Achievements

World Blind Bowls Championships – Cape Town, South Africa

We arrived home on Monday 3rd April, very tired but still buzzing and on a high.

We will never forget the wonderful experience of Cape Town and the World Blind Bowls Championships. Despite very long days, intense heat (39.6C on one day causing the games to be stopped for over an hour), water shortage and tummy bugs, we had a fantastic time and met some amazing people. The opposition was tough, especially as it was my first time at such high level bowls. I won two games – beating Canada and Scotland and only losing against Israel by one shot (20-21) after playing for over three hours. In the six mixed pairs games, my partner, Steve Simmons and I beat Australia and again lost to Israel by one shot (12-13) after playing for “full time”. We were beaten by South Africa, Canada and New Zealand and Scotland conceded due to illness. Sarah Marshall our B1 (Totally Blind) Lady won a Gold Medal, Maureen Ryan on B2 Lady won a Bronze Medal and Maureen together with Ron Homer won Bronze in the B2 Mixed Pairs. The Final Results were – Gold – South Africa, Silver – Australia, Bronze – Israel. England were 2 points behind Israel gaining 4th place. It was very noticeable that whereas the England Team needed to seek sponsorship wherever possible and raise money to cover their own costs, a number of Teams received Government funding. Therefore being on a tight budget did not allow us extra training camps before taking part. Many thanks for your generous contribution towards my costs. I am extremely grateful and the memories of Cape Town and the people we played against will remain with us for the rest of our days.

Tessa Furzeman