiative is the launch this month of a quarterly Newsletter, RAAKSKOOT/TOUCHER, with a helping hand from your own resident scribe. All on e-mail will have this and future issues mailed to them. For those not on e-mail, please collect a copy at the club. If in doubt, ask! In addition to my report therein on the Coach’s Course, I have also included a write-up on our own innovative approach this year to our club singles competitions.

An attempt at rediscovering our discipline with respect to the stepping on or off the banks onto the green is underway. Let us all police this one with amicable good grace. Even though harsher measures have been suggested, transgressions should, at least initially, invite the same disincentive as wrong biases – R2 into the jar. When the good habit has been re-established, a stiffer fine can perhaps be invoked. While speaking of the R2 jar, what about its close neighbour, the Development Fund jar? This one is being studiously ignored, even though their needs are arguably greater than ours. While on the subject of discipline:
(a) please arrive on time for tabs-in, i.e., at least 15 minutes before 14h00.
(b) possession of the rink terminates when the bowl stops rolling. Please do not give your team player a lengthy shot analysis when the opposing skip is rightly trying to give his/her player instructions for the next bowl. This, and other infringements of rules and of etiquette should be gently drawn to the attention of an offender on the green. We all tend to be careless at times, and we need to eliminate all such practices that have the potential for sewing discord on the green.

There will be no regular club activity between 17 December - 2 January, however members and visitors are more than welcome to use the bowling green and facilities.

Finally, a New Year’s Eve Party second to none will take off at 20h00 in our Clubhouse. Bring a plate, your best party spirit and your dancing shoes. LCE bowlers can “lang-arm” and “jive” better than any. This party is not restricted to bowlers. Family, house friends and potential bowlers wanting to sample our social offerings are welcome. See you there! In the meantime, from your scribe and members of your committee, may everyone enjoy a blessed and joyful Christmas with family and friends and may the New Year further enrich our fellowship as bowlers. Travel safely.

Bye for now.
Al Cannone