Bobby Donnelly

Robert ‘Bobby’ Donnelly (b. 1962, Boksburg) first came to international prominence when he secured a silver medal in the fours at the 2000 World Outdoor Bowls Championship with Bruce Makkink, Shaun Addinall and skip Neil Burkett beaten in the final by Mark Williams, Hall of Famer Robert Weale, Stephen Rees and skip Will Thomas, of Wales.

This was before competing in the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games bowls singles after receiving a late call up as an injury replacement to Donald Piketh who had broken his leg.

Bobby came impressively through the field and etched his name in bowls history by winning a gold medal defeating Jeremy Henry, Ireland, in the final. Henry had won the World Championships in South Africa in 2000 and was expected to win, but Bobby prevailed 21-15 having beaten Robert Weale 21-17 in the semi-final.

In 2009, Bobby won the triples and fours gold medals at the Atlantic Bowls Championships and two years later, he won the pairs gold medal and singles bronze medal at the 2011 Atlantic Bowls Championships.

At World Bowls in 2012, played at Lockleys, South Australia, Bobby played third for Gideon Vermuelen, with Clinton Roets and Petrus Breitenbach up front. They scored narrow one-shot wins over England (Stuart Airey skip) and Ireland (Neil Booth skip) before losing the gold medal match to home favourites and Hall of Famers Aaron Sheriff, Mark Casey, Brett Wilkie, playing alongside Wayne Ruediger. Australia had also beaten them in the first game of section play.

A second Commonwealth Games gold came his way in the men’s triples at the 2014 Commonwealth Games as South Africa topped the medal table in Glasgow. Bobby skipped Prince Neluonde and Petrus Breitenbach to gold beating Ireland’s Paul Daly, Neil Mulholland, and Neil Booth 19-10 in the final, who they had also beaten in section play. Bobby expertly marshalled his team throughout, losing only to Kenya in section play and beat unbeaten sides in New Zealand (skipped by Ali Forsyth) in the quarter-finals and Australia (skipped by Matthew Flapper) in the semi-finals. There were emotional scenes as the three team-mates embraced at the end of the final on the Kelvingrove green in Glasgow.

Bobby won the 2013 singles at the national championships bowling for the Wanderers Bowls Club.

Bobby now plays a prominent role in administration serving as Chief Operating Officer of Bowls South Africa focusing on youth and high‑performance programmes, a post he has held since 2023.