Echuca-Moama and district bowls notes | May 12

After three games of nine ends the winners were the Echuca team of Ivan Hicks (s), Gayle Kerr, and Max and June Clifford with 77 points ahead of a composite team of Brian Davie (Moama), Roma Opie and Rhonda Gallagher (Echuca) and Don Opie (Leitchville) with 76 points.

Best last game went to Echuca's Leica Roney, Max Bennett, Bernie Johns and Col Berryman, 13 shots up.

Day nine on Tuesday was cool and overcast for the men’s and ladies’ pairs event with 32 men’s teams and 18 ladies’ pairs competing.

Winners of the ladies’ event were Inverloch's Janice Parkes and San Remo's Robyn Dennis with 81 points from Rich River's Liz Easther and Rosanne Sharp on 75 points.

Best last game went to Euroa's Margarita Fellini and Pauline Naylor with 12 shots up.

The men's event went to Echuca's Col Berryman and Rich River's Ron Bentley on 82 points (88 percent) on a countback from Inverloch's Wayne Parks and San Remo's Andrew Dennis, also on 82 points (82 percent).

Best last game went to Iain McLean and Les Montgomery of Stawell Golf with +14 shots.

Day 10 of the carnival on Wednesday last week was mixed triples with 28 teams taking part on fast running greens.

Winners were Peter and Bev Teggelove and Barb Voight from Clifton Springs on 87 points from Rob Anset, Marilyn Anset and Maurice Hately of Kyabram on 83 points.

Best last game went to Alan Cousens, Barb Cheshire and John Paul from Edithvale with 11.

Men’s and ladies pairs were held on Thursday, again in perfect conditions with 40 men’s teams and 14 ladies teams.

The ladies’ event went to the only three-game winners Janice Parks (Inverloch) and Robyn Dennis (Phillip Island) with 74 points from Bev Teggelove (Clifton Springs) and Janet Smith (Strathmore) with two-and-a-half wins and 62 points.

Best last game went to Moama's Wayne Stevenson and Mathoura's Beryl Murray with 16 shots.

In a closely fought men’s event the eventual winners were Brian Davie (Moama) and Kevin Bursill (Echuca) on 79 points, with an Echuca team of Ivan Hicks and Trevor Liddell one point behind on 78 points.

Best last game went to Inverloch's Wayne Parks and Phillip Island's Andy Dennis with 17 shots.

After bowls on Thursday, 85 members and visitor clubs attended the May Carnival dinner at Moama RSL. The crowd was entertained with a couple of skits from Echuca members with an enjoyable night had by all.

The final day of a highly successful 12-day tournament was the mixed pairs event with another amazing day weather-wise.

With seven teams winning their two games, the final result came down to percentage with the winners being Allan and Leonie Donnelly (77 points) and 72 percent on a countback from Alan Cousens and Barb Cheshire (Edithvale), also on 77 points with a percentage of 70 percent.

Best last game went to Echuca's Toby Egan and Kristy Gillingham with 16.

Congratulations to Don Hicks and Rhonda Gallagher who put in enormous hours to ensure the event ran smoothly along with all the other volunteers who gave their time over the fortnight.

The amount of praise from numerous visitors concerning the excellent condition of our greens was much appreciated and greens director Col Berryman along with our great greenskeeper Jade Bennett deserve the highest praise.

Rich River

There will be a lot of activity around the club this week as it hosts bowlers on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday as part of the Moama Bowling Club May Carnival with players coming from all around Victoria to compete.

Rich River Croquet Club is holding a tournament on May 19 and 20 utilising two of the greens.

Following that, on Saturday, May 22 and Sunday, May 23, The RSL Edinburgh Shield is being held with all three greens being used that weekend as teams from metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria compete.

Subsequently Social Saturday and Wednesday Jackpot Pairs Bowls are on hold for the next two weeks and will not reconvene until May 26 and May 29 respectively.

Rich River's team lost out to Cohuna in the Men's State Fours Championships, but what a commendable effort for the team to get into the top 16 in Victoria. They can feel most proud of their achievements in doing so.

On Saturday, May 8, Fun Day Social Bowls saw 26 keen bowlers take to the greens. The team of Eugene Xodo, Ken Dashwood and Barb Dashwood, who from all accounts performed outstandingly, were the winners on the day with 64 points and 35 shots up.

The CVBD is holding its final AGM on Thursday, May 27 from 7.30pm, at which the division will be dissolved in readiness for the transition to BCBR (Bendigo Campaspe Bowls Region) which is effective from July 1 for all Victorian bowls clubs.

The members from Rich River Bowls Club extend their thanks, particularly to Barry Brown and Gayle Kerr, along with the other committee members, for their commitment and dedication to the division over many years and wish them well for the future.

Jackpot Pairs on Wednesdayn May 5 had a great roll-up with the following results:

Tim Noar and Ron Luke - 57 points/17 shots up.

Eugene Xodo and Ken Dashwood - 55 points/14 shots up.

Vic Woods and Ron Bentley - 54 points/20 shots up.

Repecharge: John Armstrong and Barry Brown - 9 ends/6 shots up..

Moama RSL

On Monday, May 10, 28 players played three games of seven ends of indoor bowls.

The winners on 47 points were M. Orchard (skip), P. Kerr (third), K. Orchard (second) and L. Prott (lead).

Runners-up with 43 points were J. Heals (skip), C. O’Callaghan (third) and S. McKinnon.

Consolation prizes went to D. Lee, P. Pavone, D. Beer and C. Glass.

Lockington

It has been a fairly quiet week on the greens with several local and state tournaments being held.

Scrounge will begin on a Wednesday at 1pm each week. Names to be listed prior to 12.45pm, with flat soled shoes to be worn. Everyone is welcome.

Last Wednesday several members attended the funeral of the late Joy Weller. Members formed a guard of honour to farewell Lockington's popular member.

Joy Weller served two terms as lady president and also the role of secretary plus several committee positions. Joy was also deputy vice chairperson of the Campaspe Valley Bowls Division.

The club's annual general meeting will be held shortly, with the date to be advised.

The Bowls Vic State Championships started last Tuesday with cool conditions welcoming many bowlers.

The Bendigo/Campaspe Regional representatives performed brilliantly with several claiming state success. Moama's Marilyn Stephenson played some incredible bowls to win the state singles title before going on to claim runner-up in the Victorian Champion of Champions.

In the state singles, Stephenson defeated Metro West's Judy Nardella in a great display of bowls from both contestants with Stephenson prevailing 25-22.

The surge towards the state double was cut short when Stephenson played Carla Krisnovic in the champion of champions.

Stephenson gained the early break to lead 6-1 before her opponent began to display her state and national brand of draw bowling.

Suddenly Stephenson was overwhelmed and had to rely on some special bowling to stay in the contest. But Krsionic was not to be denied and scored a comfortable victory 25-9 to take out the state title.

Lee Schraner was also a state winner claiming the Victorian Champion of Champions. Schraner defeated Ali Forsyth 25-18 in the final.

The bowling from both Schraner and Forsyth was a treat to watch as both bowlers have played big time bowls around the world.

The state fours was represented by the Rich River rink of Gery Devlin, Colin Hayes, Peter Nesbitt and Dale Weymouth (s). In the first round they were eliminated by the Murray-Mallee team from Cohuna.

Leading 13-10 after 15 ends, the Rich River team lost a couple of fours in two ends to trail 13-18 on the last end.

The rink picked up a double on the final end to lose the match 15-18 in what was a gallant display.

The women were represented by the Lee Harris rink from Bendigo Bowling Club. The team won the first round match before being eliminated in the second round.

In the state triples event, the Bendigo/Campaspe team of Tait Fuller, Ian Ross and Lee Schraner (s) lost the first round to Steve Sullivan's rink from Geelong, 12-16, while an amazing game was witnessed in the Triples where the Cromie family representing Yarrawonga played the Cartwright family from Kyabram.

The Cromie's had 18-year-old Tyson as skipper, with his 13-year-old brother Koby as third and dad Tim leading. They won the contest 16-4 in a cool display.

In the women's event the Kangaroo Flat trio skipped by Susan Howes won their first round 15-8 to progress to the next round.

The state championships finish on Tuesday.

Mathoura

The Cadell County Open Two Bowl Triples tournament, proudly sponsored by Tarragon Lodge was held on Saturday, May 8 and Sunday, May 9.

The club had 26 teams entered for its first winter tournament, after last year's event couldn't be held.

Special thanks to Rosedale which had nine teams playing, which helped make it a really good two days.

After three games had been played by Saturday night, there were four three-game winners. With some playing each other on Sunday, a sorting out was done as to who would be playing off for the winner and runner-up prizes.

There were two teams which won five games, eventually playing off over five live ends to decide the main prize.

Thanks to the generous sponsors, the club was able to pay a third prize which was decided by points.

Winners were a composite side made up of skip R. Werner (Mathoura), third M. Hooper (Mathoura) and lead B. Chong (Echuca)

Runners-up from Lalor were G. Niclasen (skip), A. Vanderhorst (third) and D. Passas (lead).

Third place from Mathoura was M. Quor (skip), A. Cowley (third) and G. McConchie (lead).

On the last two games the club had a highest winning margin prize. The first game went to P. Cooper's team from Tongala and the second to C. Knuckey's team from Deniliquin.

Thank you to all who helped out over the two days, including Emma and Melanie for the organizing of all the admin work, Bruce and Barry for toasting the raisin bread, Troy Murphy for the good greens, Rod Werner and Dave Murray for doing the draw and running the two days, along with the raffle tickets sellers.

A big thank you goes to sponsors Tarragon Lodge's Deb and Mick Humphreys.

On Friday, May 7 the ladies’ pairs final was contested.

The finalists were P. Limbrick and J. Moss against K. Heap and J. Hicks. Good bowls were played by both pairs but on the day Pam Limbrick and Joan Moss became the ladies’ pairs champions for the 2020/21 season.

Congratulations to Pam and Joan and well done to Karen and Jenny on making the final.

On Friday, May 7 the presentation night was held. There was a good turn-out for the night, with 52 coming along to celebrate with the winners and runners-up.

Life members who attended were Doug Berryman, John Hulm, Joe and Elaine Murphy, and Coral and Charlie Phippen.

The night was MCed by president Stan Limbrick and bowls co-ordinator Rod Werner.

Thank you to Joe Murphy for his visual display of photos for the season.

A great two-course meal was put on by the bistro staff and chef Cookie. Congratulations on the meal, it was enjoyed by all.

Thank you to the award presenters and also to Coral Phippen for the flower arrangements for the tables and general area.