Roma’s last bowl makes it a Echuca quartet

By Rohan Aldous

Mar 27, 2022

Four galore: Several of Echuca’s premiership winning Division one Campaspe midweek team members played in their fourth winning grand final. They are Louisa Dean (front), Rhonda Gallagher, Leuca Roney, Roma Opie and Pat Schram (kneeling), while back is, Di Payne, Michelle Cunnington, Phillip Thorn, Ivan Hicks (partially obscured), Kerryn Evans, Robyn Tooley, Jean Fairchild and Sue Procter. Ivan Hicks was the team emergency.

Comeback kids: Campaspe Shire’s midweek Division two team is Bev Button, Terry Thompson, Geoff Gullock, Denise Pauline, Bev Trengrove, Pam McCloy, Deana Hogan Cheryl Doughty, Mia Young, Beryl Bell, Jayde Campbell, Carmel Simpson and Kerry Away.

Last-gasp victory: Moama’s Division three premiership team won the title on the last end. The team consisted of Di O’Bryan, Yvonne Hinsley, Glenys Bailey, Elaine Thomas, Sandy Harvey, Lyn Snell, Karen Brennan and Liz Doight.

Roma Opie knows nothing but success with Echuca Bowls Club, so Friday’s last bowl victory in the Campaspe midweek Division one grand final shouldn’t come as a great surpirse.

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Opie, pitted against Moama’s regional singles champion Sandra Connolly, produced a stunning final bowl with her team facing defeat on the 63rd end of the grand final.

In doing so she secured her fourth premiership win in five years with the club, a 58-57 overall victory, the only hiccup coming when the finals series was abandoned due to COVID.

More than half of the 12-member squad that claimed the title on Friday now have four pennants to their credit.

Leica Roney and Kerryn Evans, Echuca’s two remaining skips, had both finished their matches and all eyes were on the final two bowls of the 2021-22 Division one midweek season.

Moama was two shots in front with one end of the Opie and Connolly match remaining.

Connolly, with her final bowl, set up an unlikely Moama win when she drew a third shot and watched on as Opie prepared to put down the final bowl of the match.

Opie was under extraordinary pressure as Moama had the premiership in its grasp.

Her final bowl ricocheted off one of another Echuca bowl to the left of the jack and settled as second shot.

It meant a one-shot haul for Moama, but a fourth premiership in the last five years for Echuca.

Opie won the contest by one shot, 19-18, with 13 of those shots coming from four-end wins.

Connolly actually won 12 of the 21 ends, leading 9-8 after 10 ends before a two-end surge by Opie wrested back the lead. The match was all square on the 16th and 18th ends, before Connolly took wins on the final two ends — falling one shot short, of the rink win and overall victory.

Division one midweek’s most outstanding player of the season, Mary-Anne Spizer, was a five-shot winner on her rink.

She was Moama’s only winning skip of the afternoon, beating Kerryn Evans 21-16.

Spizer secured four shots on the opening end to set the tone and led by three after eight ends.

Four successive wins by Evans earned her a five-shot lead after 12 ends before Spizer regained control of the match.

Spizer won all but two of the final nine ends to put Moama back in the contest.

On the final rink a late turn around by Leica Roney heavily influenced the final result when she turned an early deficit against Marilyn Stepehenson into a five-shot win, 23-18.

Roney’s afternoon included wins on 11 of the 21 ends, a slow start having her down by four after 12 ends.

She then produced the end of the match by claiming five shots on the 13th end and with seven ends the pair was level.

Three successive end wins for Roney took her to a four-shot lead, but Stephenson immediately responded with three shots of her own on the 18th end.

Then came the Roney surge, six shots on the next two ends and despite Stephenson taking two of those back on the final end it was enough for a convincing Echuca rink win.

By Rohan Aldous

Contributor